🪓 This Week in Survival

Among the Trolls dropped a second info dump charting the game’s progress—now apparently churning full speed ahead with a new engine and a new dev team.
Already a far cry from how it looked and felt a couple of years ago, back when I first reported on it.

👍 Like:

“It revolves around four primary needs: hunger, thirst, sleep, and temperature. The goal is to encourage players to explore and interact with the world around them. Food can be found, cooked, or hunted; sleep becomes necessary over time and is affected by the day/night cycle and weather conditions; cold, especially at night or in certain areas, must be countered with fire or shelter—and so on.”

⚠️ Wary:

“Survival is important, but rather than feeling like a punishment, we want it to be a constant invitation to engage with the world around you: gathering what you need, learning how to use resources wisely, and making the right choices at the right time.”

🤔 Why:
Whenever I see a dev use the phrase “not punishing,” it tends to mean we’re getting magical buffs, low-friction mechanics, and plenty of handholding disguised as “immersion.”
Fingers crossed this isn’t another survival-lite with sparkly distractions. (Hello, Nightingale!)

The Infected is gearing up for another beta cycle/public testing phase, where new content will be available for preview and bug squashing before it hits the main branch. This round mostly focuses on early-game tweaks and progression balance—among other things.

👍 Like: Content is still actively being developed, and that alone is a win for a game heading into its fifth year in Early Access. The fact that the focus is on the fresh-start experience bodes well—more polish and refinement could finally be on the table.

⚠️ Wary: Tutorial and Quest Journal!

🤔 Why: For pure survival sandbox fans, adding things like quests or structured task lists often makes a game feel more “to-do list” than “survive-or-die.” (Honestly, I don’t want tutorials in survival games—at least not in the core loop, but maybe as a separate mode at the start, if anything. Maybe I’m a sadist. )

The latest update to The Last Plague: Blight is a hefty one, and the level of care the solo developer puts into it continues to impress. Updates drop at a steady pace, and they feel intentional—nothing rushed, nothing bloated. I want to click with this game more than I currently do, but apparently, first-person view is my sweet spot.

👍 Like:Customization options have been added—not mid-save yet, but even having them at the start is a solid step forward. I especially appreciated the note that you can “turn off the Blight, mostly.” That kind of flexibility is rare, since a lot of devs tend to treat their flagship mechanic as their hill to die on.

The new Plant Growth Rate setting also stands out—especially for games that don’t (yet) have seasonal systems. +1 for more games to add this?? I also noticed many common-sense upgrades: letting players find (and eventually craft) a bow, pick up rabbit carcasses to harvest, and—soon—drag coyote bodies. Thoughtful, grounded survival design is my jam. (Baby.)

🤔 Thoughts: I’ve been dipping in and out since the early locked playtests, and overall, I like what I’m seeing. There’s a tangible path toward mechanical survival depth without veering into “but there are zombies” or “you can carry 300 lbs and heal broken legs with potions” or “and now I put my car in my pocket” territory.

That said, I still feel a disconnect, beyond my fixation on camera perspective. Some systems, while satisfying, feel like they lack purpose. Take food, for example. Filling the meter is easy enough with basic effort, and there’s little incentive to experiment with others. The same could be said for building: it’s working towards depth, but right now, not all necessary. I’m hoping that feeling changes once seasons are added, and maybe the dev is just laying the groundwork now, building systems ahead of their (contextual) need.

Either way, I’m still a big supporter!

So that was our very first Friday Forage! Be sure to slide into the comments with your feedback – or PM me on Discord. Catch you Monday for the behind-the-scenes newsletter or I’ll find you in Discord (for the full feeds) –and some random bullshitting!