Taking survival gameplay cues and a distinct art direction from games like No Man’s Sky, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and The Long Dark, a new game on Steam is as cute as it is dystopian. It might even be one of the most adorable-looking games to ever hit the survival genre.
Per Nova Antarctica’s Steam store page, this chilling survival game is bolstered by its cute animals and the player’s relationships with them as they combat hardships and search for the truth behind a mysterious signal at its source, the South Pole. Plus, if players are skeptical or aren’t familiar with the admittedly overwhelming-at-times survival genre, a demo is available on Steam.
Survival games typically come appended with an unspoken degree of subtle—or unsubtle—terror. Indeed, the genre itself is full of tension as players literally struggle to ‘survive,’ even if the gameplay loop inherent in such games is deliberately comforting.
Some of the best survival games can be quite cathartic in this sense, particularly when there aren’t relentless dangers to be wary of, but they usually have a looming threat that threatens players’ survival. In Nova Antarctica, nature is easily players’ biggest obstacle as...
