I had never heard of Don't Starve when it was on computer, as I am a PS3 and PS4 owner but once it was announced for PS4 I looked into it, and downloaded it from PlayStation Plus. Being free, as a member of the service I was willing to give it a try since Resogun and Contrast were free with the same service, and they were solid enjoyable games. The game has a short introduction, being just a short cut scene explaining how you ended up in the world, and then your unnamed character is thrust into surviving the harsh world you have been sent to.
Graphically, the game isn't perfect looking being similar to more recent games released on PS3 and Xbox 360, it's the content of the game that lures you in. Very simplistic controls but with a vast variety of objects, and equipment you can craft and make lures you into exploring, to finding ingredients and resources required for certain craft-able items. This however takes you out of your comfort zone, that you have built a camp fire in or have found local berries and animals to forage and eat, into unknown parts of the world in search of resources; and these resources could be located near killer bees, to walking trees to monsters lurking in the waters nearby.
So you can do one of two things, flee when you are faced with these enemies or craft weapons and armour and fight them; but this is risky since if you die, you start at the beginning of the game again with none of the items you had on you at the time of your death. So you must think about the outcome of your decisions, if it's truly worth possibly dying to get to those resources, or waiting it out until you can craft a spear or armour.
This kind of thinking in games are mainly only found in RPG's or games like Dark Souls, so it's nice to find it in an early game just released on the PS4, and gives us something to play until Dark Souls 2 is released.
The Good:
- A solid gaming experience, with horror-survival elements involving exploration of an unknown world you are dropped into.
- Enjoyable controls, nothing too hard to understand as the controls of the PC port are mapped to the controller very well.
- Deep exploration, to find resources and ingredients is enjoyable and can surprise you as you come across new areas, resources, or enemies you've never seen before.
- The crafting system, is deep and enjoyable as you can craft new items, and equipment once you find resources.
The Bad:
- Dying forcing you to restart the game, can get frustrating as you cannot save the game like Dark Souls, and should you die you lose everything you looted and crafted.
Don't Starve: The Console Version is what PS4 fans have needed, for a brand new console with not many games to enjoy on it's system. With Dark Souls elements, Don't Starve is a brilliant game to get into and can take hours to find certain resources, and craft items. Being a member of PlayStation Plus, getting the game for free is a bonus, but I would call it worth buying alone on PSN if you do not have a PlayStation Plus membership.