Don't Starve: Console Edition Review

I missed survival adventure game Don’t Starve when it first released mid-last year. It was never on my radar as it’s simply not my kind of game... or so I thought. The January PS+ instant game collection was offering the newly released PS4 version for free, so, with a lack of games to play on the new console, it seemed like a good time to give it a go. While I’d heard good things, and liked the look of the 2.5D penciled art-style, I wasn’t expecting to particularly enjoy it. Turns out that was a terrible judgement, and I now forever question my own ability to know what I do or do not like. Don’t Starve has been a joy to play, and made me experience emotions that I’ve never encountered while playing a videogame.

Don’t Starve: Console Edition for PS4 is essentially the same product as the PC version of the game, minus mod support. This means you’ll initially take on the role of Wilson, a plucky “gentleman scientist” who “grows a magnificent beard”. That’s about all the information you’re given before being helplessly plonked into a new world with the most basic of hints; find some food before nightfall. You’re then left to work out pretty much everything else for yourself; it was this concept that turned me away from Don’t Starve in the first place, I like a challenge but I’m not a fan of feeling completely lost. Given a kick in the arse, namely the desire to play my PS4 a bit more, I got through this initial fear of confusion. I’m glad I did, as once you get over that sense of unknown, the world of Don’t Starve quickly becomes your own.

Learning the ins and outs of the game is a gradual process, and one that’s likely to kill off a few of your characters before you fully understand it. Starvation was my first enemy; finding food is, believe it or not, one of the most crucial aspects of Don’t Starve and it took the death of my first Wilson to truly grasp this. Learning from the grumbles of my poor lad’s stomach, I took the next attempt more seriously, this time focusing on providing him with plenty of consumables. While I could happily pick berries and carrots to eat, it became obvious pretty quickly that Wilson needed something a little more sizeable. For this, I needed to start crafting. Once again, I’d encountered an element of the game that had prevented me from playing before.

Crafting in video games makes me think of mindless gathering and ridiculous combinations of seemingly random items. I like playing some games that embrace a decent crafting system, but if there’s one thing that’s stopped me from playing Minecraft, it’s the labyrinthine crafting mechanic (I don’t care how many children have mastered it!). Don’t Starve still has a fairly elaborate system, but it features a far superior sense of development over most games of this ilk. It was while crafting my first item, a handy axe, that I gained my first glimmer of hope. Turns out all I needed was a single piece of flint and a couple of twigs. “Ah, there’s a piece of flint lying there on the ground, and from my previous detective skills I know that if I strip two of these many saplings I’ll get two lots of twigs”. So began my journey as a master craftsman.

The crafting system is very simple to begin with, most items need few components and it’s usually pretty obvious where you can get these from. There’s no need to traipse through the game’s wiki until much later, and I urge you to restrain from doing so; exploring and understanding the world by your own accord is much more rewarding. It’s all pretty logical, and that’s largely what makes it so appealing. Want logs? Chop down some trees, silly. Silk you need? Better get spider stomping. I was caught out on a few occasions (nightmare fuel?), but this is where the comprehensive online wiki comes in handy. It helps that most of the items are either really useful or really cool.

By your second or third character, it’s likely that you’ll have a functional mini-settlement up and running. A couple of farms, a healthy supply of rabbits, a nice cooking pot and a trusty campfire. You can go so far as to create a proper little fort for your character with stone walls and fluffy carpets. Once you’ve got a home carved out, you’ll be hopelessly tempted to explore more of the randomly generated world (that’s right, every time it’s different). Encouraging you to move beyond the confines of your place of comfort is an adventure mode that’s accessed by discovering Maxwell’s door, designed by the evil man who trapped Wilson in this world. The adventure mode is essentially a collection of five worlds that each have different factors, like eternal rain or perpetual darkness.

This mode is excellent for those who want a truly tough challenge, but in reality it’s more fun to build up the equipment necessary to launch into this mode than the mode itself. Exploring the worlds that Don’t Starve generates is a genuinely exhilarating affair. The excitement of the unknown is just as present as the fear, and the perma-death aspect of the game leaves you on edge throughout. You never know what could be around the next bend, be it a gaggle of Penguls, an angry kilt wearing Walrus or a stockpile of carrots. It’s that desire to discover something useful that’ll drive you forward, no matter the peril. The day/night cycle is also a key element of the game that helps to develop this sense of constant anguish. Get caught in total darkness, without a source of light, and Charlie, the terrifying monster of the dark, will be along to gobble you up.

The whole game is wrapped up in a world that both looks and feels terrific. The shaded art style doesn’t exactly push the boundaries of the PS4’s processing power, but it fits elegantly with the survival theme. The late-Victorian look is also a brilliant addition to the game; machines and objects all have a kooky-retro look about them and the outfits, from snuggly winter hats to a flower garland, all fit this theme excellently. What’s more, the scenery and the creatures that inhabit it are arguably the best element of the game. Some weird and wacky animals, like giant eyeballs on legs or anthropomorphised pigs, make exploration even more intriguing. It’ll take many, many games before you see everything and when they all look so cool, seeing them again certainly isn’t a bad thing.

I can honestly say that Don’t Starve has provided by far my favourite PS4 sessions yet, and is, for me, the best game available on the console (with the possible exception of Assassin's Creed IV). Once you’ve played the sandbox mode a few times through, it can become a little stale. A lot of the challenge comes down to self-improvement and the desire to last for more days than before, but the adventure mode also provides an enjoyable goal to aim for throughout play. This is ultimately something very different and represents a brilliant transferal of typically PC-only gameplay to console. I fully recommend buying Don’t Starve on PS4, but if it ever joins PS+ again, then you’ve got no reason to miss it.