How to Survive

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 83%Very Positive · 83%2014

$14.99

US Steam price, checked 5 h ago

The verdict

A scrappy, funny top-down zombie action-survival game with a great scrap-crafting system, best in co-op and on sale. Skip it if you want deep survival or hate fetch quests and clunky inventories.

Great for

Players who enjoy junk-crafting weapons and casual zombie killing, ideally in co-op with a friend

Main risk

Repetitive fetch quests, respawning zombies and clunky inventory make it feel like a chore

What players love

Deep, fun crafting system

Mentioned in ~2 in 5 positive reviews

“you can build your guns with parts you discover around the islands.”
Steam review · 112 h played ↗

“You have the option to 'uncombine' items that you've crafted, thus freeing up the materials for re-use”
Steam review · 9.8 h played ↗

“An interesting survival game with quirky crafting (tire knee pads, a rifle made from a scuba tank and pipe).”
Steam review · translated · 16.4 h played ↗

Fun zombie combat and survival needs

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“The crafting, scavenging, and survival mechanics are simple but satisfying, and I liked having to actually keep an eye on food and water.”
Steam review · 42.7 h played ↗

“You can go for mellee fighting with fun finishers or go full blast with self-made guns.”
Steam review · 8.3 h played ↗

Great co-op fun with a friend

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“How to Survive is one of the most fun casual Co-op experiences ever out there with its campy storylines and dialogues”
Steam review · 21.2 h played ↗

“This game turned out to be much more enjoyable than I thought, especially in co-op.”
Steam review · 81.6 h played ↗

“Very engaging, especially with two people on one screen.”
Steam review · translated · 4.1 h played ↗

Funny Kovac's survival guide and humor

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“this one has a great sense of humour & is surprisingly compelling”
Steam review · 1.1 h played ↗

“Kovac is funny.”
Steam review · 10.8 h played ↗

“And Kovac's rules. In its very "off" sort of way, it's pretty funny.”
Steam review · 32.8 h played ↗

Nostalgic, charming story and islands

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews

“The map design is fantastic. It's actually an archipelago, i.e. a group of islands, that you travel between.”
Steam review · 16.1 h played ↗

“which was surprisingly cool with a nice twist at the end”
Steam review · 14.7 h played ↗

Runs well on low-end PCs and Steam Deck

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews

“I played it on my old potato of a pc and it ran perfectly.”
Steam review · 9.8 h played ↗

“Runs fine and is a blast on Deck.”
Steam review · 3 h played ↗

What players complain about

Repetitive combat and gameplay

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“The gameplay is terribly repetitive, with the same zombies rushing you again and again”
Steam review · 6.8 h played ↗

“the combat is extremely boring.”
Steam review · 15.6 h played ↗

“Such a tedious game, tedious combat, though there are finishers.”
Steam review · translated · 6.5 h played ↗

Endless fetch quests and backtracking

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“That's all this game is, fetch quest after fetch quest after fetch quest.”
Steam review · 6.3 h played ↗

“All this through tube-like corridors.”
Steam review · translated · 53.8 h played ↗

Awful inventory and UI

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“May have one of the worst inventory systems in a game that I can currently remember.”
Steam review · 5.5 h played ↗

“Moving items in inventory requires you to select the item, then select move, then select another inventory slot to swap places with.”
Steam review · 3.8 h played ↗

Survival mechanics feel shallow

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“The survival element from which the game takes it's name seems tacked on with little effect on game-play.”
Steam review · 3.2 h played ↗

“the game is not about survival at all, but about monster genocide”
Steam review · translated · 14.4 h played ↗

Bad camera and shared-screen co-op

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“Co-op is nearly unplayable because of one camera for two players.”
Steam review · translated · 3.1 h played ↗

“Camera angles often wonky, there are times where foliage or other environment things will be blocking the view of your character”
Steam review · 14.6 h played ↗

Respawning zombies

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“Enemies literally materialize out of thin air.”
Steam review · translated · 53.8 h played ↗

“you clear the same clearing 25 times running around a small island”
Steam review · translated · 8.7 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Verified

Minimum

OSWindows XP

ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo or better

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsAti 5700 series/NVIDIA GeForce GT240 or equivalent

Storage7 GB available space

OSWindows XP

ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo or better

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsAti 5700 series/NVIDIA GeForce GT240 or equivalent

Storage7 GB available space

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