Steam Summer Sale: Don't Starve

I'm a big fan of deals and a big fan of good PC gaming. So it's not a surprise that I am particularly fond of the digital distribution platform, Steam, which is notorious for it's sales. Right now, tons of great games are on sale for anywhere from 15% to 85% off. I've managed to snag several for $2.50 so these will make great gifts in the future.

I however, will not disclose how much I've spent so far, or how many of these games are going to sit untouched. I have a tendency to stockpile games and let them gather dust. I am also told this is a common occurrence.

All hail Gaben!

But one game I have been spending a lot of time with is Don't Starve. You are a scientist, and for whatever reason, someone or something has dumped you in the middle of the wilderness to fend for yourself. Now you have to make sense of the new world you've been placed in, gather enough resources to survive each passing day, defend against wild animals, and most importantly, don't starve.

It's such a simple idea but it has a lot of depth to it. With each passing moment, it gets closer to night and you need to make sure you have enough light to dissuade monsters from taking a bite out of you. You need to constantly hunt and forage for food but not everything is edible. And being alone in the dark can really take a toll on one's sanity, resulting in hallucinations which can eventually manifest and attack you.

And they never leave you alone!

But you are a scientist afterall! Find the right materials and soon you can craft better forms of light, research farming methods, and build armor and weapons to help in your fight for survival. Cook food to make it more nutritious, build and bait traps to catch prey, and begin to tinker with magic that can freeze your enemies or even bring you back from the dead.

Speaking of death, Don't Starve is in the genre of of rogue-like. This means that if you die, your entire world is deleted and you need to start all over again. While it does ramp the difficulty curve up a bit, it makes survival that much more pressing. You need to explore to get food, but running through a dangerous swamp could be deadly. Chopping down trees for fire is necessary, but it's hard to do when besieged by a swarm of spiders.

This also gives the game a lot of replay value. You are given a completely new world to run around in each time you start over. Plus, after playing through a few times, you'll unlock new characters, each with their own quirks and traits to mess around with.

For example, Willow starts with a lighter.

For a game that's only in the beta, it runs very well, has a lot of content, and is continually adding more content with each passing week. New areas like caves are being expanded on, as well as new characters and gamemodes to try. I highly recommend taking a look at this game, especially since it's currently 40% off until July 22th.

Anyone who isn't convinced so far can watch the trailer below. If you'll excuse me, I have more games to buy.