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Game Information
Release Date: April 23rd, 2013
Developers: Klei Entertainment
Publishers: Klei Entertainment
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, and Playstation 4
Genre: Action-adventure
Players: 1

Play as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Wilson must learn to exploit his environment and its inhabitants if he ever hopes to escape and find his way back home. Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Gather resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style. Play it your own way as you unravel the mysteries of this strange land.

The objective of this game is to stay alive as long as you possibly can, whist having to avoid hostile mobs, insanity, and yes, starving. You are given the ability to craft items that you find along with building houses and safe havens that help you survive. When do finally die, you lose experience that correlates to the number of days survived. You can even unlock other characters instead of using the standard "Gentlemen Scientist". The majority of characters can only be unlocked in Adventure mode. Here is the kicker though, there is a permanent death system in place. You cannot do the common "die and try a different way" approach that many took in old style arcade games. That means once you reach permanent death, you can no longer use that character. So make sure you use your deaths wisely and try to stay alive as long as you can.

Adventure mode is the campaign mode of Don't starve. You will face off and battle against the villain of the game named, Maxwell. Maxwell has managed to split the world into different chapters that each have their own theme to them. The way you progress into the next chapter is by collecting the four pieces of the "Wood Thing" assemble and then activate them in order to enter the next chapter.

Once you're finally moving on to the next chapter, you are given an option to pick 4 items of your choice to take with you to start the next chapter with, except for the item "Wilson's beard" because it is not considered an actual item. Any items that are meant specifically for your character will carry over without you have to waste one of your four choices on them either.

Don't Starve is a indie style arcade game that is played in a bit of a mix of 2D and 3D, so you shouldn't expect to much. Although, they really made this work for them. The actual textures and background of the game are art in their own. Everything has been well developed and look fantastic for being such small object. A lot of the tools look similar to the Minecraft tools without the pixelated look. The texture of the trees look very well, unlike the grass that is only different shades of green.

Overall I think they did a fantastic job on the graphics for a indie style game. It reminds me of old style arcade games that have been redone with a professional touch added to them.

You are given both the option of using a controller or using the typical mouse and keyboard. If you use mouse and keyboard, you control the movements and the items on your toolbelt the exact same way you would do in Minecraft. Unlike most games, the Ctrl and Alt key are used for some key features so that might take some time for your fingers to get used to those odd movements. You are also given the option to toggle your HUD so you can play with it on your screen or without it.

Overall I think they did a good job on the controls. The only thing I would change is the usage of the Ctrl and Alt keys to a different letter on the keyboard.

Operation System: Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8
Processor: 1.7 GHz or better
Memory: 1 GB
Graphics: Radeon HD5450 or better
Hard Drive: 500 MB
DirectX: 9.0c
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Sandbox Mode: 10/10
Adventure Mode: 9.5/10
Graphics: 8/10
Controls: 8/10
Overall Rating: 9.5/10