A friend is interested in picking up Don’t Starve Together. I told him I’d look into it, but all I’m seeing so far is that the game is still in beta, and despite being beta, is charging $15 (albeit for a two-copy bundle). Further, all of the official sources are frustratingly vague about what the game is actually like: I get that figuring out the game is meant to be part of the game, but I really don’t want to spend $15 without having any idea whether I’m going to like it.
But the single-player game has been around for a while, and I’ve seen a few folks mention here that they play it. So, what’s it like? What sorts of players would like it? And how buggy should we expect the beta to be?
With the caveat that my knowledge is from watching Let’s Plays and livestreams rather than playing…
Very hardcore survival crafting game. Start with nothing, pick up sticks and a rock, make an axe to cut down trees, etc to start out with, but mistakes are punished severely, and the world is very hostile. When you die, game over, start a new world (multiplayer is a bit more forgiving as one player can get the other back to life). Get stuck in the dark without a light? You’re dead. Run out of food? You’ll die very, very fast. Run out of sanity? Shadow creatures appear and kill you. Event happens that you didn’t have a lot of warning about? Well, in your next life you’ll have more knowledge of what might happen.
For what it’s worth, the game is largely a finished product despite being in “beta”. They’re still developing and working on it but what’s there is very playable.
As Dzeiger said, it’s a combination survival game with rogue-like elements. Randomly created world when you start, dying ends the game and you explore as you gather the materials needed to survive and prosper. There’s a couple different characters to choose from with different attributes or skills. I’ve played it single player and it can be fun although frustrating. I can see the advantage of having someone there to watch your back or revive you (although I can also see the disadvantage of sharing your meager food, etc).
I’d suggest you check out some YouTube videos. You don’t really need to worry about major spoilers as long as you only watch one or two videos; the game is quite challenging as is and you get dropped in with exactly zero instructions or resources, so you will do much better with at least a rudimentary idea of what you’re supposed to do.
Unlike the original single player game, death is not necessarily permanent in Don’t Starve Together. Your friends can resurrect you via several different methods, but it does not come without a cost.
It’s really just a resource management game at its heart. You don’t need to be an OCD micromanager, but it might help (or at least there could be some benefit in playing with somebody who is one).
PS I believe while DST is still in “Early Access,” owners of DS still get a free copy of DST. There’s a $20 bundle that comes with the original game and an *extra *copy of DST, so together with your friend you can cut the cost by $5 each, and one of you would get the original game as well.