( image credit )

Hello, darlings! I’m back with another post and this time, it’s another Gameventure post. Lately, I’ve been really deep in my gamer feelings again and I must admit, it’s rather lovely. So do expect a lot more game related posts to pop up in the near future. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet and focus on this post.

This post will signify the start of the Gameventure category being broken down into subcategories and the start of the First Impressions subcategory. As its name states, all pots under this subcategory will be primarily first impressions. There will be no bleed over even I have already gotten deeper into the game prior to the first impressions post. Anything said in these posts will be based upon the thought process I had when I first got and encountered the game in question.

That being said, in this post, I’ll be giving my first impression of a game called Don’t Starve by the company Klei Entertainment (pronounced as “clay”). This post took a bit longer to get out due to the fact that I had to edit the video footage of my first attempt at the game. Head on past the jump to get to the good stuff and find out where you can purchase and join in on the fun that is Don’t Starve.

Note: This post contains products that I purchased for my own particular enjoyment and was not provided to me by the company or its creator. That being said, all opinions in this post reflect my own personal opinions and is not influenced by the idea of monetary or popularity compensation in any sense of the word. Seeing as this is a First Impressions review, I recommend that you take this with a grain of salt as this is not a final impression review.

Don’t Starve’s April 4,2013 gameplay trailer found on the Klei Entertainment YouTube. It’s unlisted, so if the video above isn’t working, please click here to watch it directly on YouTube.

Don’t Starve is described on its microsite as “an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic.” In Don’t Starve you start off playing as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon (Maxwell) and transported to a mysterious wilderness of a world. Don’t Starve is a game based on survival, but also involves just the right amount of strategical focus that is important to survive. On the website, Don’t Starve is described:

Play as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Wilson must learn to exploit his environment and its inhabitants if he ever hopes to escape and find his way back home. Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Gather resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style. Play it your own way as you unravel the mysteries of this strange land

My First Impressions gameplay video featuring otto of ottobomb

So, here’s the thing about this game and most survival games: Upon first play, I am utter arse at the game. It seems like every single time (without fail) that I try to do one of these survival games, I end up forgetting how to be intelligent for the first couple plays. As you can obviously tell by the video, this was no different than normal survival games. I was the same way playing Left 4 Dead 2. It’s ridiculous. Anyway. I decided going into the video that since it was a particular type of game, I bought the two pack, and gifted one of the games to otto that I would actually record both my microphone and the computer’s audio which was a mix of otto and the game’s music. If you watch the video, it was obviously an absolutely brilliant idea.

Anyway, this isn’t really clear in the video, but the game is a bit more difficult than it lets on, especially when you’re first starting out. The game is a bit like Minecraft in how you go about things, but even to otto and I who have both played Minecraft (otto albeit more than myself) this game was a bit more and I still can’t really explain why.

On first play, we both died immediately and the second time around, we started to get the hang of things, but still died a lot earlier than we would have liked. What I loved about this game even from the beginning was the idea that if you die, you die and you’ll have to start over. I read somewhere (re: YouTube comments/home of the ignorance) that someone found that aspect unappealing. When it was pointed out that the feature added an aspect of realism to the game (once you die, that’s it), the person responded with and I quote, “If I wanted realism, I’d join the police force[...]” Yeah. That was a thing that was said.

Now here’s where I divert a bit from the topic at hand to have a small rant. If you’re playing a game, especially one with a plot as this, and you dislike the fact that there is not sense of save point when you die and a realistic approach to death...I despise you. You are the type of gamer that annoys me. I have no problem with save points in games like Splinter Cell or MMOs like Vindictus. In fact, in those games, constant save points are needed. In a game like this, where the ideal of survival is a focus point, I do rather enjoy the fact that there is that sense of realism because it’s a SURVIVAL game. If you don’t fancy that, please go play a different game and twirl because if your complaint about this game is the fact that it’s permadeath, you are seriously befuddled by life and its misfortunes.

Whew, I feel much better getting that out of the way. Moving on, what made Don’t Starve simply good fun was the idea that you have not a health and hunger meter, but a sanity meter. Holy shite. A bloody SANITY METER. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a game that had a sanity meter. What’s even greater about this sanity meter is that it goes down and up for a variety of reasons. If you eat the meat of animal that you haven’t cooked yet? Boom, minus a certain amount of sanity. You science the shite out of something? Boom, an increase in sanity. Not does that happen, but the duration of your sanity going up and down fluctuates constantly and sporadically. It’s really just a lovely addition to a game like this. Not only do you have to focus on surviving and not starving, but you have make sure you don’t dip in sanity. And let me tell you, I had a huge dip in my sanity level when I played later on after the video was done recording and once you hit a certain level of insanity, you start to see things. The animals around Wilson start to take on a darker tinge as they appear covered in beard hair than fur (which, again...bloody brilliant) and shadow creatures start to appear. If your sanity gets even lower, these Shadow Creatures will start to attack your character. If you end up killing these creature when they attack, you can gain 15 points of sanity back.

Another thing about this game that intrigued me were the monsters. Some are passive, some are neutral, and some are aggressive. If you kill any of the passive animals, your naughtiness meter goes up and at some point, Krampus will come, steal your items, and try to kill you. Which yaaaas! Krampus is probably one of my favourite things from Germanic folklore and the fact that it’s included in a game like this makes me so happy. Now, I haven’t encountered Krampus and I’m hoping not to for a while, but I just love the idea of this. (Also, if you want to read up more on the actual Krampus that comes from Germanic folklore, click here.) The neutral and aggressive monsters in this game are intense when you’re first starting out and are rather intelligent, especially the tentacles. In my earlier attempts, two of my deaths were a result of me not noticing a tentacle and then getting utterly demolished because of it. Two to three hits from most of the monsters will kill you. And really, let’s not get into how atrocious some of these things look. There are some weird combination of animals going on to create this monsters and I love it.

This game also runs on seasons unless you set it to one specific season. It shifts between summer and winter seasons and I will tell you now, the winters Don’t Starve are no joke. Not to mention that how long the seasons last are completely random and during the winter, the cold can cost you not only your health, but your sanity as well. And when I say cost you...I mean, it goes down drastically. The nights are also darker and more worrisome and when I eventually made it to winter, I found myself always huddling up at some fire until the day started because I refused to die at that point. Nope. (I eventually did die, but not because of the darkness. Those darn tentacles. That’s besides the point though.)

Fires are important during the night as they are your only source of light. Without them, the shadow creatures will attack you and kill you in two hits without you finding out what the hell just attacked you.

Honestly, I could go on and on about how much I’m digging the game. I love the open world aspect of it, I love that you can edit the world, I love the creepiness factor, I love the strategy of it all, I love the survive or die and start again aspect of it, I love the music, I love the overall design. It’s simply lovely. I have heard that after a certain amount of days survived, it starts to get a bit boring and the monsters stop being difficult to beat and a lot of people are excited about the new DLC that the game is introducing in the near future. As I haven’t gotten too far into the game yet, I haven’t found things that were so bothersome that I couldn’t ignore them and I haven’t reached the point of boredom as of yet.

If you’re playing on the PC, I recommend you invest in some mods. They are helpful, but they actually don’t take away too much of the frustration and difficulty of the game and that’s just amazing.

The game is available for Windows/OS X/Linux via Steam and the website or on the PS4 through the Playstation website.


And that’s it! I know this is another game post, but I promise there’ll be some more Lifestyle and Beauty posts in the future. It’s a just a bit easier for me to do these posts while I work on those other posts. Seriously, they’ll be a massive post in the near future that’s been taking me weeks to plan and type out appropriately.

In the meantime, are there any PC games that you’re playing that you wish to recommend to me? Have you played Don’t Starve and have an opinion about it? Drop a comment below and let’s have a chat.

I’m off to finish my other work. Until next time, darlings! ❤

Labels: [gameventures], [reviews], [videos], game type: action-adventure, game: don’t starve, gameventures: first impressions, video: gameplay, video: trailers

( image credit )

Hello, darlings! I’m back with another post and this time, it’s another Gameventure post. Lately, I’ve been really deep in my gamer feelings again and I must admit, it’s rather lovely. So do expect a lot more game related posts to pop up in the near future. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet and focus on this post.

This post will signify the start of the Gameventure category being broken down into subcategories and the start of the First Impressions subcategory. As its name states, all pots under this subcategory will be primarily first impressions. There will be no bleed over even I have already gotten deeper into the game prior to the first impressions post. Anything said in these posts will be based upon the thought process I had when I first got and encountered the game in question.

That being said, in this post, I’ll be giving my first impression of a game called Don’t Starve by the company Klei Entertainment (pronounced as “clay”). This post took a bit longer to get out due to the fact that I had to edit the video footage of my first attempt at the game. Head on past the jump to get to the good stuff and find out where you can purchase and join in on the fun that is Don’t Starve.

Note: This post contains products that I purchased for my own particular enjoyment and was not provided to me by the company or its creator. That being said, all opinions in this post reflect my own personal opinions and is not influenced by the idea of monetary or popularity compensation in any sense of the word. Seeing as this is a First Impressions review, I recommend that you take this with a grain of salt as this is not a final impression review.

Don’t Starve’s April 4,2013 gameplay trailer found on the Klei Entertainment YouTube. It’s unlisted, so if the video above isn’t working, please click here to watch it directly on YouTube.

Don’t Starve is described on its microsite as “an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic.” In Don’t Starve you start off playing as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon (Maxwell) and transported to a mysterious wilderness of a world. Don’t Starve is a game based on survival, but also involves just the right amount of strategical focus that is important to survive. On the website, Don’t Starve is described:

Play as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Wilson must learn to exploit his environment and its inhabitants if he ever hopes to escape and find his way back home. Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Gather resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style. Play it your own way as you unravel the mysteries of this strange land

My First Impressions gameplay video featuring otto of ottobomb

So, here’s the thing about this game and most survival games: Upon first play, I am utter arse at the game. It seems like every single time (without fail) that I try to do one of these survival games, I end up forgetting how to be intelligent for the first couple plays. As you can obviously tell by the video, this was no different than normal survival games. I was the same way playing Left 4 Dead 2. It’s ridiculous. Anyway. I decided going into the video that since it was a particular type of game, I bought the two pack, and gifted one of the games to otto that I would actually record both my microphone and the computer’s audio which was a mix of otto and the game’s music. If you watch the video, it was obviously an absolutely brilliant idea.

Anyway, this isn’t really clear in the video, but the game is a bit more difficult than it lets on, especially when you’re first starting out. The game is a bit like Minecraft in how you go about things, but even to otto and I who have both played Minecraft (otto albeit more than myself) this game was a bit more and I still can’t really explain why.

On first play, we both died immediately and the second time around, we started to get the hang of things, but still died a lot earlier than we would have liked. What I loved about this game even from the beginning was the idea that if you die, you die and you’ll have to start over. I read somewhere (re: YouTube comments/home of the ignorance) that someone found that aspect unappealing. When it was pointed out that the feature added an aspect of realism to the game (once you die, that’s it), the person responded with and I quote, “If I wanted realism, I’d join the police force[...]” Yeah. That was a thing that was said.

Now here’s where I divert a bit from the topic at hand to have a small rant. If you’re playing a game, especially one with a plot as this, and you dislike the fact that there is not sense of save point when you die and a realistic approach to death...I despise you. You are the type of gamer that annoys me. I have no problem with save points in games like Splinter Cell or MMOs like Vindictus. In fact, in those games, constant save points are needed. In a game like this, where the ideal of survival is a focus point, I do rather enjoy the fact that there is that sense of realism because it’s a SURVIVAL game. If you don’t fancy that, please go play a different game and twirl because if your complaint about this game is the fact that it’s permadeath, you are seriously befuddled by life and its misfortunes.

Whew, I feel much better getting that out of the way. Moving on, what made Don’t Starve simply good fun was the idea that you have not a health and hunger meter, but a sanity meter. Holy shite. A bloody SANITY METER. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a game that had a sanity meter. What’s even greater about this sanity meter is that it goes down and up for a variety of reasons. If you eat the meat of animal that you haven’t cooked yet? Boom, minus a certain amount of sanity. You science the shite out of something? Boom, an increase in sanity. Not does that happen, but the duration of your sanity going up and down fluctuates constantly and sporadically. It’s really just a lovely addition to a game like this. Not only do you have to focus on surviving and not starving, but you have make sure you don’t dip in sanity. And let me tell you, I had a huge dip in my sanity level when I played later on after the video was done recording and once you hit a certain level of insanity, you start to see things. The animals around Wilson start to take on a darker tinge as they appear covered in beard hair than fur (which, again...bloody brilliant) and shadow creatures start to appear. If your sanity gets even lower, these Shadow Creatures will start to attack your character. If you end up killing these creature when they attack, you can gain 15 points of sanity back.

Another thing about this game that intrigued me were the monsters. Some are passive, some are neutral, and some are aggressive. If you kill any of the passive animals, your naughtiness meter goes up and at some point, Krampus will come, steal your items, and try to kill you. Which yaaaas! Krampus is probably one of my favourite things from Germanic folklore and the fact that it’s included in a game like this makes me so happy. Now, I haven’t encountered Krampus and I’m hoping not to for a while, but I just love the idea of this. (Also, if you want to read up more on the actual Krampus that comes from Germanic folklore, click here.) The neutral and aggressive monsters in this game are intense when you’re first starting out and are rather intelligent, especially the tentacles. In my earlier attempts, two of my deaths were a result of me not noticing a tentacle and then getting utterly demolished because of it. Two to three hits from most of the monsters will kill you. And really, let’s not get into how atrocious some of these things look. There are some weird combination of animals going on to create this monsters and I love it.

This game also runs on seasons unless you set it to one specific season. It shifts between summer and winter seasons and I will tell you now, the winters Don’t Starve are no joke. Not to mention that how long the seasons last are completely random and during the winter, the cold can cost you not only your health, but your sanity as well. And when I say cost you...I mean, it goes down drastically. The nights are also darker and more worrisome and when I eventually made it to winter, I found myself always huddling up at some fire until the day started because I refused to die at that point. Nope. (I eventually did die, but not because of the darkness. Those darn tentacles. That’s besides the point though.)

Fires are important during the night as they are your only source of light. Without them, the shadow creatures will attack you and kill you in two hits without you finding out what the hell just attacked you.

Honestly, I could go on and on about how much I’m digging the game. I love the open world aspect of it, I love that you can edit the world, I love the creepiness factor, I love the strategy of it all, I love the survive or die and start again aspect of it, I love the music, I love the overall design. It’s simply lovely. I have heard that after a certain amount of days survived, it starts to get a bit boring and the monsters stop being difficult to beat and a lot of people are excited about the new DLC that the game is introducing in the near future. As I haven’t gotten too far into the game yet, I haven’t found things that were so bothersome that I couldn’t ignore them and I haven’t reached the point of boredom as of yet.

If you’re playing on the PC, I recommend you invest in some mods. They are helpful, but they actually don’t take away too much of the frustration and difficulty of the game and that’s just amazing.

The game is available for Windows/OS X/Linux via Steam and the website or on the PS4 through the Playstation website.


And that’s it! I know this is another game post, but I promise there’ll be some more Lifestyle and Beauty posts in the future. It’s a just a bit easier for me to do these posts while I work on those other posts. Seriously, they’ll be a massive post in the near future that’s been taking me weeks to plan and type out appropriately.

In the meantime, are there any PC games that you’re playing that you wish to recommend to me? Have you played Don’t Starve and have an opinion about it? Drop a comment below and let’s have a chat.

I’m off to finish my other work. Until next time, darlings! ❤

Labels: [gameventures], [reviews], [videos], game type: action-adventure, game: don’t starve, gameventures: first impressions, video: gameplay, video: trailers