A week ago Sthenno posted about a game he'd been playing in beta that was due to be released shortly. The game is called Don't Starve, and he made it sound like the game actually made good use of a beta period so would be launching in a relatively finished state. When Steam advertised the game as being on sale for only $13.49 I took the plunge. Despite having tons of games to play and (soon to be) no income. I'm not a very smart guy is what I'm saying.
Don't Starve was totally worth it, though. I've put in a few hours playing in the last couple days and it's been really fun. It's a game of exploration and death, so it's the sort of game I can't say much about without feeling like I'm ruining it for other people. And when it comes right down to it I don't even know what I'm supposed to do. Other than keep my character from starving. I'm proud to say that I haven't starved. I've died many times, mostly to bees, but I haven't starved.
The game actually reminds me a lot of the game Alchemy. In that game you started off with access to the four elements (earth, air, water, and fire) and combined them together through trial and error to make all sorts of things. Planning out different paths to test different combinations was the whole point of the game, and it was a ton of fun to just experiment with things. Eventually I remember giving up and looking up on the internet how to make a robot or an alien or something. It got me over a hump in the tech tree that I couldn't figure out on my own but it pretty much killed the game for me. It was fun to try new things. Getting told the thing to try killed that fun.
So while Don't Starve has similar combinations of things that can make you slap your forehead, and I'm sure it would be great for progression to look that stuff up, I want to play in the dark. The trick to getting manure made me laugh it was so simple/silly/awesome, and it's worth figuring it out on your own I think. I got to feel really clever when I acquired my first rabbit, even though it's probably blatantly obvious what you need to do.
It's fun enough, and cheap enough, that I think people who like trial, error, and dying to bees should give it a shot. Just don't tell me how to do something awesome!
Something I loved about Don't Starve is that even though it gives you no instruction whatsoever you aren't just banging your head against a wall. Getting started in minecraft without even knowing that it matters what shape you make in the crafting box is really tough. Getting started in Don't Starve is really easy. And since you have to get started again an awful lot, you get the hang of it.
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