Survival Games with the Best AI
You wake up for a new day of work on your private Minecraft server and hear the clickety-clack of a skeleton burning in the sun. You steady yourself for a hunting session in The Forest before noticing the few dead birds that decided to spend the night on your firepit. You sigh and whisper to yourself: “isn’t there a survival game with good AI?”. There is! There are a lot of survival games with arguably good AI. But what does this mean in the first place? Is it smart enemies and smart companions, or a world that cleverly reacts to your actions? Perhaps you’re looking for human-like behavior, even if it sometimes leads to incredibly stupid cause-effect chains. Whatever it is, we got you covered. State of Decay 2 Image via Xbox Game Studios When it was first released in 2013, the original State of Decay was one of the very few games in the then-nascent single-player, procedural, open-world survival genre. Since then, a lot has changed. Thankfully, State of Decay 2 integrated a lot of the modern qualities of the genre, including deeper crafting mechanics, base management, and companion NPCs, into its original formula. Even though it isn’t the game’s focus, State of Decay 2 has some pretty decent NPC AI that gets the job done. Your companion won’t be very useful in fights at higher difficulty levels, assuming you want to keep them alive, but that makes them no worse than most human players. Perhaps those problems might be solved in the upcoming State of Decay 3. Aska Image via Thunderful Publishing Unlike many other titles in the genre, the NPCs of starving Viking tribe simulator Aska don’t seem to have been an afterthought. With a customizable daily schedule and roles to assign, villagers might feel more like obedient pets or farm-sweeping Roombas than people, but that means they can be as useful as your management skills allow. Enemy AI is nothing to write home about, but it’s still about as good as any other game in the genre. Besides, it’s probably good that zombies, skeletons, and wild animals aren’t more intelligent than the player and their co-op partners. Clever or not, prepare to be steamrolled by an endless stream of enemies and the unforgiving northern winter. MineColonies (Minecraft Mod) Image via Let's Dev Together MineColonies isn’t a game (it’s a Minecraft mod) and Minecraft is not what most fans imagine when they think of a survival game, but the two together do get surprisingly close to a classic survival game with very clever AI. MineColonies completely revamps the NPC settlements in Minecraft, turning them into fully-fledged cities. Of course, you’re pretty much the king of those colonies: major, urban planner, and military leader all rolled up into one. As your colonies improve, they attract the attention of raiders who will attack cities on certain nights. And what improvements are there to make! Barracks and homes and farms, sure, but also universities to research new tech and couriers to exchange goods between cities, and much more. The Survivalists Image via Team17 The Survivalist is, you guessed it, a survival game with crafting mechanics.Its inspiration make it stand out, however. Developed by Team17, The Survivalist is a bit of a spin-off of prison escape simulator The Escapist, with which it shares quite a lot. The experience of simulating large groups of inmates and guards seems to have come useful when designing The Survivalist, even if there are no human companions with their own beliefs and agendas. What it does have are trained monkeys, and they’re surprisingly clever. To be fair, most of what they do is mimic the player’s action, but you’re pretty clever yourself. I’m sure you’ll be a great teacher. Conan Exiles Image via Funcom Conan Exiles is a weird game. Part MMO with a consistent world, part hardcore roguelike survival game, one death is all it takes to take you back to square one. And death comes quite easily, with the constant stream of enemy raids on your home/castle/small city. Thankfully, you can recruit some companions to help, either fellow human players or wandering NPCs. To recruit an NPC, of course, you bash them over the head with a stick and then drag them home, only to shove them on the whimsically named “Wheel of Pain” until they (willingly, I presume) choose to join your army of unpaid laborer and soldiers. NPC companions aren’t companions at all; they’re slaves. Liking this game rests quite heavily on whether you can enjoy roleplaying as a slaver. But the AI is pretty good! Subsistence Image via ColdGames Most of the time, when fans talk about survival games, they are referring to two very different genres. One is the single-player or co-op survival against natural forces, physiological needs, and not-very-clever monstrous enemies, while the other is the multiplayer survival of the likes of Rust or DayZ, where other players are often the cause of your demise. Subsistence seems to do both. In reality, Subs
You wake up for a new day of work on your private Minecraft server and hear the clickety-clack of a skeleton burning in the sun. You steady yourself for a hunting session in The Forest before noticing the few dead birds that decided to spend the night on your firepit.
You sigh and whisper to yourself: “isn’t there a survival game with good AI?”.
There is! There are a lot of survival games with arguably good AI. But what does this mean in the first place? Is it smart enemies and smart companions, or a world that cleverly reacts to your actions? Perhaps you’re looking for human-like behavior, even if it sometimes leads to incredibly stupid cause-effect chains. Whatever it is, we got you covered.
State of Decay 2
When it was first released in 2013, the original State of Decay was one of the very few games in the then-nascent single-player, procedural, open-world survival genre. Since then, a lot has changed. Thankfully, State of Decay 2 integrated a lot of the modern qualities of the genre, including deeper crafting mechanics, base management, and companion NPCs, into its original formula.
Even though it isn’t the game’s focus, State of Decay 2 has some pretty decent NPC AI that gets the job done. Your companion won’t be very useful in fights at higher difficulty levels, assuming you want to keep them alive, but that makes them no worse than most human players. Perhaps those problems might be solved in the upcoming State of Decay 3.
Aska
Unlike many other titles in the genre, the NPCs of starving Viking tribe simulator Aska don’t seem to have been an afterthought. With a customizable daily schedule and roles to assign, villagers might feel more like obedient pets or farm-sweeping Roombas than people, but that means they can be as useful as your management skills allow.
Enemy AI is nothing to write home about, but it’s still about as good as any other game in the genre. Besides, it’s probably good that zombies, skeletons, and wild animals aren’t more intelligent than the player and their co-op partners. Clever or not, prepare to be steamrolled by an endless stream of enemies and the unforgiving northern winter.
MineColonies (Minecraft Mod)
MineColonies isn’t a game (it’s a Minecraft mod) and Minecraft is not what most fans imagine when they think of a survival game, but the two together do get surprisingly close to a classic survival game with very clever AI. MineColonies completely revamps the NPC settlements in Minecraft, turning them into fully-fledged cities.
Of course, you’re pretty much the king of those colonies: major, urban planner, and military leader all rolled up into one. As your colonies improve, they attract the attention of raiders who will attack cities on certain nights. And what improvements are there to make! Barracks and homes and farms, sure, but also universities to research new tech and couriers to exchange goods between cities, and much more.
The Survivalists
The Survivalist is, you guessed it, a survival game with crafting mechanics.Its inspiration make it stand out, however. Developed by Team17, The Survivalist is a bit of a spin-off of prison escape simulator The Escapist, with which it shares quite a lot.
The experience of simulating large groups of inmates and guards seems to have come useful when designing The Survivalist, even if there are no human companions with their own beliefs and agendas. What it does have are trained monkeys, and they’re surprisingly clever. To be fair, most of what they do is mimic the player’s action, but you’re pretty clever yourself. I’m sure you’ll be a great teacher.
Conan Exiles
Conan Exiles is a weird game. Part MMO with a consistent world, part hardcore roguelike survival game, one death is all it takes to take you back to square one. And death comes quite easily, with the constant stream of enemy raids on your home/castle/small city. Thankfully, you can recruit some companions to help, either fellow human players or wandering NPCs.
To recruit an NPC, of course, you bash them over the head with a stick and then drag them home, only to shove them on the whimsically named “Wheel of Pain” until they (willingly, I presume) choose to join your army of unpaid laborer and soldiers. NPC companions aren’t companions at all; they’re slaves. Liking this game rests quite heavily on whether you can enjoy roleplaying as a slaver. But the AI is pretty good!
Subsistence
Most of the time, when fans talk about survival games, they are referring to two very different genres. One is the single-player or co-op survival against natural forces, physiological needs, and not-very-clever monstrous enemies, while the other is the multiplayer survival of the likes of Rust or DayZ, where other players are often the cause of your demise. Subsistence seems to do both.
In reality, Subsistence is a single-player game with co-op that uses a mix of hostile environments, hostile animals, and even more hostile humans to simulate online survival games. What makes it work is the exceptional AI of the human enemies, which can build bases, plan raids, and mount defenses just like a rival human player would do. Depending on what you like in survival games, the result can feel like the best of both worlds or literally hell.
Survivalist: Invisible Strain
For a long time, “zombie survival games with crafting mechanics” was synonymous with a certain kind of overzealous indie developer. While that’s no longer always the case, it’s nice of Survivalist: Invisible Strain to keep the tradition alive. The telltale signs are all there: the game has fully functional vehicles and a tactical map view for directing companions in battle but running away from a zombie looks straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon.
That said, Survivalist: Invisible Strain does have its priorities straight: intelligent NPCs. As is often the case, the more time a mechanic spends under the spotlight, the easier it is to see its flaws. Survivalist: Invisible Strain isn’t flawless, but it is inspired. NPCs have predetermined personalities and connections with each other, you can speak with them in detailed if weird procedural conversations… all the good stuff. But unlike a lot of games of this kind, they lie. Vitally, in a game about a zombie invasion, they lie about being infected.
Darkwood
Darkwood is better understood as a mix of survival horror and open-world exploration than a traditional survival game. Surviving isn’t about filling a hunger meter every day but means instead not getting killed by monsters, not losing your way in the forest, and trying to find more resources than you lose while scavenging. And it never gets any easier.
What Darkwood has is terribly clever (or rather, clever-looking) monster AI. It’s certainly easier to make them look smart if they mostly attack when you can’t see them. Either way, Darkwood’s enemy encounters often lead to chaotic fights and tense, organic interactions that feel like they must be scripted, but are not.
Sons Of The Forest
Sons of the Forest is the sequel to 2018’s early access co-op horror game The Forest. Just like its predecessor, it was released first as an early access title and became a full game in February 2024. And just like the original, Sons of the Forest has some pretty good enemy AI. While on paper, the AI systems should be completely different it’s hard to tell the difference in practice between this game and its predecessor.
The good news is that The Forest already had some of the best enemy AI in the genre, even if there is room for improvement. A while not very visible, improvements are probably there somewhere. The even better news is that Sons of the Forest has friendly NPCs with solid, human-like, charmingly unpredictable AI, too.
RimWorld
Many survival colony sims live and die by their NPC AI, but RimWorld is a special case. Colonist behavior can be modified, as is usual for the genre, but they all have their own personality and quirks. Charitable characters are more likely to offer shelter to travelers, socialites are going to spread their ideas to the rest of the colony, and so on. It sounds like just another system, if an interesting one, but once added to the game it becomes the single biggest driver of the story.
Ideoligion, introduced in the DLC of the same name, is the name of this system. What if that charming fellow your charitable colonist brought in isn’t just slightly weirded out by your people eating vegetables but is, in fact, a very convincing cannibal? Pair that with a clever “narrator” system that prioritizes interesting events to a realistic simulation and plenty of incredible mods and you get one of the most sophisticated simulations in survival games.
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