Subsistence

I'm writing this review since it bothered me to see its "mixed" score from recent reviews.
This game is named Subsistence for a reason. It's a slow paced game where you'll literally live a virtual life as a survivor fighting the environmental challenges of seasons, wildlife and scavenging. That means it's a heavy grind game, you won't be building your vehicle so soon and that's why the sense of accomplishment every time you get something is much more satisfying. Because it literally took years to get it.
You can turn off hunters for an even more chilling experience where all you'll do is listen to the environment sounds (no background music, love it) and live your routine of grinding. I personally leave them activated but only in revenge mode, that way there's that additional challenge whenever I have to dive down to the underground caves searching for minerals that are obtainable only there and makes the modern weaponry available worth grinding and upgrading.
One more thing that people should know before bashing the game is that ColdGames is a one-man-army company. Yeah, you heard it right: a single human work. While there are a lot of games out there backed up by teams of dozens that are sh1et compared to this one and provides nothing new, we are periodically getting new stuff, fixes and answers whenever we ask for something. Take this into consideration before going after the guy to complain about something specially if it isn't game-breaking stuff.
If you are looking for a more action paced game with more fighting/shooting, low grinding system and shortcuts to get your stuff you'll most likely be disappointed but I still recommend you to try it. You might get surprised with how this can be relaxing if you're not the type of person that focus on getting to highly-optimized-meta-endgame as quickly as possible and are just looking for something to spend some time chilling.

Subsistence is the only game where I can wake up, stretch, breathe in the crisp morning air, and immediately get mauled by a wolf I didn’t even see. And honestly? That’s part of the charm.
This game throws you into the wilderness with nothing but hope, anxiety, and the world’s weakest starter axe. From that moment on, it becomes a daily battle between me and literally everything that moves. Wolves? Violent. Bears? Violent. Chickens? Surprisingly judgmental. The weather? Also violent.
Building a base in Subsistence feels like constructing a luxury home out of pure spite. Every plank of wood is a victory. Every wall is a middle finger to nature. My base starts as a sad little rectangle, but after hours of grinding, panicking, and screaming, it becomes a slightly less sad rectangle with a door. Progress.
And the hunters? Oh, the hunters. These dudes show up like they’re on a corporate team‑building retreat and I’m the icebreaker activity. They roll up, shoot at me, steal my dignity, and leave. Meanwhile, I’m crouched behind a bush eating raw berries like a feral woodland creature.
But here’s the thing: I love it. I love the chaos. I love the suffering. I love the fact that every day in Subsistence feels like a new episode of “Will Alan Survive or Will a Bear End His Career Again.”
The game is unforgiving, unpredictable, and occasionally rude — but it’s also incredibly satisfying. Every tiny win feels like I’ve conquered the universe. Every time I don’t die, I feel like a genius. Every time I do die, I blame the wolf because it’s never my fault.
Subsistence isn’t just a survival game.
It’s a psychological experiment, and I am failing beautifully.

td;dr - I like the game, it's fun, it has depth, it's challenging and for the most part there's no glaring bugs. (Yes, there are still a few.) And I like the survival ("mode") aspect of it. I'm proud of the stuff that I've built because I had to work hard to scrounge up all the resources to do it!
The Good:
- It's very open world - there's a lot you can do.
- There's lots of variety of weapons, building components and wildlife.
The Bad:
- It's a grind, then it's a grind, then, oh look, it's a grind again. You're always grinding for something - but to some extent you have to expect that or the game is too easy. I'm at "mid game" right now and I'm feeling like it's very hard to get ahead. You have to grind so hard to get so little - and add to that some items are seasonal, so if you don't find enough you have to wait a whole year.
- Some of the upgrades aren't really balanced. For example, it costs slightly less "resources" (collectively) to build 3 windmills than to completely upgrade 2 to get the same power output. And seeing as you can place them basically right "on top of each other", there's no incentive to upgrade them.
What I'd like to see:
- Music. There's some in the demo here on Steam - I'd love to have a soundtrack with the game.
- An in-game help system! Even a "sandbox" to try out everything. I had no clue how to throw a grenade the first time I got one out of a crate. I'd even love to practice shooting and changing weapons and shooting again (that darn moose...). Most of the knowledge I have about the game has been from rummaging around in it, and then if I couldn't figure it out, I'm on the Wiki or the Discord (both great places, don't get me wrong).
- Perhaps slightly less of a death penalty. Moose and cougar hunting is extremely dangerous before you have an "8 star" upgraded rifle, and the animal has killed you twice or more.
- Higher chance of receiving Weapon Parts in the big "Locked Crates" - otherwise you have to farm hunters just to get parts to upgrade your weapons, let alone build the ones from the workbench.
- Binoculars or a Spy Glass - use crystal, scrap metal, and cloth at a workbench. I'd love to be able to zoom in a lot more to see hunter bases and stuff farther away.
- Maybe have some sort of a skill based personal improvement system. I'd really love to be able to find cotton plants better, or track animals. I've been doing it for over 100 days now (4 in-game years), I've got to be getting better at it, right?
- Maybe (wishful thinking), bigger backpacks that the hunters drop when they die with a slightly wider variety of items in them. I mean, ooooo, two stacks of a single 9mm Bullet (one 9mm Round in two of the six backpack slots), or three stacks of 10ish pieces of fiber - really?! These guys were SHOOTING BACK AT ME! I'd rather just pick up the fiber off the ground, it's less likely to kill me. Especially when they have unlimited ammo, and I've had to scrounge up the 4 pieces of ammo I have in my kit... for... fiber.
In the end:
- I rant, but I also have fun. I have troubles, but so far none that's made me want to rage quit, or even just quit. I AM making progress, it's just really slow. I'm still dying way too often (3 times to bag a moose :P), but by now I'm more often than not getting what I had set out to get (that Roast Ribs and Vegetables is a great meal, even if I'm only getting 3 Sinew out of that hulking beast). I'm still learning things and progressing - though sometimes I wish I could re-load the game because I did something stupid.
Should you get it?
- Yes, it's fun. It's solo and/or multiplayer. You'll have fun with it for a long time. There's skins if you're in to that thing. The developer is good - he listens to his players and occasionally comes out with cool new things the player base wasn't expecting.

I really can't say anything negative against the game. It's pretty much just a hard core survival game where it's hard not to die numerous times. There can be some pretty harsh penalties for dying - such as the loss of what appears to be about 30% of the items ON your character, and you can end up respawning a LONG ways away from where you died. If you died at night or during the winter, then good luck making it back to your corpse before dying again, or dying multiple times. Also, it "appears" that after a certain number of deaths, when you respawn, you respawn without the beginner pistol and with a virus that reduces your health and stamina by 30% as well. So far the virus has not been easy for me to cure in the early game as it requires some resources, such as fish oil, that can only be found by harvesting fish. In the early game it's challenging to get food, particularly protein, so those fish become vital sources of protein to help keep you alive. Anyway, the game is about prioritizing choices and options that can help keep you alive, and while still learning it's not always obvious what some of those priorities should be.

I enjoy survival games, and I particularly like that this one is just man against nature and wilderness beasts - no zombies or mythical beasts are out to get you in this one!

For a solo Dev, I'm impressed. I definitely give this game a Thumbs Up!

As a side note, if you purchase the game and it crashes right after the Unreal screen pops up, go into the games discussion boards and head over to the Technical Issues discussion board on the right side of the main boards. There is a thread in there that may be the fix to your problem - it was for mine.

This game offers the real survival concept. It's hard and grindy (not for everyone) but hey if you really want a survival game that has great gameplay this is it. Building a base, farming, foraging, fishing, hunting, exploring underwater caves, and what I like most is raiding enemy base and looting a plane's cargo. No zombies or wierd creepy enemies. It's you vs. the wilderness. I wish the dev make a new content.

I'm surprised the game isn't more popular than it is. It's by far one of the best survival games on the market. And I mean a real survival game. The updates over the years have made the game a much better experience as I'm just coming back to it again now. It's still grindy, which is what I want... but you get much more resources now which is making it a much better experience since it almost took a little too long to gather resources prior. Instead of finding one fibre plant to make rope, you'll find a bush with several. So the grind is still there but it's just much more balanced in terms of loot.

I see a lot of other games struggle with their AI implementations but this dev has been getting it right. They build their own bases, they fish, they hunt, etc... It's quite unique and enjoyable to have them as a threat. You can set it so they don't attack you unless you attack them first, which is a great option to add for players.

In terms of survival mechanics, it's quite vast. You build plant beds for crops, diving tanks to go under water to search for underwater caves for more resources, generators to supply the base with power, fridge, stove, difference types of workbenches depending on what you're building.

I honestly think this game should be in every survival game players library.

Great game, lots of grind and repetitive action but it is true to its name and it holds subsistence and rng loot bags as its core gameplay loop. It is possible to thrive in this game, I swear it is... but it has taken me just over 300 hours to figure out how. I love this game. It feels like an extension of reality that might seem basic on the surface but requires real strategy, critical thinking, patience, and quick execution to succeed. It makes you feel the way you should feel in a true to life survival setting. Every bullet is like gold in the early game. Every morsel of meat is to be cherished should you live to see the sun rise again. You earn what you have and you work for what you need. You want for little if you aim to thrive. I could go on but I reccomend this for the person that dislikes Green Hell and similar games for the over complicated and ill explained inventory/crafting systems and yet also turns away from the minecraft, valheim, and even don't starve for their respective lack of depth in the very core element of subsistence (The very definition of subsistence, not the game.) This game is fair yet brutally difficult. It will punish any and every mis step. It is the dark souls of survival games. It may not seem like it at first, but the sheer prospect of a 100 day run with 0 deaths is genuinely unimagineable to me and I would be shocked if someone managed it on hardcore. Give it a go if you have patience and a love for the realistic approach. Again if you look past specific gameplay elements and instead focus on how the game makes you feel for a methodical and strategical approach to survival... you will realize why this game is a GOLDMINE among fields of coal D:. Happy Surviving.. erm.. Subsisting!!




PS. ColdGames please add large ore deposits for all the basic ores like: iron, copper, potassium, etc.. down in the caves. They should be hefty and take lots of durability to mine but reward large amounts of the ore in question. This would be a great way to round out the caves and make them worth the time and resources!! Cheers m8 great game 10/10.