Best New Content Added To Survival Games Through Updates

Survival games are a popular genre in the modern gaming industry, with new releases often experiencing initial virality. This is likely due to the compelling nature of exploring a brand-new harsh and mechanically deep survival experience. Survival games often offer both a sense of exploration and the satisfaction of overcoming hardship, meaning initial playthroughs, especially, prompt the most satisfaction.

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That being said, the biggest issue with many survival games is that as their progression system ends, the mysticism of the new setting wears off. This is why content updates are massively important in the survival genre. These could include new stories, locations, more difficulty levels, bosses, gear, or even fundamentally reworking the core aspects of the experience.

1

The Final Chapter

Raft

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: June 20, 2022
• Developer(s): Redbeet Interactive

Raft is a unique survival game set on a vast and sprawling sea. Players awake on a small raft and must use a hook to collect debris and slowly build up their resources. The game features all the expected survival game elements, including building, exploration, and combat. However, Raft also includes a story that was released periodically through updates.

It’s no surprise then, that the best content addition in Raft could be considered to be The Final Chapter update. This update was the biggest for Raft and was the final major content update. It included a conclusion to the storyline, as well as a reworking of earlier story elements. On top of this, it also added new destinations, enemies, Rafters, trading posts, and lots of new items.

2

Ashlands

Valheim

Systems

Released

February 2, 2021

Developer(s)

Iron Gate AB

Valheim is one of the most popular survival games in recent years, blending survival elements, combat, and building with a mythological setting. Valheim features a procedurally generated world that is made up of a series of progressively dangerous biomes. Players must build up their supply of gear to venture into these zones and take down the many bosses that the game has to offer.

Given the importance of new biomes to the progression of Valheim, updates containing new biomes are often packed with content. The Ashlands update was no exception. This update introduced the fiery Ashlands, a dangerous and threatening area that was packed full of new enemies and contained a new boss. This update added new items and features in almost every category of the game, from weapons and buildables to events and music. The Ashlands update also featured new fire-spreading mechanics, a thematically relevant change given the fiery nature of the new biome.

3

World Update 2.0

Rust

Rust is a popular PvP-oriented survival game, wherein players connect to a server and build a base, accumulating loot and resources by any means necessary. Rust is different from standard survival games, with the gameplay loop often consisting mostly of PvP and raiding. Rust sees consistent content updates, often adding quality-of-life features or adjusting progression elements in order to keep a balanced gameplay structure.

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While these aforementioned update types are important, one of the most crucial and noticeable content updates was World Update 2.0. This update improved some core aspects of the terrain generation that have been in the game for years. For example, players can now traverse cliff faces due to the new cliff generation, and rock formations have been improved in ways that allow for some rocks to spawn in ways that facilitate interesting base designs. On top of that, new terrain elements such as canyons, lakes, oases, and rivers were added, which truly diversified the landscape.

4

1.5 Update

Rimworld

Systems

Released

October 17, 2018

Developer(s)

Ludeon Studios

Rimworld is a standout game in the survival game genre, presenting itself differently from most of its contemporaries. Despite this, the core survival elements remain, wherein the player must facilitate the survival and progression of their colonists. This survival includes finding food, building defenses, getting the colonists better gear, and ensuring the members of the colony each offer a resourceful trait.

One of the largest Rimworld content updates was called Update 1.5, a free update that was released alongside the Anomaly expansion. This free update added a plethora of new building and furniture items, alongside a series of UI improvements. It also included the ability for colonists to crawl when injured in an attempt to better survive the incoming attack. Alongside these and other quality-of-life improvements, 1.5 also added a mode in which players can create “new wanderers” upon a game over, allowing them to inhabit the remains of the fallen colony instead of starting anew.

5

Journey’s End

Terraria

Terraria is a sandbox game with survival elements, often considered a survival game that focuses on other elements primarily. That being said, the core survival aspect is still present, with players needing to build bases, collect resources, defend themselves, and progress. Terraria features an incredibly wide range of items, enemies, locations, and bosses, and sports one of the most in-depth progression systems in a sandbox survival game.

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Journey’s End was a major content update for Terraria, including some massive features that remain core elements of the experience. Firstly, it added the more casual Journey mode, which acts as a creative/sandbox way to experience the game. The update also added brand-new bosses, new UI elements, texture pack support, and new biome backgrounds. Most notably, however, it included a new highest difficulty known as Master mode. This mode became the pinnacle of tough Terraria content and added new unique items from bosses.

6

Caves And Cliffs

Minecraft

Minecraft is a survival game that needs no introduction, blending survival elements with creative/sandbox features to create a timeless and revolutionary game. Despite starting life as a creative building game, Minecraft implemented a survival mode early on, which became the most played and popular mode in the game. Minecraft is known for regular content updates of varying sizes, each of which slowly but surely builds Minecraft into an even bigger and deeper experience.

One of the largest and most instantly noticeable content additions within an update came within the Caves and Cliffs update. This update was a two-part update that implemented a plethora of new items, blocks, mobs, and biomes. Above all, however, were the new terrain generation elements. As the name suggests, the Cave and Cliffs update increased the height of mountains massively, allowing for far greater peaks in the landscape. Even more notably, it also featured a new cave generation system, which lowered the depth of bedrock and included the ability for massive caverns to generate deep below the surface. These cavernous depths completely changed the way mining worked, allowing for far more compelling exploration underground.

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