Highrisers vs Starve.io
Highrisers
Highrisers is an “escape from the tower”-style survival-slash-resource management game that’s fairly similar to the first Skyhill game, except that instead of traveling to the lobby, your end goal here is to scavenge the resources you need from the lower floors to fix the helicopter on the rooftop so your team of 4 survivors (if none of them died, that is) can escape the tower. It’s basically a quarter of the plot of Zack Synder’s most recent and relatively controversial zombie flick, Army of the Dead, really… and like the film, the game is fun but it has its own caveats.And of course, there are the zombies… ahem… I mean, mutants that will attack your team and any fortifications you’ve put up if they spot you… so there’s that.
For what it’s worth, I really liked resource management-based survival games like Highrisers and I have had a pretty good experience with the game myself, minus all the issues I’ve pointed out. The game definitely has some good stuff going for it, but the dev team really needs to work on the game more to revamp some of the gameplay designs and also to fix the game-breaking bugs reported by their players. Only then I would be comfortable recommending the game. For now though, it’s probably wise to keep it in your wishlist.
Starve.io
Starve.io is a unique IO game mainly because it is more of a base-building and survival game rather than just a hack-and-slash arena. In this game, you will need to collect resources and turn them into useful items which will marginally improve your chances of survival. The crafting aspect of the game is very much simplified but it can still take you a while to figure out crucial crafting details like how much resources you need to create a certain item. Also, a quick tip if you will - grab as much food and wood as you can at the get-go.As a survival game, there are several important "meters" that you will need to keep an eye on, such as temperature and hydration. Hunger also something that you will need to frequently deal with, aside from other potentially hostile players as well as other monsters like vampires and zombies if you happen to play its other game modes. There is even a "hunger games" version which frankly feels a lot like a battle royale game.
Unlike many other IO games where players are always pitted against one another, Starve.io is a game in which you can actually choose to coexist with other players rather than just swinging whatever weapon you have in hand at anyone you see... though, many players still do that pretty often, especially those better-equipped ones.