Survival games like Conan Exiles and ARK: Survival Evolved have fascinated many thousands of people for some time now. The first representatives of the genre are actually much older – over 30 years. We will look at how the genre got started.
What are survival games anyway? Survival games play with the human instinct for survival. They tempt players to survive and possibly flee in a mostly inhospitable or dangerous world.
Typically, survival games focus on satisfying various realistic needs such as warmth, food, water, or sleep, which are often only covered in the form of scarce resources.
Moreover, there is the challenge of acquiring new equipment with the rare materials, as they can break. In newer survival games, crafting, building, and exploring the world also play a significant role.
Which was the first survival game?
The question of the first game in the survival genre is not easy to answer. From the perspective of the year, The Oregon Trail from 1971 would be the first survival game. The Oregon Trail was a text-based educational game, where mechanics like resource management, decisions, and permadeath played a significant role – similar to “This War of Mine” today.
The game was about leading a caravan along the eponymous “Oregon Trail” in the Wild West, and children were supposed to learn about responsibility and the history of the pilgrims in the 19th century.
Modern survival elements, however, were only implemented in later games. There are three games that were released within a few years of each other and could be considered the first survival game in their own way.
For modern games in the genre, however, it is noted that they have carried forward certain elements from all three. Therefore, we will introduce them together and declare all three as founding games of the genre.
Seven Cities of Gold
What is Seven Cities of Gold? Seven Cities of Gold was developed by the American studio Ozark Softscape and released in 1984, published by Electronic Arts. However, the game is actually not a survival game, but a strategy and adventure game.
You play an explorer during the time of the Spanish Empire and, similar to the new survival title New World, are supposed to discover the new world. To do this, you first need to prepare your ship and set sail from your hometown in a 2D side scroller.
Then you search the open sea for the new world. Once you have discovered it, you will colonize it. You find villages with natives and can either subdue them through violence or trade until you can finally establish new cities. The controls work via joystick.
What makes Seven Cities of Gold a survival game: Although there is nothing about survival in Seven Cities of Gold, the game combines some mechanics that later survival titles have inspired (or could have inspired).
As you explore the new world, you must ensure that your expedition has enough food and troops and make sure that you can bring gold back to the ship.
There is no real goal here. You can continuously acquire gold and will eventually be appointed governor or viceroy by the Spanish crown. The maps are randomly generated, which was an unusual novelty at the time.
Heart of Africa
What is Heart of Africa? Heart of Africa is a sort of spiritual successor to Seven Cities of Gold. Heart of Africa was also developed by Ozark Softscape and released by Electronic Arts in 1985.
Instead of discovering the new world of America, you explore the African continent here. Dressed in stereotypical safari attire, including a hat, you roam through deserts, savannas, and villages, trade, and search for treasures.
Visually, Heart of Africa strongly resembles its “predecessor”. You cover larger distances on a smaller map, while transformations in villages are portrayed in zoom on the protagonist. The control is also via joystick.
What makes Heart of Africa a survival game: In Heart of Africa, you have to actually fight for survival if you want to reach your treasures. You must pay attention to a few things, such as:
- Increase in food and water
- Treatment of injuries and poisoning from wildlife
- Dealing with the natives to maintain trading privileges
If you ignore one of these factors for too long, the game ends sooner and without success for you. The goal is to find the tomb of Pharaoh Ahnk Ahnk, whose location is randomly generated in each game.
Wilderness: A Survival Game
What is Wilderness? Wilderness is the game that appears as the oldest game on the list of survival games on Wikipedia. Unlike the previously mentioned adventure and strategy games, which featured survival aspects, Wilderness is actually referred to as a survival game.
Wilderness was developed by Titan Computer Products and released in 1986. In Wilderness, you must survive after a plane crash in an unknown wilderness somewhere in the Sierra Nevada.
To do this, you explore the area using text commands, similar to the first MMORPGs. There are 300 different commands you can use (and must use) to interact with various things.
What makes Wilderness a survival game: The very fact that your main goal is to survive and find your way back to civilization qualifies Wilderness as a survival game and, strictly speaking, possibly as “the first.”
Like in Heart of Africa, you must ensure that you do not starve or die of thirst. Water must be boiled first, and found food tends to spoil quickly, so you are always on the lookout.
Additionally, you will get exhausted if you are on the move too long and need to camp, which is also dangerous if you do not set up a proper camp. Encounters with wild animals occur more frequently and pose threats to you. Other people you meet are rare to never.
How did it continue afterwards?
This is how survival games developed in the 90s: Shortly after Wilderness, the roguelike survival adventure UnReal World was released for Windows in 1992. UnReal World combines many of the aspects of the previous games but has a significantly more demanding graphical interface.
The main challenge still remains survival, but in UnReal World, you already have the opportunity to develop your character to some extent by adopting traits of Finnish cultures and increasing skills, such as crafting.
UnReal World was even adopted on Steam in its original version and can be played from there.
This is what newer survival games look like: In 2003, Stranded was released, a survival game that revolutionized the genre once more and brought a new feature to the forefront that continues to shape survival to this day: base building.
Similar to Robinson Crusoe, you are stranded on an island and try to return to civilization. Since that is not so easy, you have to survive somehow. To do this, you gather stones, wood, and food, build structures, and defy hunger, thirst, and wild animals.
Stranded is, by the way, a project by German developer Peter Schauß, the only brain behind Unreal Software. Stranded may also be one of the inspirations for Raft, one of our 15 best survival games for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
The Age of Modern Survival Games
This is what survival games are like today: Modern games such as ARK and Conan Exiles combine many of the features that distinguished their predecessors, expand them, or add their own unique characteristics, such as:
- tameable dinosaurs or desert animals
- huge worlds to explore with various biomes and mysterious places
- a multiplayer option and social features like clans
However, they all share the need to survive and progress, which is likely what drives most fans of the genre. And in the future, a constant stream of new adventures is sure to follow:
