Don't Starve

I've only got about 4 hours of play into this one so take the following with a grain of salt.

I picked the game up on steam just before lunch, I had read an article noting that it was released as a beta with the final version to follow in early 2013. I loved the look of the game from the trailer, and voila like a magician I was separated from my money and ready to play.

You start out as a man magically transported to an inland, your single entitled mission is to not starve to death. I started my adventure the same way I look at any survival game, pick up things till I can build things. After finding flint and some saplings I was able to make an ax and ensure that I would have a camp fire of the night. While gathering wood I found enough berries and carrots to sate my hunger. Survive the first night, check. The game was fairly straight forward until I decided to see how far I could explore, a couple islands away from my starting area some pig-men had a small village. I attempted to approch them to see if they were friendly ... but alas one attacked and being a weary adventurer I was defeated.

Not to be deterred by my single death I tried again. This time I managed to build a machine that allowed me to research about my surroundings, dropping items in and getting science points. An intention later and I had a hat and a razor, no more scruffy island man for me. Excited by the prospect of learning more new abilities I ventured off into the world and two islands out I settled down for the night. as I was tending my camp fire I saw  tree age into its final withered form and decided to cut it down to replant. A treeant was displeased with my decision and attacked. Not one to fall easily I kited him through my camp fire setting the forest ablaze in the process. As dawn broke he finally collapsed in a heap and I surveyed the damage. Almost the entire forest had burned down, hefting my ax I began chopping down the trees planning to replant. Each charred tree gave up a hunk of coal and sometimes a pine cone. Feeling confident I attempted to make contact with the pig men on the next island only to discover that they had been defeated by beast men. One seeing my approach proceeded to chase me all the way back to my base. The onset of night no determent to his fury. Having exhausted the supply of one island and burned the supply on the next I attempted to explore the world and find more food. After ten days I fell to a mishap with monster meat, sometimes learning comes at a high cost.

Having braved ten days I unlocked a second character who started fired in the dark, feeling invincible against the night terrors I ran amok stocking up on as much food during the first day as possible. The ability was neat but secondary dialogue began to creep my out.... my character would ask who was there as she threw down a fireball. Uninterested in settling down since I had a mobile fire starter I adventured as far as I could, encountering a bottomless pond and a spiky tree. My victory over the spider monsters led to a bit of a big head, and I attempted to take on a purple tentacle, but was quickly laid to rest.

I had fun playing with the game and the art style is very charming. The world generation feels very rough right now, and I would love to see the islands be a bit less predictable in the future. I'm sure those changes will happen with updates on the way to 2013. The core game-play is solid, I enjoyed gathering resources and moving plants around the islands. Resources might be a little too abundant or maybe its a little to easy to grow a personal wood yard. Stone and flint feel very rare and for me were the primary reason to explore (all tools are made from flint). I would say hold off on this game for a couple months, it is still a bit too rough to enjoy the game much beyond the visual treat, or personally created challenges, but will defiantly be worth picking up once development is further along. I had fun with what I played so far and find my self trying to break down their art with a bit of motivation to create my own in such a quirky style.

If you are interested in checking it out Don't Starve can be found right there, the developer Klei has many other games I intend to take a look at in the future.