Survival Vacancy

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In "Survival Vacancy," you play as a skilled engineer during a nuclear war, tasked with saving as many survivors as possible by building an underground city. You'll need to create shelter, automate production lines, manage food and resources, and ensure the health and skills of your survivors, all while balancing the size of your community. Generate electricity, craft components, and create a sustainable environment for your survivors in this 2D side-scrolling automation game.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Reviews

59%

Audience ScoreBased on 108 reviews

graphics8 positive mentions

gameplay3 negative mentions

The game has a lot of potential, especially for fans of automation and crafting games.
The art style is catchy and the gameplay offers interesting challenges with resource management and base building.
The developer is active and responsive, providing updates and engaging with the community, which is promising for future improvements.

The game is unfinished and lacks quality of life improvements, with a clunky interface and a patchy tutorial that leaves players confused.
There are numerous bugs and performance issues that hinder gameplay, making it feel unpolished and frustrating at times.
Many mechanics seem poorly thought out, leading to artificial difficulties and a lack of clarity in gameplay objectives.

graphics
14 mentions
57 % positive mentions
29 % neutral mentions
14 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are generally well-received, with an interesting and catchy art style that enhances its sci-fi atmosphere. However, some players feel that the cartoony visuals resemble those of mid-90s games, which may detract from the overall experience. While the graphics are considered good, there are suggestions for improvements in gameplay to complement the visual appeal.
- “The art style is really catchy.”
- “The graphics are great for its atmosphere.”
- “Graphically it is quite good, but on gameplay it needs a few tweaks!”
- “While the graphics are clearly meant to be cartoony and fun, they just feel like something out of a mid-90s game like Worms.”
- “The game itself is a science fiction factory automation game with side-scrolling graphics.”
gameplay
12 mentions
17 % positive mentions
58 % neutral mentions
25 % negative mentions
Gameplay is hindered by a lacking user interface and a challenging crafting system, with many mechanics feeling underdeveloped and poorly explained. While the initial challenges can be engaging, players often find themselves confused and reliant on external resources for guidance. The recent addition of multiplayer does not introduce new mechanics, leaving much of the gameplay experience feeling incomplete.
- “This is an interesting challenge when first encountered and effectively shapes gameplay once understood.”
- “When I got confused in the game (I found the research mechanic hard to suss out), I went to the developer Discord.”
- “The user interface is severely lacking, the crafting system is difficult to use, and some game mechanics seem like they need to be more thought out.”
- “The last update has provided multiplayer but it didn't add any new mechanics at all.”
- “There's very little information about a lot of the game mechanics, resources, components, machines, etc., you need to figure them out as they go.”
grinding
6 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly when it comes to building automation lines and managing workers with individual stats. The constant need to open and close inventory windows adds to the fatigue, making the overall experience feel laborious.
- “Building actual lines for automation is quite tedious.”
- “Opening and closing inventory windows repeatedly is not fun, and is tediously fatiguing.”
- “The similarities to Oni are that you get workers with their own stats that level up, which you can assign to different productions such as electrical, smithing, farming, and cooking.”
stability
4 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game has been widely criticized for its severe stability issues, with many users reporting it as "incredibly buggy" and "unplayable" in its early stages.
- “Buggy to the point of being unplayable.”
- “*incredibly* buggy early on.”
story
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
150 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is perceived as lacking depth and engagement, with players finding the quests tedious and the gameplay experience marred by clunky controls and monotonous tasks. Overall, it fails to captivate players, leading to a sense of aimlessness during gameplay.
- “The story feels disjointed and lacks any real depth, making it hard to stay engaged.”
- “The quests are repetitive and often lead to long stretches of aimless wandering.”
- “I was expecting a rich narrative, but instead, I found myself bored with the monotonous tasks.”
optimization
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
50 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
Users emphasize the importance of optimization in the game, noting that players must consistently manage and synchronize various elements to achieve optimal performance.
- “You have to think about optimization and keep everything in sync.”
monetization
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The monetization strategy of the game is widely criticized as being a blatant cash grab, suggesting that it prioritizes profit over player experience.
- “A cash grab is all this game is going to be.”