The popularity of survival games has grown exponentially over the past decade or so, to the point wherefinding a good one amongst the hoards of generic clonescan sometimes be pretty difficult. This isn’t at all helped by the fact that many of the very best survival games have a habit of starting out incredibly slowly.
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This is perhaps an unfortunate side-effect of the genre’s core mechanics; with crafting, base building, and, in some instances, even exploration often requiring a considerable amount of both time and resources to achieve. Those who persevere through thesedifficult opening stages, however, can often find an incredible experience that willkeep them entertained for hundreds of hours, if not thousands.
Updated July 03, 2025 by Tom Bowen:When it comes to quality, the survival genre is something of a mixed bag. The apparent ease with which some developers are able to get their games into Steam’s Early Access program has led to an endless sea of unfinished and underdeveloped survival games, in which, players are quite literally drowning. Other survival games suffer from an entirely different problem though, with poor pacing or intense difficulty curves giving players a poor first impression of what is otherwise an excellent and well-developed game. These are the best survival games with the slowest introductions.
12Outward
Fast travel mechanics and quest markerscan be incredibly immersion-breaking, but many now see them as one of gaming’s necessary evils.Outwardis a great example of how important they can be, with their absence in the game making its opening stages considerably more difficult than they really need to be.
Fans of realism may not be too bothered by this, but traversing the game’shuge open-worldfor the first few times can be quite a daunting prospect. Players do not even show up on the map, so, until they’ve familiarized themselves with the landscape and the few notable landmarks it contains, getting from A to B will likely be incredibly time-consuming for those who are new to the game.
11This War of Mine
A lot of video games are criticized for starting out too slowly, but, every once in a while, a developer will release one that does the exact opposite. 11 bit studios' gritty war-themed survival gameThis War of Minethrows players right into the action, and while this can certainly be exhilarating, it can also be a little overwhelming at the same time.
To be clear,This War of Mineisn’t a particularly complicated game, but learning how to play it is still going to take most players a fair chunk of time. Once they’ve gotten over the learning curve, however, they’ll finda harrowing and thought-provoking experiencethat will stick with them for far longer than any lingering feelings of frustration that may have been borne from the game’s challenging opening.
10The Long Dark
One of the things that really setsThe Long Darkapart from its peers is its excellent story mode. Unlike many of the other titles that populate the crowded genre, players are constantly being provided with objectives and will often find themselves pushing onward just to find out how the next story beat is going to unfold. This does introduce one or two problems though.
While the latter stages of the story are incredibly fast-paced and well written, the first few episodes were a little dry at launch. Although the team at Hinterland Studio has since addressed this to some extent, it still takes quite a while for the game to establish a compelling narrative that’s really worthy of any further investigation.
9Subnautica
One ofSubnautica’s biggest strengths is its depth, with players given a seemingly endless ocean to explore and survive in. In the game’s early stages, however, the extent to which players are able to survey these depths is severely limited bythe technology and oxygen capacity that they have at their disposal.
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Base building also plays a fairly significant role in the game and this too can take quite a while to really open up to players. Gathering the resources required tobuild bases and outpostscan take hours on end and this can further hinder the player’s ability to explore the game’s world.
8Resident Evil Village
Granted,Resident Evil Villageis a survival horror game than straight-up survival, but it still bears a lot of the latter genre’s defining tropes. Best remembered for Lady Dimitrescu, a nine-foot-six vampire with a passion for finger sucking, the series' most recent installment is easily one of the best in years, butthat’s not to say that it doesn’t still have its flaws.
The most notable of these is perhaps its awkward pacing, which can feel incredibly jarring at times. This isn’t an issue at the beginning of the game, however, as the story toddles along at such a slow pace that it renders the possibility of any inertia-related injuries impossible.Things do pick up after a few hours, but only after players have persevered through the game’s sluggish introduction.
7The Forest
Although the mystery of Eric’s missing son is introduced fairly early on inThe Forest, getting to the bottom of it takes far longer than it really needs to. Players will come across Timmy’s kidnaper a number of times in the first hour or two of the game, but his constant fleeing prevents any meaningful progress from being made.
As the narrative begins to unfold,things do start to become interestingand although the gameplay can at times be frustrating, those who enjoy a good challenge should feel right at home on the forested peninsula. Finding more blueprints for the survival guide also vastly improves the experience. Much like the game’s narrative progression though, this too will take time.
6Valheim
One of the biggest issues with survival games that are centered around crafting mechanics is the near-constant need to gather resources. Some players may not mind repeatedly punching trees all that much, but those hoping to dive right into the action may be a little frustrated byValheim’shumble beginnings.
Defeating the game’s first bosswill almost certainly require weapons and equipment, not to mention a healthy amount of food. Unfortunately, gathering the resources needed to craft all of these things is going to take time, which in turn will likely necessitatethe building of a basic baseas well. To make matters worse, this must all be done without the use of a pickaxe, asplayers aren’t able to craft one until after they have defeated Eikthyr.
5ARK: Survival Evolved
While the game itselfexperienced a rather rough opening few months, subsequent updates and patches have completely transformedARK: Survival Evolved. One thing that they haven’t changed all that much, however, is the game’s painfully slow beginning.
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Although players are dropped right into the action, many of the game’s strongest features will be out of their reach for quite a while. Any dinosaur that’s actually worth taming is going to require players to be at a fairly high level, while finding the blueprints and resources needed to builda half-decent basewill also take a substantial amount of time.
4Rust
Assuming that players can actually survive long enough to get their bearings, quite a bit of work is needed in order to get the best out ofRust. Players start the game with nothing, which, together with the game’s irradiated wildlife andthe many players who shoot on sight, can seriously stunt early game progress.
Finding or craftingthe tools needed to defend oneselfis far from easy and although a basic base can be knocked together fairly quickly, building one secure enough to withstand any would-be raiders will take significantly longer.Playing with others can sometimes help in this regard, but those who prefer to go it alone will likely be in for a frustrating first few hours.
3Grounded
While many survival games typically begin with players having to grind for resources,Groundedmanages to avoid this pitfall for the most part. Where it does stumble a little, however, is through its questionable implementation of perks and mutations.
Unlocking these game-changing features typically requires players to complete a series of mundane tasks like killing a certain number of enemies or cutting down grass. As a result, players will likely find themselves grinding for mutations in the game’s opening stages rather than hunting down resources.
