Escape Dead Island vs Starve.io
Escape Dead Island
Escape Dead Island is a Telltale-inspired, story-driven survival-mystery spin-off for the Dead Island franchise where the game's fans will be able to uncover the story behind the zombie outbreak through the eyes of documentary journalist Cliff Calo and fill in the gap between the first Dead Island game and the upcoming Dead Island sequel. Unlike the open world game that the franchise was defined by, this spin-off uses a comic-like style to bring the story to life. The virtual environment is also reactive to your every decision and as such, you might want to sometimes opt for a stealthier option rather than diving straight into combat, especially when the combat system - since it's not the main focus of the game and all - can be a bit boring.Escape Dead Island is very different from what you might be used to in Dead Island or Dead Island Riptide, and despite the heavy use of backtracking, the story and animation made everything worthwhile, especially if you're into this kind of stuff.
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.