Hello everyone,,
I discovered this game three days earlier at BaseBuildingGames, and reading the description I thought "woah, it looks awesome ! There should be a catch somewhere, this looks too great." I am currently creating my third character, with probably 40 hours into the gaming. Ijust HAVE to share.
1. It is the ultimate survival game.
I remember the hardcore feature in Fallout : New Vegas. I thought it was awesome (it added a need for constant feeding and drinking) and the gaming community thought likewise. UnW is all about that. You need to feed, drink, get warm so as not to die in the winter. You have to sleep. You need to hunt, fish, later grow crops. Sometimes, you will wander for days in the forest, following reindeer tracks leading nowhere, seeing your starvation go up day after day. Out of despair, you may eat a human that happened to pass close enough for you to throw a javelin at his face. If you still got enough strength to gut it.
2. It is a survival game without zombies, and a swordfighting RPG without magic, elves or dwarves.
Seriously, how many of those are out there ? In UnW, no surreal bullshit. The only slightly supernatural thing you may do is a little ritual to help you sleep or for a good hunt. And it may not even work.
I think the success of Mount&Blade or Total War has to do, aside from the great gameplays, with the fact that people start to want realistic video games in a given timeframe. I want my suspension of disbelief.
3. You do not have to go through a concrete wall of a GUI to enjoy it to its full potential.
Granted, it's no Call of Duty. But it's no Dwarf Fortress either. Actually, for a roguelike, it has very decent graphics. And repetitive keyboard smashing is extremely rare. This is one of those games which actually benefits from having the mouse as an optional feature (DF could use a mouse for much more stuff, for christ's sake !). The best thing is the game courses. They act as a tutorial while providing plenty of challenge and throwing you deep into the game. You remember when I said that I had spent 40 hours playing it for the last three days ? That was mostly the beginner's course. Not because it is difficult, but because of the sheer depth in possibilities.
4. You start with a knife. You can end with a mansion with a cellar and a sauna. That you all built yourself.
Minecraft is for pussies.
5. The game is absolutely, completely free and content is constantly added.
In 2013, following the business model of Dwarf Fortress, the game went completely free, with the goal of becoming priced in the future once again. There are updates constantly, and each one adds very much to the game. It is upposed to get a price again once a certain level of completion is achieved. Man, I would pay 40 bucks anytime for the current version.
Final thoughts
I like lists. So do you (I hope).
I had to write this since I got so inspired by this game : it is what I had been looking for years, a real survival game pitting you vs the wilderness ! I remember reading this and thinking how awesome it would be if such a game existed. Little did I know, it did exist.