Gaming

Minecraft

Valheim.

Great and fun combat, mod support, multiplayer, good building mechanics, doesn't feel frustrating to play.

Project Zomboid! I love the building your base aspect and you can definitely turn a lot of things off if you don't like them.

Prey

It has a good storyline. It's not horror focused, and ennemies won't suprise as much as in resident evil or doom. They're mostly there to add difficulty or be part to the mission. Recycling makes the low amount of munitions/inventory tolerable.

Give Frostpunk a try. It's a good mix of city builder and survival. Darkest Dungeon is also good, but more unforgiving.

Of the OWSC-type games that I've played, the one I've enjoyed most is Raft, and even then I get burnt out on it pretty quickly. I think it's because, at least until you get your raft surrounded with metal plated platforms, there's a very direct relationship between the materials you pick up and the amount of 'base' you can build, and so you're pretty constantly engaged with collecting, refining, and using most of your supplies in a very straightforward and immediately gratifying manner.

The thing in these games that burns me out is, it seems to be a neverending parade of collecting materials and recipes to get better materials and recipes, to the point that you're thumbing through like eight different pages or tabs of schematics looking for what you need to make, then digging through some arcane storage system to get the shit you need to make the shit you need. After a certain point, it feels like having a second job.

Really enjoy Don’t Starve, as much as I find the gameplay loop tedious.

I dont like many survival games, but i enjoyed my time with dont starve and subnautica

Apart from Subnautica, which only is tedious regarding food/drink in the very beginning, I enjoyed Unreal World a lot. It is turn based, so there isn't any real-time time constraint imposed by in-game hunger/thirst. It also tries to feel realistic in a lot of aspects, including the amount of food/water your character needs. While at game start you of course need to focus on immediate survival (though, that depends a bit on the scenario you play), that focus shifts rather quickly to preparing for the winter, as in stocking up supplies (think: smoking/curing meat/fish, gathering fire wood,...), and building a shelter that you can heat, so you don't freeze when it gets cold outside. Since the game is set in fantasy iron age Finland, you probably also want to build a sauna 😉.

Subnautica of course was a banger, but recently I've been insanely addicted to Icarus. The mission oriented gameplay makes the survival gameplay less tedious even though I'm doing similar stuff. You drop down, figure out what you need to complete the mission, set up and get the mission done, then get out. You have meta progression to make missions quicker to work through and you have a levelling system to further impact your strength. Just a super satisfying loop to me.

Only ever cared for the OG, Minecraft, because it was new and innovative. Mostly why I don't really like the genre is that most of them are "me too" games that don't do a lot more than the first game that spawned the genre to begin with. More of the same with different aesthetics or balance. But not really different enough that I can even decide which is better than another; they all get homogenized into a single bland blend where if you've played one, you've played them all situation.

Unless roguelikes such as Nethack could count as "survival" games. That would be a much bigger list.

Stranded Deep scratched an itch for me, the limited options available made it easier to focus on a podcast versus other games which have an overwhelming number of crafting items and quests.

I love the atmosphe in green hell, used to be my favorite until it got too easy and I ended up with the long dark on interloper

Terraria.

Because to me Terraria feels more like a freer version of a Metroidvania than a survival game. And while you start weak you get downright overpowered.

Does Terraria count? If so, Terraria.

If they count as survival then survival horror like Resident Evil and Signalis.

Most of the traditional survival games I've played end up being annoying to play because of the constant use of your resources outside of your control and I find gathering for crafting kinda boring. This kinda ruined Subnautica for me, since I was mostly interested in exploring but I had to constantly return to base to do chores.

Icarus (early access on Steam) has been my go to lately. I enjoy the resource collecting, crafting, and building aspect of it. You can turn it on easy mode and it’s very doable as long as you don’t get caught out by a bear 😅 you can do the bear dance pretty easily if you see them coming. The scenery is gorgeous, too.