Don't Starve

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1134 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 869 out of 1134
  2. Mixed: 203 out of 1134
  3. Negative: 62 out of 1134

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  1. Wrathzo
    Mar 22, 2022
    7
    Don't Starve is a survival video game developed by Klei Entertainment. The game follows a scientist named Wilson who finds himself in a dark, dreary parallel world known as the Constant and must survive as long as possible. To this end, the player must keep Wilson alive, fed, and mentally stable as he avoids a variety of surreal and supernatural enemies that will try to kill and devourDon't Starve is a survival video game developed by Klei Entertainment. The game follows a scientist named Wilson who finds himself in a dark, dreary parallel world known as the Constant and must survive as long as possible. To this end, the player must keep Wilson alive, fed, and mentally stable as he avoids a variety of surreal and supernatural enemies that will try to kill and devour him. The game's Adventure mode adds depth to the sparse plot and pits Wilson against the game's supposed antagonist, Maxwell.… Expand
  2. TiredAlfred
    Dec 29, 2021
    7
    Assume the role of Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Wilson must learn to utilize his environment and its inhabi
  3. rezo_21
    Sep 18, 2021
    7
    ====================IIIIIIIIII GAME RANK : 65 IIIIIIIIII====================
  4. F3T1W
    Aug 27, 2021
    5
    Not a bad survivor for a couple of nights, the night in this game really makes you tense
  5. Tromble
    Jun 28, 2021
    7
    Don't Starve's greatest strengths are its greatest weaknesses.

    One of the most fun games I have ever played. One of the most frustrating games I have ever played. One of the most flawed games I have ever played.

    I would highly recommend Don't Starve.
  6. ZetaJiffils
    Dec 21, 2019
    5
    Llega a aburrir con el tiempo.
    Escaso de contenido sin dlcs.
    Te matan muy rápido.
    No hay logros para estar en Steam.
  7. Miotke
    Dec 1, 2019
    5
    Meh                                                                                      
  8. LesPaul
    Jun 1, 2019
    5
    A little too simplistic for my taste. Didn't enjoy the art style either, which didn't help matters. But I can understand that others might enjoy this offering.
  9. The_Moon
    Mar 18, 2018
    7
    Soundtrack: 7/10
    Graphics: 10/10
    Story: 5/10 Gameplay: 7/10 The soundtrack gives a nice background to the game but was nothing too special. The graphics were very good, nice hand drawn art style. The story is okay, but it is really hard to get that far because this game has permadeath. It has some crafing and base building gameplay, nothing too unexpected but it is fun. Note, this    Soundtrack: 7/10
    Graphics: 10/10
    Story: 5/10
    Gameplay: 7/10

    The soundtrack gives a nice background to the game but was nothing too special. The graphics were very good, nice hand drawn art style. The story is okay, but it is really hard to get that far because this game has permadeath. It has some crafing and base building gameplay, nothing too unexpected but it is fun. Note, this game is very hard, and to get better you may need to use the wiki for it. This makes me feel that its not worth it to get better and use the wiki, because the game doesn't have much to offer that is very unique, in terms of story or gameplay. I feel like this is just another crafting game that is good, but not great.

    Overall: 7/10    … Expand
  10. bdurmaz
    May 4, 2017
    7
    A really well-designed game. It really gets you in that survival mindset with every detail in it.

    It did, however, lose its effect on me fairly quickly. A few playthroughs and I wasn't eager to start again because of the repetitiveness of its nature.
  11. Marked_One
    Mar 29, 2017
    7
    A nice survival game. The character variety is nice, each one with it's perks and minuses, the gameplay is really good too and it has a good concept. However, the gameplay becomes quickly repetitive (gather food> gather basic resources> build some things> make a fire for the night). A decent game, plagued by repetitiveness.
  12. Gustavodol
    Jul 24, 2016
    7
    O Jogo é Ótimo e vai te fazer gastar horas tentando desbloquear e descobrir tudo que há no jogo, porém, como nada é perfeito, o jogo possui seus males, como as caríssimas DLCs e o Multiplayer, como eu me senti esfaqueado quando descobri que o multiplayer do jogo é um jogo diferente, mas mesmo assim, 10 para a história, 9 para os gráficos, 4 para o preço e 8 para a jogabilidade, o que daO Jogo é Ótimo e vai te fazer gastar horas tentando desbloquear e descobrir tudo que há no jogo, porém, como nada é perfeito, o jogo possui seus males, como as caríssimas DLCs e o Multiplayer, como eu me senti esfaqueado quando descobri que o multiplayer do jogo é um jogo diferente, mas mesmo assim, 10 para a história, 9 para os gráficos, 4 para o preço e 8 para a jogabilidade, o que da uma média de 7/10… Expand
  13. TechJet
    Aug 8, 2015
    6
    Its an ok Survival Rouge like. Its more of a waste of potential then a bad game. Starts off great, but just gets repetitive after a while. The terrain also doesn't look different enough, so it feels your doing the same thing over and over again. While I do enjoy the sanity meter (Which is the only reason I sometimes come back to this game) its been done so much better and feels sortaIts an ok Survival Rouge like. Its more of a waste of potential then a bad game. Starts off great, but just gets repetitive after a while. The terrain also doesn't look different enough, so it feels your doing the same thing over and over again. While I do enjoy the sanity meter (Which is the only reason I sometimes come back to this game) its been done so much better and feels sorta lackluster. If your playing this game for the Sanity bar, then just plug in your GameCube and play the forgotten gem Eternal Darkness.… Expand
  14. Vagoth
    Aug 2, 2014
    7
    Don't Starve is a game crammed with polish and creativity. The art and atmosphere are brilliant. Unfortunately, the game eventually lost me with its tedious foraging system. There are so many fun and original things you can do in this game, but it takes an absurd amount of grinding to get to those things. If the foraging was actually a challenge, the rewards might feel worth the grind,Don't Starve is a game crammed with polish and creativity. The art and atmosphere are brilliant. Unfortunately, the game eventually lost me with its tedious foraging system. There are so many fun and original things you can do in this game, but it takes an absurd amount of grinding to get to those things. If the foraging was actually a challenge, the rewards might feel worth the grind, but the foraging is not challenging, just busy work. I would have put a lot more time into this game if the recipes required fewer ingredients. However, I feel like I must not be exactly the target audience, so for what it is trying to be, Don't Starve succeeds.… Expand
  15. esxdri
    Jul 2, 2014
    7
    Don't Starve - If you see the game for the first time, it looks fun, graphics and simple and nice, idea is good. It's seriously true.

    Don't Starve will be very fun for everyone who likes survival games. You will have to check your hunger, sanity and health, and to balance everything, you will have to eat, as the title says: don't starve. Some food makes you be less hungry, some makes    Don't Starve - If you see the game for the first time, it looks fun, graphics and simple and nice, idea is good. It's seriously true.

    Don't Starve will be very fun for everyone who likes survival games. You will have to check your hunger, sanity and health, and to balance everything, you will have to eat, as the title says: don't starve. Some food makes you be less hungry, some makes you be less sane(you can also see ghosts if you are not sane enough), etc. etc... That's not everything. There is also day-night cycle, summer-winter cycle, the game gets really harder and harder as you keep surviving so be prepared! There is also many characters with unique aspects to unlock as you survive, so the content is huge.

    BUT... At the beginning, you will probably keep dying, then you go play again and find more content, then you die again, start again, find more content, die again, start again, die again... The game gets BORING more and more, because you make something wrong and you have to start again this whole process.
    LUCKILY... There is a Steam workshop, and if you get really bored, go find something that fixes your mood.

    7/10 Try not to starve...    … Expand
  16. lorddragonstar
    Jun 22, 2014
    5
    This game isn't for me, too much time investment and grinding for very little reward. I've never been a fan of rogue-like games so if you're reading this review and you tend not to like rogue like games you might want to pass.

    If you do like rogue like games and wish they had crafting then hey, this is probably going to be a great game for you. I'll stick with    This game isn't for me, too much time investment and grinding for very little reward. I've never been a fan of rogue-like games so if you're reading this review and you tend not to like rogue like games you might want to pass.

    If you do like rogue like games and wish they had crafting then hey, this is probably going to be a great game for you. I'll stick with Terraria/Starbound/Minecraft/etc. to fill my sandbox needs which are in my opinion superior to this game in every way. There are way more 10's given to this game than it deserves.    … Expand
  17. Iluvatar21
    May 3, 2014
    7
    HOW I RATE: 10-9 score: perfect or near-perfect don't exist; 8 score: one of the best games ever. Top score; 7-6 score: great but not one of the best; 5-below score: serious flaws.
    ===========
    Do you like finding new things? Do you fancy the idea of no hand-holding? But do you hate starting all over again if you made a fatal mistake? Also do you hate grinding & repetition? But not the    HOW I RATE: 10-9 score: perfect or near-perfect don't exist; 8 score: one of the best games ever. Top score; 7-6 score: great but not one of the best; 5-below score: serious flaws.
    ===========
    Do you like finding new things? Do you fancy the idea of no hand-holding? But do you hate starting all over again if you made a fatal mistake? Also do you hate grinding & repetition? But not the kind of grinding where you are furious of having to go through the same things again but the kind where you feel you are going somewhere & want to continue deeper?

    If you answered 'Yes' to all of these questions then this game is for you.    … Expand
  18. COD-Master
    Nov 29, 2013
    6
    This game is fun within a few days it gets really repetitive and gets boring it's the same old concept pick grass, mine that, pick that up, trap that, and survive, and all just to survive winter.
  19. Arkan01d
    Nov 20, 2013
    7
    Can a game be good and bad at the same time? To me, Don't Starve fills both roles and leaves me with mixed feelings. This game is fun the first few play through's. You're learning and adapting and dying and all the while it's fun and rewarding. Then you survive your first winter and realize there really isn't much more to the game beyond finding food everyday and picking saplings andCan a game be good and bad at the same time? To me, Don't Starve fills both roles and leaves me with mixed feelings. This game is fun the first few play through's. You're learning and adapting and dying and all the while it's fun and rewarding. Then you survive your first winter and realize there really isn't much more to the game beyond finding food everyday and picking saplings and grass. On my 2nd play through I survived 72 days and ended up committing suicide because the game had lost all meaning.

    The problem is not that the game is bad. The problem is that the game looses it's reward system once you grasp the basics of it. The mood of the game is great, the setting is nice, the art style is spot on, but once you've played for a few hours the wonder ceases. If we look at Minecraft's rewards, yes you spend hours grinding away, mining blocks, but then you turn them into works of art and mechanical systems only limited by your minds eye. If we look at Unreal World, you spend months hauling logs and barely catching enough fish to survive. When you finally get your log cabin built and you spend the first night sleeping, not in a lean to, but a house you built with your own hands and sweat you feel like you really accomplished something.

    Compare that with Don't Starve where you are not able to built a real house, only walls and a floor. No door or bed is included in the crafting recipes. No place to call home. You can make a bed roll that's only good for one night and leaves your overly starving. Or you could build a tent, at a fairly high cost to silk, that only lasts for 6 uses and leaves you begging for food. Yes, sleeping punishes you by making you nearly starve to death. Apparently sleep increases your metabolism five fold. Most nights you will find yourself, waiting till daylight, around a campfire just wasting IRL time.

    All that being said, there is a great game here. It's fun to play, even if it's just for a few hours at a time. There is great potential within it's construct. I really hope the developers continue to expand and provide more rewards to players. At this time I can't suggest buying the game full price. If you find it for under $10 then consider it, otherwise just put this on your wishlist and check back in a year's time to see how it's progressed.    … Expand
  20. pacoda
    Aug 30, 2013
    5
    Its a survival with a dark mood to it. Its just too repetetive though. Especially the first week or so you kind of have to do the exact same things every time you play and it just makes it tedious. I think of you are really into survivals you have to try it though cause it has a lot of cool stuff in it. Good music, mysterious creatures and fauna. It looks original and the lore is creepy!Its a survival with a dark mood to it. Its just too repetetive though. Especially the first week or so you kind of have to do the exact same things every time you play and it just makes it tedious. I think of you are really into survivals you have to try it though cause it has a lot of cool stuff in it. Good music, mysterious creatures and fauna. It looks original and the lore is creepy! It could have been great i suspect but the long start-up that looks the same everytime is moving me away from this game.… Expand
  21. magnum314
    Aug 20, 2013
    6
    This game has a lot of motion, but comparatively little action. Most of the game is grinding to collect, convert, research, and collect, mostly for the sake of itself. Though there are apparently some goals in this game, they are largely player imposed. The only game imposed goal (that I have seen) is to not die (starving, losing health), with anything above and beyond that being driven byThis game has a lot of motion, but comparatively little action. Most of the game is grinding to collect, convert, research, and collect, mostly for the sake of itself. Though there are apparently some goals in this game, they are largely player imposed. The only game imposed goal (that I have seen) is to not die (starving, losing health), with anything above and beyond that being driven by the player. The title says it all Don't Starve setting the goal of avoiding a negative condition. Meeting any positive condition is entirely up to the player.… Expand
  22. jbhungry
    Jul 31, 2013
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I have mixed feelings about this game.

    The few hours of this game is fantastic. The art style is beautiful and unique. A dark, bleak Tim Burton-esque cartoony look. The music is quirky and gets you in the mood. You are placed in the middle of a survival scenario with a short cinematic and no guidance with interesting looking objects to interact with. You are given absolutely no information on the mechanics of the game. There are three meters, health, hunger and sanity, but these are not explained. You are given a menu on the left of objects you can craft and the materials required, which are not many to start with.

    The game is a survival simulator with heavy emphasis on exploration and crafting. Dying is permanent which is made very obvious at the beginning of the game. You will probably die immediately the first night not being told that not having a campfire leads to instant death. Most people will probably die of starvation at some point, they will die when they have their first monster battle without armor, and they will die at the completely arbitrary hound attack that occurs several hours into a playthrough. You lose everything when you die. The early game consists of picking twigs, berries, grass, and collecting wood. You can also dig up grass and saplings to start to cobble a base together. This is time consuming (partially because the animation of picking something which you have to do OVER AND OVER again is somewhat lengthy) and has to be repeated every time you die. You begin to fear death, to the point where you don't want to interact with anything that isn't obviously safe. Now the developer's recommend is to not read the online wiki to preserve mystery. But if death is SO harsh that I don't even want to experiment, is that fun?

    Anyways I finally cave and look up the wiki. There is A LOT to the mechanics of this game. You will not be able to figure it out on your own because it is not really intuitive. I had to read the wiki for hours to get a handle on it. The in game descriptions of objects you can craft are laughably vague.

    Combat is not fun, it is mainly just clicking an enemy over and over, but you are so easily overwhelmed by more than one enemy or a moderately strong enemy that the main strategy is using hit and run tactics, which isn't very gratifying. You can't wear armor and a backpack at the same time, so you have to switch rapidly into armor whenever you have an encounter. The one ranged weapon in the game I managed to build was the boomerang, which has limited uses and DAMAGES you on the way back if you don't "catch" it, which involves hitting the space key which may or may not work. This is not explained anywhere in the game, you have to look that up online.

    The game is very tedious. There wasn't time to explore, nor any great desire to as none of the advanced crafting objects seem like they would make alleviate any of the busy work. You can build a better backpack, but that would slow you down. You could make better armor, but that would slow you down.

    Finally I discovered that there is an active modding community. GREAT! It seems to address a lot of these issues. You can add separate slots for backpacks and amulets. Increase the stack size. Tweak the rate food spoils and how hungry you get. Increase the speed of harvesting grass and saplings. Resurrect at your campsite upon death. Increase the container size. Prevent tools and armor from degrading. This removes A LOT of the tedium from the game, and leaves you free to explore. What you discover however once the busy work is removed is there isn't much else to do. Building the advanced objects are not particularly useful or fun. The combat still is not too much fun. There just isn't any real goal.

    There is an adventure mode that you have to discover in the game that involves finding various objects in special challenging levels that I think complement the game better, but it doesn't solve a lot of the fundamental issues.

    I want this game to be awesome, but it just feels unbalanced and directionless. I find the lack of in game information detracts from the experience. The perma-death and difficulty by obfuscation is enraging and discourages exploration and experimentation. The game has conflicting goals, basically requiring you to set up a base but urging you to explore and be mobile. The crafting and base construction is not rewarding because there is little room for creativity, as most bases will probably look the same between users.

    Perhaps with further updates and more mods this game will become more balanced, fun, and rewarding. But it's hard to recommend at the moment. It's for sure fun and addicting for a few hours. Ultimately it is a frustrating and incomplete experience.    … Expand
  23. Comediatic
    Jul 14, 2013
    6
    Don't Starve incorporates a very interesting gameplay and art design. Hand drawn graphics and art are appreciative and unique. The survival style goal means the main goal of the game. And the music are exceptionally nice. However the extremely repetitive gameplay may meet some people to a boring, expensive game. Your first run may occupy you for hours with excellent survival thoughts andDon't Starve incorporates a very interesting gameplay and art design. Hand drawn graphics and art are appreciative and unique. The survival style goal means the main goal of the game. And the music are exceptionally nice. However the extremely repetitive gameplay may meet some people to a boring, expensive game. Your first run may occupy you for hours with excellent survival thoughts and worrying time decisions. But somehow Don't Starve just doesn't do the deal. It may be another inspiration from Minecraft. But it just doesn't give the same freedom or feel, nor does its title. Don't Starve incorporates unique art and music but lacks gameplay.… Expand
  24. jangers
    Jul 14, 2013
    6
    Don't Starve seems the interesting game. The player is to survive as long as possible in a randomly generated location. Must include build a shelter, get food, build and sustain a fire, build tools, make clothes etc... Still performing the same steps the game becomes boring and the game does not have a deeper storyline and quests
  25. Honeybadgers
    Jun 26, 2013
    6
    The gameplay aspect is pretty much right where I want it. Deep, challenging, and replayable. A few too many "screw you" things that can happen (those tree monsters that follow you until you're dead for no reason) but overall, the gameplay is solid. But the art style is just disgusting to me. It's a game in love with tim burton to a fault. If this game had a decent art style I'd be playingThe gameplay aspect is pretty much right where I want it. Deep, challenging, and replayable. A few too many "screw you" things that can happen (those tree monsters that follow you until you're dead for no reason) but overall, the gameplay is solid. But the art style is just disgusting to me. It's a game in love with tim burton to a fault. If this game had a decent art style I'd be playing it right now, but something about the scribble-doodle art style just doesn't lend itself well towards a game that you're supposed to play again and again. An adventure game? sure. But the gameplay just can't make up for the fact that I feel like I'm playing a papercraft game with art consisting of 15 bucks thrown at deviantart commissions from tim burton fans.… Expand
  26. suneater
    Jun 23, 2013
    7
    An enjoyably hard wilderness survival adventure featuring everyone's favorite excuse for not creating a save system, permadeath! Don't Starve is a great "night cap" game; something you can play for a few in-game days, gathering mats, exploring for monster camps, or just trying to not starve. It's pretty relaxing (at least until winter) just gathering mats, unlocking new recipes andAn enjoyably hard wilderness survival adventure featuring everyone's favorite excuse for not creating a save system, permadeath! Don't Starve is a great "night cap" game; something you can play for a few in-game days, gathering mats, exploring for monster camps, or just trying to not starve. It's pretty relaxing (at least until winter) just gathering mats, unlocking new recipes and creating new tools to help you explore. With seven characters, each with their own personality and advantages, there is tons of replay value with every enormous randomly generated map (or one customized by you) providing new challenges. The most frustrating element isn't the randomization for once; I feel that the permadeath is unnecessary and Don't Starve would benefit more from a checkpoint system.

    Overall this is worth the asking price if you enjoyed Minecraft or Terraria and are looking for a deeper, more difficult single player experience in the survival genre.    … Expand
  27. Pieman067
    Jun 22, 2013
    7
    I have to say that this is a mildly good game, with the exception of somewhat repeating certain thing,
    this isn't like other survival games, because you have to focus on not starving, but it IS only in beta, so it certainly has potential to become a very good game.
  28. AWG
    Jun 8, 2013
    6
    Way too repetitive and random for my tastes. You basically keep doing the same thing over and over and over and if you're lucky you get to find useful thing (to build tools that help you to do that same thing again) and if you're not you die (and then you have to start it all from the very beginning). This game was fun for just a couple of hours, then it became a dead-end job.
  29. cloakandswagger
    May 28, 2013
    5
    I wanted to like Don't Starve. It's a unique and intriguing game with a charming Tim Burtonesque paper art style.

    Unfortunately, the game lacks any sort of significant hook to keep players coming back. After only a few games of Don't Starve I found myself extremely bored with the title as the game lacks addictive qualities. You spend your time in the game picking up resources which    I wanted to like Don't Starve. It's a unique and intriguing game with a charming Tim Burtonesque paper art style.

    Unfortunately, the game lacks any sort of significant hook to keep players coming back. After only a few games of Don't Starve I found myself extremely bored with the title as the game lacks addictive qualities.

    You spend your time in the game picking up resources which are then crafted into tools for survival. This crafting system *could* have been the addictive hook for the game if recipes were kept a mystery ala Minecraft, but you can see all of the components needed for each craftable.

    Each game is spent collecting resources and crafting with no other gameplay elements to speak of. It quickly becomes monotonous and tedious.

    Don't Starve is missing that one last element to make it a fun and engaging game. Multiplayer capabilities, recipe discoveries, end game goals, terrain sculpting, any of these might give it that extra bit of flavor and make the endeavor seem less pointless.

    As it stands the game is just too bland and narrow in scope.    … Expand
  30. sh4dow
    May 26, 2013
    6
    Like some here have already mentioned it takes quite a while and grinding to get a good game going and there are so many things one can do that I spent more time reading guides on the web than actually playing. Which wouldn't be the case if it wasn't a permadeath game. In which case one could just enjoy the great, quirky design and the loads of possibilities of things to do in the world.Like some here have already mentioned it takes quite a while and grinding to get a good game going and there are so many things one can do that I spent more time reading guides on the web than actually playing. Which wouldn't be the case if it wasn't a permadeath game. In which case one could just enjoy the great, quirky design and the loads of possibilities of things to do in the world. But as it stands, I feel way too much pressure that I would want to bother finding out where to get a resource and how to build something.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

72
#72 Best PC Game of 2013
40
#40 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
22
#22 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 33
  3. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. Gamer.nl
    Jul 19, 2013
    80
    Don’t Starve is a game for those who persevere. The infinitely playable survival RPG with an artsy appearance tests your endurance, but rewards players with a surprisingly unique experience.
    Read full review
  2. games(TM)
    Jun 28, 2013
    80
    It's a game that just keeps giving, even as it tears your life from you. [Issue#136, p.110]
    Read full review
  3. Polygon
    Jun 26, 2013
    85
    A refreshingly upfront experience, right down to the title. A game that shoves players into a complex, harsh world with little explanation, it can be tough to parse at first. But little by little, Don't Starve reveals itself via deep mechanics and an ever-evolving world. It started strong and got better.
    Read full review
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