Odinsoft’s Survival Fountain of Youth (Steam link) has everything I want in a video game of resource management, archeological exploration, and survival on an uncharted island. When it’s set somewhere in the Yucatán Peninsula and concerns Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth, I couldn’t wait to start exploring!
Here, my avatar is part of this Conquistador’s expedition. After a storm has wrecked the boat, anyone able to survive is not lost at sea, but winds up somewhere else on the many tiny islands located near Bimini. What this game offers are challenges of day to day living in the age of discovery, and a mystery regarding the location of the archaeological treasure. For now, it isn’t finished and this Early Access product has only whetted my appetite.
There are minor bugs to iron out. After a few missteps in my many playthroughs, I finally finished the first chapter before setting sail to another island. The Mayan art presented in these ancient masonic structures are very well done, and it left me begging for more. I can only imagine what a full on Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider product using this updated engine would be like. Instead of presenting a figure to move around, the field of vision is my own eyes.
This game includes a few first-person shooter type elements which aren’t all that different from others. In what makes this element engaging is that it’s a lot more natural than to move a figure around. Animals need to be tracked down for their hide, sinew and other bits to survive. At other times, it’s a platformer, since the character has to navigate baffling terrain to access natural resources.
Also, the weather changes, the food options are limited, and not everything is at your disposal. The game’s design excellently covers every single detail about what must be made to stay alive. One tip is to decide where your main shelter is, and set up satellite camps before going elsewhere. As mentioned earlier, this release has the first two islands, and it’s best not to rush through it all, so the details of the world are savoured.
I like this game as much as its spiritual cousin, Don’t Starve. While this product satisfies a niche concerning horror and can be played in a shorter time frame, this one demands many hours of gameplay. Eventually, all players will leave it to find the other castaways, and I suspect Survivor: Fountain of Youth isn’t about taking them into the camp I’ve built. Instead, it’ll eventually lead to the discovery of the fabled waters in the eventual release. That’s the hope!
One update I’d love to see is function key shortcuts to item creation and use. I’m surprised there isn’t a better method to swap items on the fly. The mouse’s scroll button doesn’t always work well to navigate to a preferred weapon against an incoming threat.
Another nagging aspect is in how players do not have multiple save points. I certainly made mistakes, and when I realised I was in too deep, to go back either means sacrificing hit points to respawn at a point to be at than from the very beginning. This game offers four slots, and it’s not designed for one but many.
Even at launch, players have written up guides on Steam to help newcomers going through Survival Fountain of Youth not as tough. A lot of thought is still put into making easy mode challenging, and I hate to think what hard is like!
Survival Fountain of Youth Announce Trailer
