Rebuild your tribe and protect your light against the dark in this unforgiving survival-horror colony builder.
You start off with the remains of your tribe, having lost most of the members in a panic that plays out in the opening cutscene. In standard survival colony builder fashion, you need to get set up and get people to work. You gotta make sure you start chopping wood for the fire, build shelter, and start hunting for food. They will have other needs as well, which will increase as the game progresses and a certain quality of life is expected, but nothing is more important than your fires wood supply.
Your bonfire at the start will be the main source of light, and it needs to be constantly fed wood if it’s lit. You could turn it off during the day, but it’s also a way to keep people calm. You’re also going to need wood for all your early infrastructure, and the bonfire should stay lit through the darkness of night while the tribe sleeps. Lest you lose members to it or the panic that builds up. I certainly did not think about this in my first play of the game, building a few things as I had the resources too close to the evening and paying the price.
The games got a dark feel to everything, with a bit of eldritch horror to it, especially when your tribe is in the dark. The horror is more apparent in the events that pop up, which are randomized and can drastically affect how the days that follow play out. I ended up with one that I’m pretty sure increased my fires wood requirement in trade for another benefit, or at least, a choice that seemed less ideal at the time. That was a mistake for where I was at, and the game will punish mistakes harshly. However, like my building as soon as I had the wood for it, I learned from this.
After all, I did not make that mistake again, I found ways to make entirely new ones instead.
Eventually the first act of the game starts to come to a close, with a sun-blocking event that will make or break you. Did you stockpile enough wood and food to hunker down close to the bonfire? Do you have torches placed strategically enough and with enough wood to keep them lit for people to work through this?
I did make it to the second act once…with 3 tribe members in a total panic, who ran off not soon after it started. I had just barely ran out of wood near the end of the event and watched helplessly as the dark took everyone else. Oh well. Maybe next time I’ll do better. It’s all one can do, to make sure the tribe must survive.
I’m late in getting this up, and The Tribe Must Survive is already in early access for 15.99. If this sounds like your jam, similar to other games like Don’t Starve, then it’s worth a look.