Subsistence

First-person open-world survival crafting with seasons and rival hunters

ColdGames · Released Oct 25, 2016 · Early Access

Action Adventure Indie Simulation Early Access

Reviews: Mostly Positive; 72% of 14K
Recent reviews: Mostly Positive; 75% of 64 in 30 days
Playing now: 367; peak 24h 525
Steam Deck: Playable
Last update: 1 week ago; Sep 11, 2026

What is Subsistence?

A first-person open-world survival sandbox for solo or cooperative play. Gather and refine resources, manage hunger, thirst, and temperature, build and power a base, craft and upgrade gear, farm, fish, and fight wildlife and AI hunters who establish and raid bases.

For you if...

+you want demanding survival with constant resource pressure
+you enjoy gradual base building and technology progression
+you prefer solo or cooperative open-world play

Not for you if...

−you dislike long resource grinds and scarce supplies
−you want a forgiving start or relaxed survival
−you expect quick recovery after dying

What players say

72% of 13,828 reviews are positive · 75% of 64 in the last 30 days

Players praise the demanding survival loop, long-term base progression, changing seasons, and solo or cooperative play. The most common complaint is the heavy resource grind, especially the dependence on randomly found supplies; players also criticize aggressive wildlife, punishing respawns, and limited quality-of-life options.

Screenshots and trailer

Subsistence system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

OS: Windows 7+
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4ghz or Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 5200
Graphics: Geforce GT 460 or Radeon HD 3800
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Storage: 1500 MB available space
DirectX: Version 9.0

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Full controller support
Platforms: Windows
Achievements: 47
Steam features: Workshop, Cloud saves, Family Sharing, In-app purchases

Steam Deck: Playable

Some text entry requires manually opening the on-screen keyboard
Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
Shows Steam Deck controller icons
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck

Multiplayer and co-op

Languages

Text only: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Hungarian, Norwegian, Portuguese - Portugal, Portuguese - Brazil, Dutch, Russian, Turkish, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Romanian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Finnish, Greek, Latvian.