The Wild Eight – Don’t Ignore This Top-View Survival Title

The Wild Eight is a top down survival, action/adventure game that is being compared to Diablo, Don’t Starve, Lost and the Liam Neeson movie, The Grey. Its eight characters have survived a mysterious plane crash and have found themselves in the Alaskan Wilderness — and it is completely devoid of any civilization. There are no radio communications and the characters are forced to wait in the hopes of a rescue. In the meantime, they need to learn how to survive against aggressive wild animals, starvation, and the freezing cold.

The game is very unforgiving, so gamers and, especially fans of the survival genre, will relish the challenge on which The Wild Eight delivers. For example, your character will need to go out and hunt to prevent their starvation — but if you return by nightfall and you’ve forgotten to split wood for the campfire, you’ll freeze to death.

Your characters have to learn everything from scratch, just as you would if you actually found yourself in a similar situation. There are strict rules to survival and if you don’t follow these said rules, you’ll die often and return back to the crash site as a level 0. Ouch. 

What’s more, something that a lot of fans will appreciate is the ability to play the game as a solo campaign, something a lot of survival games don’t do these days. But the game was designed with co-op play in mind. So having to rely on each other to battle the odds in the wilderness is definitely a big part of the game’s appeal. If one of you dies, the other player can resuscitate him with a rare item drop, like a defibrillator. And you won’t need to restart the game from the beginning again, which is a huge plus.

The Survivors of The Wild Eight

The game’s eight characters are integral to the development of the plot and all have something interesting to be said about them. Not only is each character unique in regard to their personalities, but their skills, too, which can be developed in a linear pattern through leveling.

Working together with the characters either in single player mode or cooperatively is the key to survival in The Wild Eight, but as the game progresses, you’ll quickly begin to realize that you can’t trust all the members of your group. This adds a layer of intrigue and tension. 

Here is a rundown of each of the character’s starting skillsets and the advantages or disadvantages of each:

The Story of The Wild Eight

The story plays a major part in this game and will develop more the longer your character manages to survive. As the story progresses, the game will be divided between the main campaign mode and the game’s optional side quests. It is definitely recommended to tackle the side quests, however, because aside from expanding the story, the side quests are your only chance of achieving a good ending. 

The areas in the game are procedurally generated, and the story is no different because as it unfolds, key location points in the game will be generated. The side quests, though, will always be randomly generated — the story related side quests will be generated equally distant from one another.

On top of that, the story promises to have a lot of mystery and strange goings on in the wilderness. There are mutated monsters and more oddities to deal with than you might imagine, and your characters will come across a mysterious and sinister looking laboratory, cryptic messages and journals, and strange metallic noises in the distance.

Crafting in The Wild Eight

Your chosen character has two ways to craft items — on the go and at the crafting station. The items you can craft on the go are basic weapons and flares, but at the crafting station, you have the opportunity craft upgradable items and more advanced craftables such as traps, customized back packs, bandages, and other equally useful items to help you survive.

Pulling It All Together

Despite initial appearances, The Wild Eight has a lot of interesting points that make it stand out from your typical survival game. The story is really interesting and the characters you interact with help build the drama and tension, you could even say there’s a survival horror element to the story and a lot of depth to the cooperative experience and how you work together with aim of survival. It’s definitely a game to keep an eye on.

• Release Date: December 2016 on Steam Early Access
• Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4