Subsistence

About

Subsistence is a single player and multiplayer survival shooter game. It was developed by ColdGames and was released on October 25, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"Subsistence is a challenging, open-world survival game with dynamic seasons and weather. Build and defend your base, gather resources, and develop technology while contending with AI hunters and the elements. Engage in resource gathering, farming, and animal husbandry for sustenance. Co-op and single-player options available. Current features include crafting, AI base building, weapon upgrades, and more."

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70%

Audience ScoreBased on 7,408 reviews

gameplay222 positive mentions

grinding835 negative mentions

The game offers a challenging and immersive survival experience, requiring players to gather resources and manage their needs carefully.
The graphics and environment are beautifully designed, creating an engaging atmosphere that enhances gameplay.
The developer is responsive to community feedback and regularly updates the game, adding new content and features.

The game is excessively grindy, with resource requirements that feel unbalanced and make progression frustratingly slow.
Wildlife encounters are often unfair, with animals that can kill players quickly and respawn mechanics that can lead to repeated deaths.
There is a lack of tutorials or guidance for new players, making the initial experience overwhelming and difficult to navigate.

grinding
837 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game is a major point of contention among players, with many describing it as excessively tedious and time-consuming. While some appreciate the challenge and find satisfaction in the grind, others feel it detracts from the overall enjoyment, leading to frustration and a sense of unfulfillment. The resource acquisition process, particularly in the early game, is often criticized for being overly reliant on luck and requiring significant effort for minimal rewards, making it a polarizing feature for potential players.
- “But it's not grinding for the sake of grinding.”
- “The game is so grindy that it feels not worth starting another playthrough, so after 137 hours I am effectively done with the game.”
- “Nearly every tool, recipe, and structure requires hours on hours of grinding and searching for the most basic of resources that should be abundant in the world.”
- “The grinding was no lie; it takes a lot of grinding to make something nice, base-wise.”
gameplay
780 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
64%
8%
The gameplay of "Subsistence" is characterized by a mix of intriguing survival mechanics and frustrating grind, with players noting the game's steep learning curve and punishing difficulty, especially in the early stages. While the building and crafting systems are praised for their depth and realism, many reviews highlight issues with resource scarcity, clunky controls, and a repetitive gameplay loop that can detract from the overall experience. Despite these challenges, some players find the game rewarding once they adapt to its mechanics, appreciating the immersive environment and the sense of accomplishment that comes with survival.
- “It has some very interesting and realistic mechanics, like temperature management that forces you to build a base to survive, and multiple ways to obtain food and water.”
- “The core of Subsistence is its survival mechanics, and Coldgames has nailed it.”
- “The building mechanics are great, the amount of craftable items is pretty good, there is a decent sense of progression through the game and the survival aspect is one of the hardest I have tried so far without being annoyingly difficult.”
- “Came back 6 years later after I first played it, and he is still doing nothing to improve the pacing of the gameplay whatsoever.”
- “The gameplay is a little slow for my taste, and resources other than wood seem to be way too scarce, even on the easiest of settings.”
- “What could have been an immersive survival experience is overshadowed by the game’s punishing mechanics and tedious gameplay loop.”
graphics
581 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
34%
7%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the beautiful environmental visuals and atmospheric effects, particularly in terms of lighting and detail. However, some users criticize the character models and animations as outdated or lacking polish, suggesting that while the game has potential, it still requires optimization and improvements in certain areas. Overall, the graphics are generally considered good for an early access title, especially given that it is developed by a single person, but there are notable inconsistencies that detract from the overall experience.
- “The graphics are absolutely amazing for being early access!”
- “The graphics are stunning, water and foliage textures are fantastic, surpassing a lot of current games that need higher spec machines.”
- “The graphics are beautiful and the play style is very user intuitive.”
- “The graphics are completely inadequate for the tasks needed to survive.”
- “Graphics are from some age long gone by about 15 - 20 years ago.”
- “The graphics are so-so.”
story
152 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
73%
18%
The game's story aspect is largely criticized for its absence, with many players noting that there is no clear narrative, quests, or tutorial to guide them. While some appreciate the freedom to create their own story through survival gameplay, others find the lack of context and objectives frustrating, leading to a sense of aimlessness. Overall, the consensus is that a more developed storyline or quest system could enhance the experience, especially as the game is still in early access.
- “If they ever had a second game with a story, I would definitely look forward to it.”
- “Hell, if they add a good story, then this game has the potential to surpass the legends I have named and become the leader of survival games.”
- “A nice addition would be a storyline of why the avatar is in the situation of survival.”
- “Storyline - zero. I couldn't even get past the first hour of this game before I just gave up.”
- “After almost a decade of 'early access', the game still has no backstory.”
- “There is no storyline as to why you are there or quests to complete or even really an end game.”
stability
126 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
3%
80%
The stability of the game has received mixed feedback from users. While some players report a smooth experience with few glitches, others highlight significant bugs that can disrupt gameplay, such as issues with AI behavior, inventory management, and server stability. Overall, the game shows promise but requires further polishing to address the various glitches and bugs that affect the player experience.
- “Great graphics, no glitches in almost 4 hours, 7 player multiplayer worked perfectly on a G-Portal dedicated server.”
- “For an alpha stage game, it is surprisingly bug free.”
- “Overall I am happy with the game, it is relatively speaking fairly bug free, plays quite smoothly even on older hardware and has some nice features, different difficulty modes along with the ability to turn the hostile human NPCs on or off and alter their behavior regarding how they interact with the player.”
- “It's an early access game with an insane amount of grind that glitches often.”
- “Very buggy and lacks proper programming; when you try to get out of the water, it glitches and you're stuck inside the lake. On top of this, on easy mode, the lack of fibers and products causes you to crash and die.”
- “The game is still an incredibly buggy mess.”
optimization
117 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
49%
16%
The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing smooth performance and high frame rates, while others report significant stuttering and poor optimization, even on high-end systems. Many users note that the game has improved over time with updates, but issues persist, particularly for those with lower-end hardware. Overall, while some players find it well-optimized for an early access title, others feel it still requires substantial work to enhance performance and stability.
- “The game itself is incredibly optimized for an early access game; I was running it at 60 frames plus on the highest settings.”
- “The updates and additions to the game (holy huge map) and optimization are insane.”
- “Game performance is quite good considering the overall gameplay.”
- “It is a very cookie-cutter survival game that is horribly optimized and can only be run on the lowest settings possible.”
- “Single person dev team, in development for over 4 years, still getting strong updates, but very rough gameplay, poorly optimized graphics with low visual fidelity and very poor FPS.”
- “Not only is the game horribly optimized, but the game just wasn't fun.”
atmosphere
56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
64%
31%
5%
The atmosphere in the game is widely praised for its immersive and beautiful world, enhanced by excellent sound design and dynamic weather that contribute to a sense of realism and tension. Players appreciate the engaging environment, which feels alive and adds depth to the survival experience, despite some criticisms regarding gameplay mechanics. Overall, the game's atmospheric qualities are considered a standout feature, making it a memorable and captivating experience for players.
- “One of the things I really enjoy is the world itself—it's immersive, atmospheric, and feels alive.”
- “The atmosphere in this game is really realistic.”
- “The visuals range from mediocre character and animal models to quite spectacular and atmospheric environments, particularly at dawn and dusk - the sunlight streaming through the trees is worth taking a moment to admire, as long as you're not being chased by an angry bear at the time.”
- “The world is covered, like every inch, with wolves and bears which ruins any atmosphere there might be with their janky AI behavior and overabundance.”
- “Don't get me wrong, they're decent graphics but it looks and feels lifeless if you ask me; no atmosphere, it clearly still needs a lot of work.”
- “The crafting materials required are all over the place in an unbelievably unbalanced and unrewarding fashion to attempt at creating the 'survival' atmosphere for the game.”
humor
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
92%
8%
The humor in this game is a standout feature, with players frequently noting its absurdity and comedic moments, particularly in multiplayer settings. Many find the game's mechanics, such as resource management and NPC behavior, to be hilariously unbalanced, leading to amusing situations that keep players laughing. Overall, the blend of dark humor and ridiculous scenarios contributes to a fun and entertaining experience, especially when shared with friends.
- “Your ability to survive is 100% dependent on what technology you possess - which is hilarious, since the game starves you of resources.”
- “It's quite hilarious and you will be left laughing for days.”
- “The death sequence when failing to kill a moose is hilarious.”
- “This game is so imbalanced it's not funny.”
- “Not funny, not good in any way.”
- “I have died so many times that it is not funny, and I have yet to find a single body or what I dropped.”
replayability
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
40%
12%
The game is praised for its high replayability, with many players noting that the dynamic world and various challenges ensure that no two playthroughs are the same. While some users mention the need for improvements in loot tables and crafting resources to enhance enjoyment, the overall sentiment is that the game offers endless replay value and keeps players engaged with its evolving content and challenges.
- “The dynamic world means no two playthroughs are ever the same, making subsistence a game with high replayability.”
- “A cracking game with infinite replayability.”
- “They have done a great job in making this a fun and replayable game; you can feel the care and attention that has been given to this game.”
- “Honestly would be $50-60 even for replayability, but I'm cheap.”
- “$13 might be a little steep for this thing when I spent $10 (first beta releases) on Minecraft back in the day and it kept me going back for years of replay value.”
- “Have played this as early access... polished, smooth with endless replayability and challenging elements.”
monetization
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
14%
76%
The monetization aspect of the game has received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with many users labeling it a "cash grab" due to aggressive microtransactions and misleading advertising. Critics express frustration over the lack of essential features and updates, suggesting that the developers prioritize profit over player experience. However, a few users believe that the game has potential and is not solely focused on monetization, indicating a divide in player sentiment.
- “The game is underrated as there is no advertising and is made by one person, but that one person has, in my opinion, made one of the best games ever.”
- “In-app purchases for early access game.”
- “Just another cash grab, total garbage.”
- “And looking at the microtransactions added before the game has even left the 'alpha' stage, it's very clear where the developers' priorities lie.”
- “This game is abandoned; it's a big cash grab, avoid at all costs.”
music
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
62%
19%
The game's music aspect is largely absent, with many players noting the lack of a soundtrack, which contrasts with the upbeat music featured in the trailer. While some appreciate the environmental sounds for creating a chilling atmosphere, others express a desire for a more immersive musical experience, suggesting that the addition of music could significantly enhance the game's overall feel. Overall, the current absence of music has led to mixed feelings, with players hoping for future updates to include a soundtrack.
- “The music is subtle, yet it enhances the feeling of isolation and danger.”
- “Other than that, if you like relaxing for about an hour or two before being attacked, just building a base and looting while listening to music like you're playing Neo Scavenger except without the base building, then this game is for you.”
- “- a simple radio would bring a chilling soundtrack for your base during the days or nights.”
- “1) No music in this game.”
- “Music, audio: there's no music.”
- “A simple radio would bring a chilling soundtrack for your base during the days or nights.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional response to the game is largely negative, with players expressing frustration over the lack of difficulty and customization options, which detracts from their overall enjoyment. While some aspects, like basebuilding mechanics, are praised, the overall sentiment leans towards disappointment, leading to a reluctance to recommend the game.
- “I am so glad to give this game a thumbs down after the way it made me feel.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
33%
Users express dissatisfaction with the character development in the game, noting that the character design lacks appeal and that they are seeking a more engaging experience. Overall, there is a desire for deeper character development to enhance the gameplay.
- “The character development in this game is incredibly engaging, allowing players to form deep connections with the characters.”
- “I love how the characters evolve throughout the story, making each decision feel impactful and meaningful.”
- “The depth of character backstories adds so much richness to the gameplay experience.”
- “Need character development too... oh well, I'll keep looking for another game. One day I'll find something fun like Remnant (which is unfortunately not finished enough yet but very fun).”