Nightingale is one of the hottest new survival games of early 2024, and it might be on track to become a very popular entry in the genre. The game has quite a way to go before becoming a staple of crafting survival exploration games. That said, it's not doing so poorly for an early-access title that was only released in February 2024.

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What makes Nightingale work for so many players is its mix of survival elements and a unique fantasy setting of mysterious faeries and world-hopping magic. But Nightingale isn't the only survival game with such a weird setting, like the Nors-inspired world of Valheim, nor does it have a monopoly on unique magic systems, which Outward can rival with ease.

10 Outward

Mundane Magical Survival

Outward is an uncompromising survival action RPG set in a magical world where most dangers are surprisingly mundane. Most challenges, especially in the early game, come from the hostile environment found in the wilderness between cities. The night cold, disease, and hydration are all much more present dangers than being attacked by a monster.

That said, Outward might be interesting to Nightingale fans because of its unique and mysterious magic. Just like in Nightingale, the various magic systems present in the game seem explicitly built on top of its world. Learning new spells means understanding those systems and how they feed into the world, which seamlessly feeds into the exploration aspect of the game.

9 ARK: Survival Evolved

A Staple Of Online Crafting Survival Games

ARK: Survival Evolved is a staple of modern crafting survival games. Originally released on Steam Early Access in 2015, it reached its full release in 2017 and was later ported to most consoles, including mobile devices. In 2023, Studio Wildcard released a remake called ARK: Survival Ascended, but fans of the original seem to still prefer the original.

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All things considered, ARK: Survival Evolved is a pretty predictable survival game. Players are stranded on a mysterious island called ARK, which is populated by a few other humans and plenty of dangerous dinosaurs. In time, players will learn to use resources to build tools, as well as tame dinosaurs and ride them into battle.

8 Vintage Story

A Unique Indie Horror Survival Game

Vintage Story began its development as a unique Minecraft mod, and it doesn't take an expert to notice. The characters and items of Vintage Story are slightly less blocky, and the animations a lot smoother, but its origins are not hard to identify. That shouldn't be enough to write off this unique survival game.

Vintage Story describes itself as a wilderness survival horror game, but the emphasis is squarely on survival. Just like its main inspiration, the core of the game is world simulation, crafting, and survival mechanics such as hunger. The unsettling dark fantasy world surrounding the game is a nice bonus for those coming from the similarly weird Nightingale.

7 Enshrouded

Mixing Crafting, Survival, And Action RPGs

Enshrouded is a survival action RPG set in a dark fantasy world hidden in a magical fog that has corrupted the land. While this description makes Enshrouded sound like, first and foremost, a survival game, most players won't take long before becoming well-equipped, making survival less of a struggle. Still, the crafting and RPG mechanics, together with detailed base building, make farming resources a key part of the late game, too.

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Enshrouded comes with an in-depth combat system, complete with parries, rolling dodges, and a spellcasting system. While combat is unlikely to surprise fans of dedicated action RPGs like the recent Dragon's Dogma 2, it's certainly more intense than most other survival games.

6 Valheim

Surviving A Norse Fantasy Nightmare

Valheim is a survival game with an emphasis on exploration and a unique setting. Players take the role of heroes exploring a unique world inspired by Norse mythology. That said, what makes Valheim unique is that those outward fantasy elements only become prominent later in the game. In this respect, the game is similar to Outward, or the more recent Nightingale.

Valheim supports co-op with up to 10 players but works just as fine with one player on their lonesome. Base building would feel less grindy and harder combat scenarios would go down smoother with a group of friends, even a small one, but nothing in the game requires it.

5 Grounded

A Big Adventure About Being Very Small

Grounded is another survival game with a unique premise: the game's protagonists aren't stranded sailors or fantasy heroes; instead, players take the role of a handful of kids that somehow shrunk down to the size of an insect. The world-hopping magical setting of Nightingale is so much of what drives the players, so it's only natural that fans of the game would be interested in another similarly unique world.

Setting aside, Grounded is a competent and expertly crafted entry in the survival crafting genre, if a bit safe. Grounded reached its full release in 2022, leaving early access for good. However, it's still receiving regular updates, with the latest one introducing Playgrounds, a mix of player-made maps and custom modes, not unlike Fortnite's Creative Mode.

4 Sons Of The Forest

A Sequel Of The Survival Classic

Sons Of The Forest is the sequel to The Forest, a horror survival game that was originally released in Early Access in 2014 and only reached its full release in 2018. 2023's Sons Of The Forest, which left Early Access in 2024, picks up right where the original left off, continuing the story of the mysterious island and its mutant-infested underbelly.

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Just like the original, Sons Of The Forest can be played solo or in co-op with some friends. While playing with a group can be easier and more fun, the horror aspects of both games are certainly more impactful when experienced alone.

3 V Rising

Spooky Vampire Adventures

V Rising is a unique survival crafting game, for multiple reasons. For one, it's an action RPG with a camera placed far away from the character, looking more at home in an MMORPG or a classic twin-stick shooter than a survival game. V Rising is also unique among survival games because it casts players in the role of a classic villain, a vampire hell-bent on conquering the living world.

Being a vampire simulator of sorts, survival in V Rising means feeding off the blood of enemies and innocent villagers, as well as avoiding the light and sticking to shadows. However, the biggest dangers are likely to come from other monstrous creatures. Thankfully, V Rising has an appropriately detailed combat system to help handle them.

2 The Lord Of The Rings: Return To Moria

Surviving Tolkien's Most Famous Mines

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is exactly what it sounds like: a survival mining game set in Tolkien's Middle-earth. Specifically, the game sees a group of adventurers sneaking into the mines of Moria, deep in the Dwarves' homeland, hoping to free it of its evils, or at least get out unscathed.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria includes all the staples of crafting survival games, from detailed base building and collecting resources to mining and exploration. Being set in an abandoned mine, those two aspects are especially important to the game. Mining is where the biggest treasures come from, but it's the easiest way to wake up what evil was left in the tunnels so long ago.

1 Don't Starve

A Brutal Classic Survival Game

At first blush, Don't Starve and Nightingale don't seem to have much in common with each other. One is a cartoony top-down survival game where starving to death is the most likely outcome of every run, while the other is a shooter with an emphasis on exploration where hunger soon becomes an afterthought.

What Don't Starve shares with everyone's new favorite survival fantasy FPS is a weird, rich, and creepy setting. Every character in the game is a little grotesque in their own way. Everything feels just a little bit off during the day, becoming downright scary at night. Add to that a unique magic system, and the similarities really start to pile up.

Nightingale

Platform(s)

PC

Released

February 20, 2024

Developer(s)

Inflexion Games

Genre(s)

Survival , Crafting

See at Official Site