When some Stardew Valley bug problems ruined some lockdown date nights though, Don’t Starve Together was recommended to me on some internet list as one to try out, and what a recommendation it was. We went into the game with no knowledge of how it works or what to do except the obvious: don’t starve. Well, easier said than done, to be honest. Firstly, being alone in the dark kills you, so you need to light a fire every night. To light a fire you need wood, so you have to chop wood with an axe you’ve made out of twigs and flint you found on the ground. Unless you didn’t find any flint, in which case you’ll need to make a little mini torch and burn some cut grass to stay alive just for the night. But wait, hang on. I’m also hungry! Well, we found a few berries. Not enough for the two of us, but we might as… Oh, this character only eats meat. Okay, well where do we get meat? We need to make a trap and kill the local rabbits? Okay, let’s try that… Ah, they run back into their rabbit holes. Cool, cool, cool. Well then, let’s try something else, shall we? The thing I’m loving most about Don’t Starve Together is that it’s truly collaborative. Sometimes you need to explore southwards while your teammate goes and cuts wood to the north, keeping in touch via voice comms and learning more about the map you’re exploring together, yet separately. It feels great to survive that extra day compared to your previous try, and always finding new things organically or through actually exploring the game’s systems. I’ll just admit it: if I tried to play this alone, I’d have given up or consulted the wiki immediately, but having problems to solve together makes Don’t Starve Together a game we’ll be coming back to a whole lot. The only problem with it being ‘Together’ is that all our resources are pooled, so I get told off for ‘wasting’ grass and making a cool hat for my little robot boy. It’s such a nice hat! He looks so classy in it! Who needs warmth or survival, c’mon.
