8 Best Survival Games For Short Play Sessions

Sometimes players don’t have countless hours to sit down and play video games but still want to spend their time playing a survival title. Not every game, especially some survival titles, requires the player to have to spend hours setting up their base before the danger arrives, or searching for resources so they don’t starve to death.

These survival games are great for those players who only have a spare thirty minutes or an hour available to sit down in front of their PC or TV to attempt to survive in an artificial world before they are forced to get up and survive in the real world instead.

8 Among Trees

Metascore: TBD

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: 2021-11-10
• Developer(s): FJRD Interactive
• Genre(s): Adventure, Indie, and Simulation

Not every survival title has to be an intense experience where players are always panicking about having enough resources to live. Some games, like Among Trees, are perfect for a relaxing thirty minutes where players can get lost in the woods scavenging for resources as they take in how beautiful the world is created by FJRD Interactive.

Gradually, players will find the resources needed to build their own small cabin into a warm and loving home, with the survival mechanics of Among Trees being less punishing than other survival titles, players can spend more time foraging without fear, instead of preparing for the worse.

7 Terraria

Metascore: 81

While Terraria isn’t entirely considered a survival and is instead seen as an action-adventure game. The survival aspects of this sandbox, which was originally released in 2011, means that any player looking for a survival game they can play in quick bursts should first consider Terraria before getting involved with a more serious survival title.

Terraria works well for shorter play sessions, as players don’t need to worry about eating food to survive. It’s still important to make sure, with the time they have, that they build a base they can spend the night in, and adventure deep below the surface to unlock valuable resources to upgrade their gear and eventually take on bosses.

6 Len’s Island

Metascore: TBD

• Platform(s): PC
• Released: 2021-11-26
• Developer(s): Flow Studio
• Genre(s): Adventure, Indie, and Action

Len’s Island is another survival title that players should consider when they are looking for a quick play session, especially for those who are after a title they can play casually. Plenty of the true survival aspects of Len’s Island are found deep below the surface as players take part in its dungeon crawler aspect, but on the surface, players must build up their farm and prepare for the dangers they are likely to face deep below the surface.

When considering how Len’s Island splits its survival mechanics between the surface and the underground, players who are looking for a shorter and therefore more casual session of surviving can instead remain on the surface that is arguably safer, where they can tend to their farm and prepare for the next time they decide to dungeon crawl again.

5 V Rising

Metascore: 82

When players first look at V Rising, they may never consider it a title they can play when they have only a few moments to spare. However, players don’t need to take part in the threatening online PvP servers of V Rising and can instead take their precious time to a solo server.

They can have the whole vampire world to themselves without the fear that logging off will see their entire castle brought down when they finally get the time to come back on. Alongside this, running their own server also allows them to customize their survival to be as challenging as they wish. Therefore, a player can remove a lot of difficulty to give them more time to do the things they’ll enjoy while being a vampire.

4 Minecraft

Metascore: 82

Minecraft is a classic sandbox survival game that is perfect for any player who doesn’t have a lot of time to spend playing a survival game. Although many players would consider the end goal of Minecraft to be defeating the Ender Dragon, this isn’t what a player who only has a bit of time to spare may wish to achieve.

Instead, Minecraft is a survival title where players can spend their time doing whatever they want, from building a house to live in, spending an hour mining, or even setting up their own little farm to provide them with food. Its sandbox nature ensures that players don’t need to pick a specific direction, and in every short session they can focus on whatever they wish to do that day. With survival that is less stressful than many other titles and adjustable difficulty, Minecraft is something players are sure to be attracted by when they want a game that allows them to be creative with an additional challenge.

3 Palworld

Metascore: TBD

Combining a survival title with the monster-collecting genre makes Palworld another brilliant option for players looking for a survival game they can play in short bursts. As players capture more Pals, they can then use these same critters to run their factories, which will create the resources they may need.

While these Pals work, the player can use the small amount of time they have to play, actually exploring and finding new Pals to capture and use. Eventually, during a session, the player will be prepared enough to take on the various harder foes they can also face in Palworld. This monster-collecting survival, although a mix of genres, is incredibly easy for a player to pick up as they will quickly learn how to capture critters and easily be pulled into the world.

2 Grounded

Metascore: 83

Some of the best survival games for short play sessions are those that transport the player to peculiar yet interesting worlds. In Grounded, the player finds themselves shrunk all the way down to be stuck in the yard of their home, attempting to survive between the blades of grass as they fight off the ants and spiders that attempt to attack them.

The interesting design of Grounded makes surviving in this world far more enjoyable for players, as well as being another title that players are likely to quickly pick up the mechanics of when they play. Building a base even while being attacked by insects is rather straightforward, with many learning they won’t have to travel too far to find the resources they need, and being able to quickly get back into surviving if they have left the garden for a couple of days.

1 Subnautica

Metascore: 87

Descending into the deep blue of an alien planet sounds like a player should be spending a whole night exploring, but many players will be happy to know that although they are living out of a Life Pod, there is no rush to experience the entire story of Subnautica in one sitting. Subnautica is great for short play sessions as the gameplay itself within this underwater survival adventure is easy for a player to understand.

While some players may be put off by needing to track their oxygen while underwater as well as finding what alien foods are edible, a player will quickly get into the swing of things without finding themselves lost for hours. This leaves them plenty of time during their play sessions to gradually build their underwater base each play session and carefully explore further than their small escape pod. Players will see that their efforts will pay off, even if they don’t focus on the story that is also available for them to uncover.