The Survivalists vs WolfQuest
The Survivalists
The Survivalists is a survival-themed adventure game focusing on exploring a vast archipelago filled with hidden secrets and treasures as well as mysterious temples and dangerous terrains. The goal here is not only to make a life for yourself by recruiting and training the local monkeys to help with your many mundane chores, but to find a way to crack the mystery shrouding the archipelago and possibly find a way to finally escape!The Survivalists has a sandbox-style, survival-themed gameplay, which means that you’re expected to gather plenty of resources from the environment, use them to build a base of operations… or even multiple outposts and bases… and make sure you’ve got plenty of protection ready for when the local hostile tribesmen attack you, which they do from time to time.
The map here is simply amazing and if you just love exploring, you’ll find the island-hopping experience here pretty satisfying… that is once you’ve got your raft built. Of course, being set in the tropics, there isn’t a whole lot of different biomes to discover, though there are volcanic and swampy areas that are more dangerous than the normal terrain. Even the sea contains dangers and you’ll do well to avoid the ravenous sharks that are looking for an easy meal.
The best and most interesting part about The Survivalists that really help it stands out from all the other generic sandbox survival games is the fact that you can “recruit” monkeys on the island to help you with any mundane tasks. This encompasses all tasks that can be easily replicated by the monkeys. After all, monkey see, monkey do!
That being said, training your monkeys is, unfortunately, also the most frustrating part of the game. Unlike games with macros, you can’t really save the tasks you’ve taught your monkey as general macros that you can then use whenever you need the same tasks done sometime in the future. Instead, every time you need your monkeys to do something, you’ll have to teach it all over again… which frankly speaking is very annoying.
All in all, The Survivalists is as addictively fun as it looks. Being a survival-themed sandbox adventure, there is plenty of stuff you can craft, items to gather, loyal monkeys to train, and bases to set up as you slowly and steadily explore every inch of the massive archipelago. However, the game isn’t without its flaws and I personally think that the game could have made the monkey-training part a bit more convenient and less annoying for the player.
WolfQuest
WolfQuest is a rather unique simulation game where you actually play as a two-year-old gray wolf born in the Northern Range of Yellowstone National Park - an age where it's time for you to go off on your own. You'll need to learn to hunt for food, find a suitable mate, set-up a comfy den and build a family. The game lets you play in single-player mode where you can learn how to be a virtual wolf yourself or multiplayer where you can do everything in a pack with your friends (private server) or with strangers (public server).The game WolfQuest has a sort of charm to it, because firstly, it is so different from any other animal simulation game you might have played before as it feels a lot more realistic; and secondly, you actually feel related; linked to the wolf you play as and want to help him to set-up a home and family of his own. It's not the sort of game to be rushed through - it is the sort of game that you'll need to slowly savor.
So, if that is your thing, then you might like playing WolfQuest. Even if you think it's not, try the free demo anyway. The game might just surprise you!