The Tribe Must Survive, a "tribe-builder" with a survival roguelike twist, is the first management sim of its kind to really pique my curiosity in, well, I can't remember how long it's been, and it's launching into Steam Early Access on February 22.
Don't get me wrong; I've long been tempted by the best city building games out there, but in practice they tend to either bore me to pieces or overstimulate my ADHD-addled mind and leave me stressed - particularly the ones with survival elements. But wrap one up in a cosmic horror package and tease the allure of a "Lovecraftian Stone Age," and I'll tear it open and dive in with the glee of a six-year-old on Christmas morning.
Such is my excitement for The Tribe Must Survive, a city builder set in a time long before there were any cities, and one where your people inevitably fall to a full eclipse and you're forced to start over again.
The premise here is that you're the leader of a primitive tribe tasked with managing and protecting your people from dangers lurking in the ever encroaching shadows. As you upgrade your settlement with more tents, sharper axes, and warmer fires, you'll bring in more tribe members to help you along the way. But more tribe members isn't inherently a good thing, as they'll all have their own fears, desires, and personalities clashing with those of other members, and although you can manipulate their behavior with rituals, buildings, and upgrades, there will invariably be conflicts you'll be forced to resolve in favor of one side or the other.
The difficult choices facing you as the tribe's leader go far beyond settling disputes between your underlings. "Do you risk a good worker on a potentially deadly journey?" Asks developer Walking Tree Games. "Do you spend resources on exploring or exploiting? You will be faced with many challenges and decisions, and are tasked with balancing your current needs against the needs of the future in order to have a hope at the tribe's survival."
It's not precisely clear how the roguelike elements play out, but the gameplay trailer warns of a "night without end" that's caused by an eclipse, which leads to pandemonium and the complete devastation of your tribe, leaving you to start from the beginning again, but presumably this time with resources and other upgrades from earlier runs.
Walking Tree says the choice to launch the game in Early Access will give them a few months "to fine-tune the game balance as well as act on feedback from the community," leading to the "best possible version of the game to release during Q2, with even more planned content!"
In the meantime, how about a pick from the best survival games?
