Best Survival Games With Turn-Based Combat, Ranked

Survival games always have a few common features, even among the many disparate subgenres that have come to define this particular field of games. They are usually uncompromising, tasking the player with much to continue living, and usually also have players trying to keep on top of some resources vital to their… well, survival. This might be managing warmth in a game set within a colder clime, or managing sanity in a game rife with aberrant monsters.

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But just as there are things that survival games have in common, there are often things that even the most brutal survival games don’t elect to showcase. In particular, many survival games don’t use turn-based combat in their setting. It’s not difficult to see why, since the best survival games are often immersive, and having to think impulsively – something turn-based combat tends to eliminate – can take players out of the game a bit. However, these survival games in particular prove that the genre can still meld excellently with turn-based combat.

6

Dead State: Reanimated

An Immersive And Tactical Zombie Survival Game

Systems

Released

December 4, 2014

Developer(s)

DoubleBear Productions

Engine

Torque Engine

An incredibly interesting blend of RPG and survival, this is a hugely compelling title perfect for fans of more prevalent zombie titles like Project Zomboid. Players need to organize and coordinate a group of survivors trying to persist in a time right before the zombie apocalypse takes full swing. That’s part of what makes this game so interesting – instead of being set necessarily in the ‘post-apocalyptic’ timeframe that most zombie survival titles are, it’s set smack bang in the middle of the end of the world, where rumor and discourse are still shaping people’s perception of events.

For the product of a small publisher over 10 years ago, this game holds up incredibly well, and it features a reactivity to its story that all games should be striving to include even today, where player actions will, in real time, shape the outlook of characters in the party.

5

Dead In Vinland

Brutal Norse Survival

• Released: April 12, 2018
• Platforms: PC
• Developer: Ishtar Games

The hand-drawn style of this game pops in almost every screen, but especially where the combat is concerned, which is turn-based, visceral, and extremely satisfying. Trying to survive in a frigid, mysterious island is certainly challenging, but for RPG fans especially, this is a game that needs to be played. Rather than a single overarching story, there are a huge number of quests that all have multiple outcomes, and the overall ending is a synthesis of these outcomes.

This puts Dead in Vinland right where it needs to be in terms of RPGs. There are high-quality, dynamic characters, a branching and reactive story, and plenty of individual player choices to be made to personalize the experience.

4

UnReal World

A Roguelike And Survival Classic

UnReal World

Roguelike

Simulation

Strategy

Systems

Released

June 1, 1992

Publishers

Enormous Elk

The term ‘cult classic’ tends to get thrown around a lot today, and it makes sense – there are fandoms within fandoms and niches within niches that all hold certain, lesser-known games above all others. If all the hyperbole was removed from the phrase, however, only a few games would still be worthy of the title ‘cult classic’ – and UnReal World would be one of them. This is one of those roguelike passion projects that has bloomed into a title with truly astonishing levels of depth, rubbing shoulders with giants like Dwarf Fortress.

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An intricate, procedurally generated world with some incredibly charming tilesets is free to be explored by the player, who can focus on pure survival as a hunter or fisherman, or quest for something more as a hero or adventurer. The real-life images might throw off newer players, but there are few survival games with the same depth and intricacy as this one.

3

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

A Venerated Post-Apocalyptic Roguelike

Roguelike

Sandbox

Survival

Systems

Released

March 1, 2023

Developer(s)

CleverRaven

Publisher(s)

KorGgenT

ESRB

nr

When people talk about survival games that truly test the player – Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead needs to be one of the first games mentioned. Trying to survive the perils of a world left destroyed by extraterrestrials and inherited by the living dead is not easy – far from it – but persisting against odds as brutal as these can feel incredibly rewarding.

The sheer freedom players have in what they can do might manifest as a truly cumbersome UI, but people who can get the hang of it will have an infinite story generator right on their PC. Every player that has gotten the hang of CDDA has some zany story to tell about at least one of their characters’ experiences.

2

Wayward

A Charming Pixel Graphics Survival Title

• Released: April 22, 2016
• Platforms: PC
• Developer: Unlok

The perfect title for those who want to add some extra RPG flair to titles like Terraria or Minecraft, Wayward has 9 years of development under its belt, and it manifests as a truly dense survival title with plenty to explore.

The turn-based combat manages to retain that lethal, high-stakes feel that real-time survival games often have, while letting players use all the tactical and strategic thinking that comes with the more deliberate action often found in RPGs.

1

NEO Scavenger

Survive With Scraps In A Devastated World

Systems

Released

December 15, 2014

Engine

Flixel

ESRB

nr

There is no other game that really exemplifies “treading water” like NEO Scavenger. It’s one of the best survival games period, and surpasses some stiff competition to make it to the top of this list as best turn-based survival title. Players aren’t beginning with stone tools and progressing to gyrocopters and laser weapons – this is a game that dispenses with tech trees in favor of honest, god-fearing dumpster diving.

If it can be found in an abandoned building or on a corpse – it’s yours. If not, then settle with a substitute. If players have two odd colored crocs on their feet, a pre-faded Captain America shield sweatshirt, and some kind of sharp stick with which to scare away vagrants – they’re playing what is called the ‘meta-build’, and are probably ahead of the equipment curve. Few games instill the same kind of vulnerability in players that NEO Scavenger does, and the turn-based combat with other desperate survivors or grotesque anomalies only exemplifies this further.

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