Spirit Animal Survival is a unique breed of game, where developers True Illusion Software thrusts players into a world where they must work together with other players in an online environment in order to save their tribe from certain destruction.
The general premise might sound pretty ho-hum, but the task of saving your tribe becomes a real challenge when you have to consider that Spirit Animal Survival retains all the basic survival simulator aspects that you’ve come to expect from open-world games, including resource gathering, hunting for food, and attempting to scavenge for material to craft new gear.
Once you get the basics done you’ll then have to venture throughout the game world and attempt to unlock the ability to turn into the 11 different spirit animals located across the five different islands.
Why the spirit animals important? Well, apart from it being eponymous with the title of the game, you’ll need the spirit animals in order to defeat the 11 different evil elite monsters roaming the game world.
Yes, there are 11 elite bosses that must be defeated, not unlike the premise of games such as Monster Hunter or Shadow of the Colossus. You can see what the gameplay will be like with the trailer below.
So this isn’t just another one of those pointless survival games where you just partake in hunter-gathering missions in order to survive. You’ll also have objectives and goals, and can work with other players in order to achieve those goals.
The game will feature more than 100 different creatures to interact with, as well as hunt, and more than 200 different craftable items, including huts, structures, items and weapons.
The game will also feature a detailed character creation suite for both male and female player characters, and six sets of clothes for each gender as well. And yes, there are only two genders.
The mount/pet system ties into the wildlife ecosystem in the game, as players will be able to tame wild animals and ride them, or acquire certain animals as pets. If you have a male and female variation of the same pet/mount, you can also breed them to make more.
The full version of the game will feature 11 islands instead of five, and all 11 boss instances instead of the four that will be available in Early Access.
True Illusion Software also expects the game to stay in Early Access for about a year, so don’t expect the full release until 2019.
You can learn more by visiting the Steam store page, as it preps to enter into Early Access before January is out.
