In 2013, Klei Entertainment brought Don’t Starve to the world, introducing players to a hard-edged and horror-tinged take on the growing survival genre. Since then, the game has been released on several different platforms and a few expansions have been released, giving players no shortage of options in how they can experience it. Now, in 2018, Don’t Starve: Nintendo Switch Edition has landed, bringing with it all the improvements accrued over the last five years to Nintendo’s new platform. While it doesn’t do anything to set itself apart, this version of Don’t Starve proves to be just as engaging as its predecessors, while offering lots of bang for your buck.
Gameplay in Don’t Starve plays a lot like the survival mode of Minecraft, with some notable changes. Your character spawns in the center of an enormous procedurally generated world and the goal is simply to survive for as long as possible. You have heath, hunger, and sanity meters to keep filled, with there being dire consequences for letting any one of them drop too low. Through clever manipulation of materials that you find, you must build tools, hunt and forage for food, and figure out how to survive events like the coming of winter or a Deerclops attack. It’s brutal and unforgiving, but there’s something immensely satisfying in beating such towering odds.
At the heart of Don’t Starve lies its crafting system, which provides the structure for just about everything that you do. At the outset, you can only build a limited number of tools and other items, and you need to build a “science machine” to unlock the ability to produce more, complex things. This helps to add a sense of open ended and meandering progression to things to keep you moving forward, as you set goals for yourself to build things that make life easier.
Don’t Starve revels in its ability to throw you curveballs, and you’ll constantly be working to react and adapt to new situations. The world is littered with pigmen villages, spider nests, bee hives, and eldritch horrors that are all out to kill you in some way; at no point are you truly ‘safe’ here. Maybe a thieving monkey will run off with a fishing rod that acted as your main source of food, or you’ll cut up a bush and agitate a nest of poisonous snakes. Don’t Starve has an uncanny knack for catching you off guard; just when you’re beginning to feel comfortable, something will usually go wrong that torches all your hopes and dreams. This oppressive difficulty is supplemented by the almost complete lack of handholding. Aside from basic item descriptions, the player isn’t told how anything works in the world, requiring lots of trials and error to figure out the intricacies of survival.
When you die - and you will die a lot - you’re given XP relative to how many days you managed to survive, and this is how most of the other playable characters are unlocked. Every character has unique strengths and weaknesses - such as the ability to start fires, or possessing a crippling fear of the dark - and these can help to make subsequent runs more interesting in how they modify the gameplay experience. Perhaps one character is only particularly effective in the late game, while another maybe requires a completely different playstyle. This adds some welcome variety to the overall experience, while still never diverging too far from the core gameplay loop.
The most notable shortcoming of all this is the tendency for the gameplay to grow repetitive over time, which may come as a sticking point to some. Although there is a massive amount of content to be accessed for those willing to grind it out, there’s lots of time in the game spent cutting down thousands of trees and doing other similarly monotonous tasks that can tend to drag down the pace over time. It can be rather disheartening, too, to lose a good run and have to go through the same motions for the first few hours to get yourself back to where you were before. This won’t be an issue for everyone, but it still bears mentioning.
Though the main game contains a near infinite amount of replayability, the Switch version also includes the two major expansions, which can feel like distinct games in their own way. Reign of Giants is the more conventional of the two, acting as a ‘hard mode’ that’s custom made for experienced players. The expansion adds new seasons, biomes, enemies, and items into the mix, along with new systems meters that measure your temperature and wetness. Indeed, Reign of Giants can be a tough pill to swallow, but if you’ve gotten to the point that you can reliably conquer the vanilla versions, this expansion is the perfect fix.
Shipwrecked is the other expansion, notably changing up the game’s flow by introducing a nautical theme. Rather than one massive overworld, you start on a small island with limited resources, and you must build a raft or a boat to carry you between islands in your constant scrabble for supplies. It’s remarkable how much this relatively simple addition changes up the experience, as you now must take into account that every island you visit only has so much material to use, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll find what you’re looking for when you get to the next island. Throw in seasons that bring monsoons and hurricanes, and an ocean full of killer whales, krakens, and other fun things, and you’ve got an expansion that offers up a nice twist on the concept of the other two modes.
From a presentation perspective, Don’t Starve manages to carve out a distinct identity for itself that’s memorable, though not nearly as appealing. The world has a 2D hand-drawn look to it that’s amplified by a cool Tim Burton-esque art style, although it comes off as being a bit dreary. This is perhaps a deliberate choice to reinforce the sense of oppression, but colors are rather muted and brown, and it tends to look a bit drab after many hours of play. The soundtrack matches the visuals by taking on a mischievous and quirky tone that perfectly matches the sense of panic and dark humor, although it’s rather forgettable on the whole.
Conclusion
Don’t Starve: Nintendo Switch Edition is an extremely meaty and punishing experience that always keeps you on your toes. The open ended, tough as nails gameplay isn’t for everyone - particularly in its repetition - but it can be quite addictive once things click. A distinct visual style, countless hours of randomized gameplay, and an open ended nature that favors boldness combine to make this an easy suggestion. If you still haven’t gotten around to playing Don’t Starve, this is one of the best versions you can get.
Comments 34
8s for everyone!
Lol 😜
While you can have an opinion, how you went about it felt like a troll comment trying to bait others into an argument.
@Narbiaman5i5 Troll commenting trolls.
Heard the Switch version was really buggy, can anyone comment on if that's actually the case?
I was hoping for multiplayer. But it doesn't look like we will have it... :/
@DeathUriel can I not have an opinion?
@DeathUriel chances are when they know what Nintendo's gonna do with online, and know if Don't Starve does well enough on the Switch they'll release Don't Starve Together to rake in a little more money off players
Why no mention of adventure mode? Besides just survival you can aim for an end game and ending as well.
@Timbojay While I can say the update for together is worth some more money, they actually gave everyone who had don't starve a free update to together when it launched. Only after some time it turned into a standalone paid pack.
The only thing that ever throws me off about this game is the graphics. They don't do a whole lot for me. I think they wouldn't do much for me in the long run.
@Narbiaman5i5 Of course you can. But when you state something suck instead of saying YOU don't like it or it sucks for you to play, you sound just like any fanboy who say it is awesome beyond question. And well, as you don't like both Don't Starve and BoW, I suppose it is a fair assumption that you don't like "true open world" games in itself so... It would be even less relevant for you to state your opinion on such a matter, just like a youtuber I know that hates turn-based RPGs so he refuses to review them because he knows his opinion will be highly biased and may interfere with other's desire for such games.
Tl;dr: Everyone has opinions, the way you express it and the decision of expressing it leaves it open to be critized.
I've died so many times till it corrupt my save file, lol! don't ask me what I did, 1st save still work, 2 & 3rd ( 3 games with different character) loading tells me that "something occur and game have to be shut down" (something like that) Have to delete old save file and restart.
@DeathUriel Totally agree with you about this guy.
I want Don't starve together. I will wait till then. Excellent game though.
@DeathUriel hopefully they'll do that on Switch then If they added online I'd pick it up on Switch as I found the game very lacking without friends to fail with, but once I had a group of 3 friends making a mess as bad as I was it was a lot of fun
@Timbojay I think I will just buy it for some portable offline lonely fun. While I do think this game is way better with friends, I don't have anyone near who plays this AND has a switch. So easies for me to go multiplayer on PC anyway.
@Shadow9000 from my experiences and from what i have seen and read online its only the vanilla version with all the bugs so all you have to do is play with either of the dlc's active.
@Dpullam well they did want to go with a more handmade look from what i can tell and to be more unique.
@DeathUriel That's a fair shout I really should get back into the game on PC some time...or boot up my PC...damn Switch distracting me like a digital Succubus of free time!
@Timbojay maybe if your lucky they won't release any more addicting masterpieces like botw or smo.... pfffft as if that will happen.
It’s a fun game but I’ll probably pass it on the switch. I’ve beaten it on the iPad and still have it installed, so... yeah.
Nice to see this coming to Switch but it's only a small upgrade for me. I still have so much replay value in my Wii U version and would buy another version if it was the online multiplayer "Don't Starve Together".
One of my favorite games in my Wii U library. I do wish it had an easy mode with no permadeath, because the game's ruthlessness at points made me play it way too safe to not jeopardize my one-man empire. But it's indeed an incredible experience.
I'd probably double dip for Don't Starve Together, especially given that the hybrid nature of the Switch would allow me to play that mode locally often with friends.
Also, I have to say that I disagree VEHEMENTLY in regards to the presentation. The graphics, animation, and overall tone are fantastic, and the music and sound design perhaps even more so.
patch just went live.
Really with as long a this has been out they should have went straight to Don't Starve Together, personally won't be picking this up as I've played it plenty on PC and also Don't Starve Together with friends which is definitely funner than just regular Don't Starve.
This game is okay, I mean it's hard to me to criticize it on a technical level but I just never really cared for playing it. I had it on my PC a long time ago, had it on my Vita and PS4 for a long time, but I never really got into it. I would always much rather play something like Minecraft or Terraria.
Definitely not picking this one up again.
Not for me at all, however love to see these highly rated games appear on Switch (even a bit late in my opinion)
Not a very fun game IMO. It's just tedious and kinda boring.
Isn't this game broken on the Switch, think I read about it on mynintendo news?
I see procedurally generated, I pass. Same with rogue likes and such, I simply don't have the patience these days
The lack of the multi-player support absolutely baffles me. The best part of the game on PC was playing with a friend. I am still tempted to pick this up, but had it had mutli-player I'd not only have picked it up day one, I'd have bought copies for friends just to make them play it with me.
@mowerdude Not anymore, a patch went out this morning that got rid of the issues.
I had it on PC for a long time, but got bored of it in a short time. Got till winter, had a steady supply of rabbit meat and a few penguins around to lure beasties into if needed... I realized that if I did the same things over and over again I just wouldn't run out of food anytime soon. Since the game is called "Don't Starve" I counted this as a win and moved on
As for Don't Starve Together, I tried it with a friend, he got a few more things running quicker than I (as he spent more time in single player) and then we couldn't load our save file.
Shank still remains my favourite Klei game. I wish they did a new game in a similar vein (not necessarily with the same character).
@edgedino Haha I'm sure E3 will be a total bust and contain NO amaizng games! ...sorry my Wallet wrote that.
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