Don't Starve: Console Edition

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 392 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 216 out of 392
  2. Mixed: 116 out of 392
  3. Negative: 60 out of 392

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  1. panel0n
    Jan 20, 2014
    4
    This game uses trial and error as an official gameplay mechanic. Normally its there due to sloppy design, however in here, the developers absolutely planned it. They embrace it. They put it on a pedestal (40YOV reference!).

    Trial and error is a terribly frustrating experience for somebody trying to enjoy a videogame. This game deliberately does not have ANY tutorials whatsoever. You're    This game uses trial and error as an official gameplay mechanic. Normally its there due to sloppy design, however in here, the developers absolutely planned it. They embrace it. They put it on a pedestal (40YOV reference!).

    Trial and error is a terribly frustrating experience for somebody trying to enjoy a videogame. This game deliberately does not have ANY tutorials whatsoever. You're lucky to get a screen showing what the buttons do. You have to learn everything the hard way, meaning by dying because of it and therefore restarting your game from scratch.

    Simple example: You die if night comes and you don't have a light source. Nowhere is this even hinted at. So EVERY SINGLE PLAYER will die on their first play as soon as night comes.

    And thats it, this is how this game works. You play, there'll be something new that wasnt explained, you'll die, now you know something new and you start over from scratch.

    Those will add up to hours and hours of precious life time just lost. For no purpose at all. Which brings me to the other fatal gripe that I have with the game. There is no ending. There is no reward. There are no credits. No satisfaction. THERE IS NO POINT. I don't feel like investing my time on anything thats not going to give me anything back.

    This extreme survival mode should have been just one of the gametypes offered in the game ALONG with a proper campaign that ends.

    I see a lot of people are actually praising the game for the very reasons I hated it. The only thing I can say to that is... Well, we all like different things :D    … Expand
  2. jp_fal
    Jan 26, 2014
    4
    Quite a grim depressing atmosphere. Starting from scratch after each death made me feel like I was completely wasting my time. And introducing killer hounds just when things start to go well was the last straw. Quite an unsatisfying experience.
  3. Jase
    Jan 11, 2014
    2
    This game is basically a dead end (no pun intended).

    Let me first start with what I like about the game 1) The art is good, very Tim Burton-esque. 2) The concept is good but needs to be tweaked to allow you to play on after death. What I did not like: 1) Inventory system is horrific, and not adequate for the amount of items you essentially have to carry. 2) If you die, there is    This game is basically a dead end (no pun intended).

    Let me first start with what I like about the game 1) The art is good, very Tim Burton-esque. 2) The concept is good but needs to be tweaked to allow you to play on after death.

    What I did not like: 1) Inventory system is horrific, and not adequate for the amount of items you essentially have to carry. 2) If you die, there is no resurrecting (other than if you happened to build something that allows so in-game). You have to start all over and do not maintain any of the recipes, exploration or anything else that you may have discovered. 3) The controls are clunky in general.

    Suggestions I have would be to allow some sort of save at some point (make it 7 days, 14 days, even a month, but something). Now I am sure many of you will say that this is what makes the game so great, that you have to be critical and precise with everything you do, but this aspect really kills it for me with replay value. I have no interest in spending the first hour or two over and over again finding and crafting the basics to return to where I was.

    If the graphics were not interesting and as they are the game would have received a 1. I really wanted to like this game, and did for the first few tries, but it quickly became boring a repetitious. I'll stick to something else for now.    … Expand
  4. Evil_Henry
    Jan 9, 2014
    3
    Happily sat down to play this and, after an hour I had my science machine, a set of clothing and an array of weapons and traps. The problem, however, was that I realised I hadn't actually enjoyed myself at all. I love the art style, I think the quips of the gentleman scientist are excellent, but they all served to blind me to the fact that the game isn't actually any fun. It's one of thoseHappily sat down to play this and, after an hour I had my science machine, a set of clothing and an array of weapons and traps. The problem, however, was that I realised I hadn't actually enjoyed myself at all. I love the art style, I think the quips of the gentleman scientist are excellent, but they all served to blind me to the fact that the game isn't actually any fun. It's one of those games where you end up thinking, "I definitely enjoy games more than this, don't I?". In summary, I felt that a decent chunk of my evening had been squandered.… Expand
  5. tingle
    Jan 12, 2014
    4
    How do you turn Tim Burton's 2d answer to Minecraft into infuriating garbage? Permadeath.

    At first it will be boring and hard scavenging supplies. Than you will be driven and make a farm, full of food making contraptions vast groves of berries creating new weapons clothes and devices to protect against the elements. Walls for safety and a spectacular base to provide safety after    How do you turn Tim Burton's 2d answer to Minecraft into infuriating garbage? Permadeath.

    At first it will be boring and hard scavenging supplies.

    Than you will be driven and make a farm, full of food making contraptions vast groves of berries creating new weapons clothes and devices to protect against the elements. Walls for safety and a spectacular base to provide safety after long days out scavenging and exploring ruins in this weird wild world. You will shave beefalo and ambush spiders hunt wild turkey and trap rabbits which you will use to make a magic hat.

    All to assemble scattered pieces of your machine that got you here, than teleport to the next world which will be harder and harder.

    Sounds like a 10 right?

    wrong, permadeath, no finding your corpse and looting it or going back to your house. When you die which is VERY easy due to clunky controls, you start over from level 1 with nothing. Like losing your last life on an NES game. After 10 hours of work over 3 days you will be right back where you started.

    This game has a LOT of potential, ruined by one fatal flaw. Although these purely random Toejam and earl style worlds are neat they are wildly disjointed, but that's the fun of taming them.

    Don't get to attached to your pet beefalo, you die, you can't go back to your last save you are DEAD and it auto saves it and you have nothing.

    I love the idea, would love a sequel, hell just an update to bring this game the feature we have all enjoyed since 1987's legend of Zelda.    … Expand
  6. Davethemaverick
    Jan 9, 2014
    1
    It's ok for about half an hour and that is it. I really hope ps4 improves its ps plus. Painful going from 3 quality games for the ps3 to 1 sort of mini game on the ps4! You would never pay for this it's just a download play once then delete.
  7. DOSfan
    Jan 11, 2014
    4
    what a let down. this game came out 5 months ago on PC, it's been easy to get for about $2.50 via trading on steam for AGES. on top of that it's nowhere near a next gen game. this could run on PS3 no problem...

    it's basically a bit better graphics than a flash game. the gameplay is ok, but like i said it's been old news for a while. this isn't really how to win customers over. pretty weak.
  8. Mattaclysm
    Jan 9, 2014
    1
    Having read about this game late and all the comparisons to minecraft and terraria the whole time I spent playing Don't Starve I felt like this was my type of game - but unfortunately I just didn't find it very fun. It felt like something was missing to make the game complete for me. Lack of online leaderboards and cooperative play make gameplay feel meaningless. A leveling up system IHaving read about this game late and all the comparisons to minecraft and terraria the whole time I spent playing Don't Starve I felt like this was my type of game - but unfortunately I just didn't find it very fun. It felt like something was missing to make the game complete for me. Lack of online leaderboards and cooperative play make gameplay feel meaningless. A leveling up system I thought ok this might be kind of fun you level up and you can probably survive longer right? Wrong. All it does is unlocks more characters, which don't take very long to unlock, I decided to try other characters in hopes that the game would suck less. Unfortunately this was not the case. I'm very glad I didn't have to pay for this game having PS plus because had I spent anything on it I'd have been absolutely disgusted. I spent about 15 hours playing this game and the one thing that I could say is trying not to starve is incredibly boring.… Expand
  9. asfj
    Nov 20, 2014
    0
    This is the MOST repetitive game I have ever ever played.

    And the game has lots of annoying inconvenience. For example, you can only craft advanced items near a science machine, forcing you to build lots of machines over the map if you don't want to waste time traveling far back to a machine, but the trade-off is repeatedly picking and chopping materials for a new machine. The map is    This is the MOST repetitive game I have ever ever played.

    And the game has lots of annoying inconvenience. For example, you can only craft advanced items near a science machine, forcing you to build lots of machines over the map if you don't want to waste time traveling far back to a machine, but the trade-off is repeatedly picking and chopping materials for a new machine.

    The map is unnecessarily big. What is worse is the map is randomly created each time, so for every new game, you have to waste lots of time to investigate where to go for certain materials. And there is no way for fast travel except those randomly set bug holes.

    The most annoying thing is storage. The portable bag storage is far from enough, so I always have to drop this for that, and when I need this, I have to recollect (of course you can remember the place you dropped the items then travel far back to re-pick them yet wasting time).
    The ridiculous is that the materials will never be rotten(never disappear on ground) and you cant move a chest, so the chest for extra storage totally doesn't make sense. Just think when you want something stored in a particular chest you have been very far from it, so what is difference between storing materials in chest and dropping them on ground?

    Most of time, I feel I am just doing the same thing again and again rather than the sense of progression.    … Expand
  10. Turbodowg
    Feb 13, 2015
    1
    Don't Starve is the opposite I wanted to do after this game. It made me want to starve my self to death out of complete lack of faith in humanity. This ugly little mess of a game had me so bored the idea of spending 24 hours staring at a blank wall seemed more entertaining.

    The graphics are so bad and lifeless and crude I felt sick looking at them. The design of the protagonist looks    Don't Starve is the opposite I wanted to do after this game. It made me want to starve my self to death out of complete lack of faith in humanity. This ugly little mess of a game had me so bored the idea of spending 24 hours staring at a blank wall seemed more entertaining.

    The graphics are so bad and lifeless and crude I felt sick looking at them. The design of the protagonist looks like one of those badly drawn characters you find on the front of 80's burger meals in cheap take aways.

    The environments are so bland and dull to look at I felt like I was forming a severe case of manic depression looking at them.

    The music score is non existent and the sound effects are primitive.

    The game it's self is more of a bad concept than a completed game. It feels like a beta for a very poor free to play mobile phone game. Luckily I got it free but even then if there was a way I could get a refund for the miserable 1 hour I put into this game I would claim it back.

    The gameplay is like a cruel twist on MineCraft. A bleak lifeless twist on MineCraft. The aim is to collect, craft and stay alive. Perma-Death occurs if you make a mistake and it's back to the begging of this awful game to carry on playing in the world which is as bland as cardboard.

    And that's it, nothing else to it. Anyone who is tricked into thinking this game has depth has been seriously fooled. The creator is laughing to the bank. As I cannot see this game taking anymore than a week to create.

    Avoid at all costs if you want gaming to progress. Rubbish like this is the thorn in the side of gaming and has stopped progression in recent years. So if you want gaming to continue in the future don't invest in games like this so the greedy creators will stop publishing and we can all get back to playing real games again.    … Expand
  11. drlowdon
    Oct 24, 2016
    4
    Rouge-likes are by their nature very repetitive experiences with death generally meaning starting all over from scratch and, as a result, the game will live or die by how enjoyable its minute to minute gameplay is. In the case of Just Starve I personally found said gameplay too simplistic and reliant on trial and error (particularly early on) and I ended up spending more time beingRouge-likes are by their nature very repetitive experiences with death generally meaning starting all over from scratch and, as a result, the game will live or die by how enjoyable its minute to minute gameplay is. In the case of Just Starve I personally found said gameplay too simplistic and reliant on trial and error (particularly early on) and I ended up spending more time being frustrated than I did actually enjoying what I was doing. There does seem to be plenty of depth hidden away within the game and, perhaps given more time, I'd have found it a more rewarding experience but if a game does grab my attention after 2-3 hours of playing it I'll move on to something else.… Expand
  12. Runfocovah
    Mar 28, 2014
    3
    This game its not for everyone.. not even me. Not fun at all. You die a lot but you never get that understanding or experience feeling like in Dark souls.
    Playing it feels like a chore, Its annoying, boring and frustrating. Got it for free with my PSN plus and I deleted it right away.
  13. cliff96
    Feb 5, 2014
    4
    Don't Starve has some fun elements. It's easy to draw some parallels to Minecraft but there's clearly more pressure here. I found myself very frustrated and ill-at-ease with this game. If I had a poor spawn point with low resources, you run around aimlessly until you luck-out or die. If the pressure was taken down a few notches, I think I could enjoy this title. As is, it was tooDon't Starve has some fun elements. It's easy to draw some parallels to Minecraft but there's clearly more pressure here. I found myself very frustrated and ill-at-ease with this game. If I had a poor spawn point with low resources, you run around aimlessly until you luck-out or die. If the pressure was taken down a few notches, I think I could enjoy this title. As is, it was too stressful for my leisure time. In the games defense, I only played for one afternoon before throwing in the towel.… Expand
  14. Jovuto
    Feb 22, 2014
    3
    Gameplay: Nothing interesting to see here. Just another twist on the Minecraft/survival/"lel so indie" trends we've been seeing for the past 5 years.
    Although, I'll admit that the game can cause serious urgency when the character's sanity gets low.
    But that hardly effects the gameplay. Unlike Minecraft, it is a very hectic game and requires the player to focus on multiple things at    Gameplay: Nothing interesting to see here. Just another twist on the Minecraft/survival/"lel so indie" trends we've been seeing for the past 5 years.
    Although, I'll admit that the game can cause serious urgency when the character's sanity gets low.
    But that hardly effects the gameplay.
    Unlike Minecraft, it is a very hectic game and requires the player to focus on multiple things at once. However, after doing this again and again, it can get very boring.

    Gameplay: 0/10

    The controls are near perfect. However, it took me a while to figure out how to set traps in this game. It would've been easier to work out, if there was a prompt to set the trap.
    Also, walking around would feel more satisfying if the walking animation was more fluid.

    Controls: 8/10

    Yet again, the art style is also a rip off. The game tries to capture the Tim Burton aesthetic. And although it works well with the themes of this game, it's certainly not original.

    Aesthetic: 6/10

    This game is an indie, so it isn't aiming for a huge technical/graphical target. The game works well, 1080p and 60fps, and I have not encountered any glitches.

    Technical: N/A

    Although the music works well for the game, the sound effects can become annoying (especially the main character's voice.)

    Sound and Music: 3/10

    There are no tutorials. No effort has been made to teach the player how to play the game. Abysmal.

    User Experience.Tutorials: 0/10

    For an 2D indie game with a false portrayal of length, I wouldn't pay more than £5 for this game. It's £12. Abysmal.

    Price: 1/10

    Overall I think that this game is not for me. But I think that other people could easily enjoy this game if they have the patience to play it over and over again and is willing to pay for the absurd price.

    Overall: 3/10    … Expand
  15. Karimchii
    Mar 31, 2014
    4
    I understand the appeal, but I found it to be rather boring, was just a scavenging game with a basic 'Rinse, Lather, Repeat' type of play, constantly building fires and making axes. I don't like the fact that when you die you loose everything and I really didn't enjoy it overall.

    However the game is aesthetically pleasing and can be fun if it is to your taste, however it wasn't to mine
  16. ujinroth
    Apr 3, 2015
    4
    This game needs an appropriate inventory system, and more information about what you have to do or craft or go, without, it doesn't make enough sens to get into it, and cutting a billion trees for hours won't help to think it worth it but makes you think this is another overestimated "'"game?"''.

Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Best PS4 Game of 2014
45
#45 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2014
56
#56 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
  1. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Feb 27, 2014
    90
    Great games have a simple concept and message. Don’t Starve will leave you feeling full. [March 2014, p78]
  2. LaPS4
    Feb 26, 2014
    77
    Don't Starve is a tremendously addictive game where the fight for the survival, mixed with exploring several places with its own magic, throw the player into searching every corner of the map. However, it is extremely hard from the very beginning, so there will be many players thinking twice before going on with their adventures.
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  3. Level7.nu
    Feb 16, 2014
    80
    Probably not a game for everyone. The pace can at times be very low, and the developers could've thrown in more surprises. But it's a title that is hard to put down once you've gotten into it.
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