I must confess I am a bit of an addict when it comes to survival games, it is one of my favourite genres, so when Fairview Games offered me a chance to try out there first game, a co-op survival game called The Gold River Project, I jumped at the chance. I strapped on my pack and headed out into the wilderness, was it worth the trip?

The Gold River Project is set in the deep Pacific Northwest and sees you (and some friends if you choose) setting out on a camping trip to a sprawling nature reserve, however it is not long after you reach the island and go through the games short tutorial that you realise that everything is not as it seems and that you may have stepped into a situation that is as mysterious as it is dangerous. The Gold River project tells its story through a series of notes that you will find in various locations across the games massive map, these notes provide the basis of the back story and clues that point you towards important locations on the map.

The landscape is absolutely stunning in The Gold River project and its environment pushes you to set out and explore its lush wilderness, and your exploration will definitely be rewarded not always with answers to what is going on but also with further mystery and intrigue, the games atmosphere reminded me a lot of the TV show LOST, where there is this eerie feeling that something just under the surface is just not quite right. The tension is definitely palpable in this game and trying to solve some of its mysteries definitely kept me interested in playing further.

As with all survival games it is not just the environment you need to contend with, you need to make sure you keep yourself alive by procuring water and food and also ensure that you have adequate clothing to survive the changing seasons, especially the Winter which can be incredibly brutal. You will spend a lot of time scavenging or hunting animals to ensure that you don’t starve or die of thirst, the hunger meter in the game does currently seem to be bugged and stuck at 100 percent fed and then will suddenly drop to 0 and start taking your health with it so be sure to keep an eye on that. Crafting is also a big part of the game and you will spend your first few hours in the game finding a suitable place to build a campsite (which serves as a home base) and then scavenge for the resources needed to build things such as crafting benches and storage boxes, standard survival game stuff. One of the more innovative survival mechanics in the game though is that you can learn crafting recipes from items you pick up, for instance if you pick up a rock and study it this might lead you to learn how to create a fire pit, I have never seen this type of mechanic in a survival game before and I thought it was a really nice touch.

The Gold River Project is certainly rough around the edges and not very well optimised at the moment, the devs have advised that optimisation is one of their main priorities going forward and they do have a fairly solid roadmap for future additions which include cabin building, kayaking and all terrain vehicles to name a few. Currently I really don’t think there is enough in the game to justify its high price for an early access title, but it is certainly a game I will be watching going forward to its full release, if the devs can deliver on their promises then it certainly does have a chance to be a stand out game in the overcrowded survival genre.

The Gold River Project is now available in Early Access on steam, thanks to Fairvew Games for allowing us the opportunity to play through their game.