> I imagine the mortality rate in the first few hours is astonishingly high, particularly for players, like me, who have no familiarity with the map, and cannot rely on memory to direct them toward shelter.
Does this mean the map is always the same? That actually sounds kind of boring, rewarding rote memorization rather than the ability to improvise in the face of a challenge.
Also, if this sort of thing appeals to you in principle but you'd like something a little more light-hearted, try Don't Starve (which now has a multiplayer mode).
Yes, the map is always the same as in the terrain is the same and the major buildings are in the same spot.
However, every playthrough, the resources are distributed randomly throughout the map (in designated spawn spots; for example, there may be 4 or 5 places in one zone that a rifle will spawn, but it'll actually spawn at most at one of them); food resources are randomly distributed; and there are these "secret bunkers" on a couple of the maps that are randomly done as well. There is exactly one per map, and the potential spawn places for them are all difficult to reach.
Also, some houses/huts/etc are generated and may not exist in all maps (i.e. there are maybe 8 "spots" where a house could be but in any given playthrough there could be only one or two with the other 6 being burnt down, inaccessible shacks), and that affects the available resources - you can go into houses and find canned goods, better clothes, etc.
The reason the map is the same is because the sandbox is only the pre-release game - there's going to be a single player campaign with a story, so the map corresponds to the story.
Also, trust me, the familiarity with the map is not a down side that detracts from game play. Much like a real survival situation, you're too busy trying to not starve or freeze to death to worry about it.
My problem with the game is the impracticality of eating as much as the game says you have to eat. If you're hunkered down in a shelter, chilling in a warm sleeping bag with many warm clothes on, near a fire, and your body temperature is fully normal, you don't need to consume 4000 calories in a day. But, in the game, it seems like 2kg of cooked deer meat will only get you through 8 hours. In a real survival situation, that should be like several days' worth of food at least.
It's in early stage right now. I've looked over its Steam reviews around Christmas and I've bought it because they were praising it from all sides. I haven't got to play it yet, and I recommend everybody to just wait until the first release candidate because... why not play the even better version?
Does this mean the map is always the same? That actually sounds kind of boring, rewarding rote memorization rather than the ability to improvise in the face of a challenge.
Also, if this sort of thing appeals to you in principle but you'd like something a little more light-hearted, try Don't Starve (which now has a multiplayer mode).