5 Best Survival Games Where Even the Strongest Base Is Never Really Safe

Survival games are all about building a strong base, and after hours of collecting materials and strengthening defenses, you’re probably hoping it will at least last until sunrise. In any case, there’s rarely anything more rewarding than entering your shelter and watching all the enemies gathering outside, unable to even touch you, let alone hurt you.

However, that feeling of safety doesn’t usually last very long, and building a solid base doesn’t always mean enemies cannot reach you. Some games make sure that you’ll be on the edge of your seat, no matter where you go, including that sacred shelter. Moreover, sometimes it could be exactly your home that attracts the enemies. These fantastic survival games ensure players never let their guard down.

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7 Days to Die

A Stronger Base Won’t Stop the Next Horde

In 7 Days to Die, you start with almost nothing in a world that creates its narrative through survival. You scavenge abandoned buildings, gather food and weapons, and craft tools for your day-to-day activities until you eventually have enough resources to build a fortress to keep the undead as far away from you as possible. However, the catch is that the fortress can never become completely safe.

Every 7 in-game days, the game spawns waves of zombies that test how well players have built their defenses. Moreover, progression will not make this problem disappear; the more you level up, the more dangerous your enemies become, so gaining access to better traps, walls, and firing positions is just what’s necessary to save you before the fortress collapses.

Moreover, surviving one horde does not necessarily mean you will have enough time to prepare for the next one. The entire game revolves around this mechanic of the player’s base being attacked, as no matter how strong your base is, it will be under constant threat of being destroyed, even at the one place that’s supposed to keep you safe.

Grounded

Building a Base Can Actually Make Things Worse

Max, Willow, Pete, and Hoops are just four ordinary teenagers. Well, at least until they mysteriously shrink to insect size. Even though Grounded takes place in a regular suburban backyard, to the protagonists, the grass towers for miles above them, puddles look like lakes, and tiny insects are terrifying predators. The group is determined to figure out why they were shrunk and find a way to return to their normal size.

Of course, before beginning this journey, they need to make sure that they have a base to help them survive the yard. However, insects become angry when players start to explore, gather resources, or kill too many of their kind. This causes the enemy to attack the player’s base. So the more you explore and gather, the more enemies you can potentially upset, and building a stronger base doesn’t always solve the problem. Just like in 7 Days to Die, no matter how strong your base gets, the insects get stronger, so players are constantly on edge.

Grounded

Release Date

June 9, 2013

Runtime

65 minutes

Director

Sean Patrick Crowell

Sons of the Forest

A Bigger Base Is Still a Target

Sons of the Forest starts on a remote island, where you need to locate missing billionaire Edward Puffton and his family. Of course, the mission goes wrong pretty soon, leaving you stranded in an environment full of cannibals and mutants. This forces players to construct a base to keep themselves safe from the flesh-eating monsters, but as cannibals patrol the island, they constantly appear near the base location and attack it.

Additionally, the relationship between the protagonist and the cannibals is reactive, which means that killing them makes them more aggressive. Moreover, the mutants become stronger and stronger, attacking the player’s base just as hard as the cannibals. Overall, even if you eventually start improving your defenses by using things like traps and electric fences, it would still not be enough to be fully prepared for the next attack.

Valheim

Better Defenses Come With Bigger Problems

Valheim follows the story of a fallen Viking warrior who gets transported to a realm from Norse mythology where Odin’s enemies remain. The purpose of the entire adventure is for him to explore the world and become as powerful as possible. At first, players mostly gather wood, hunt, and craft primitive tools. However, as the game progresses, the little shelters you build at first slowly become huge Viking settlements with farms, portals, and defenses at their disposal.

Of course, the game soon starts spawning groups of hostile creatures, especially near the base, which means that players need to constantly make sure that their settlements are not easy targets. Although it’s true that some locations and well-crafted defenses can make a base very difficult to reach, this does not mean that the attacks will fully cease. Moreover, the better bases you build, the stronger your enemies will become, so I wouldn’t get too comfortable behind those walls.

Project Zomboid

Even the Safest Home Can Become a Death Trap

In Project Zomboid, you know how the story ends before it even begins. As the zombie outbreak is raging around Kentucky, the survivor is trying to find a cure and save humanity from the spreading disease. However, since there is no traditional campaign, the game asks players how they will die and asks them to try and postpone this event for as long as possible. Just like in all the other games on this list, Project Zomboid allows you to barricade houses, construct fortified compounds, and generally establish a base that has everything you might need to survive.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you work on your defenses, the zombies will always find a way to attack you. Even a quiet area can become dangerous in the blink of an eye, forcing you to abandon a shelter you have been building for days. The hordes react to sights and sounds, and although they are not always targeting your base as they do in the other games, the danger could come at any location, at any moment, including the base. So, in other words, you’re only safe until they find you.