The Tribe Must Survive Review (PC)

In the wake of the emotional turmoil that I had to endure following my untimely departure from Frostpunk’s icy citadel, I decided to try my luck with governing a new world—a shadowy, woodland-centric society that would ultimately lead me into a downward spiral toward the underbelly of an eternal nightmare. It was there, at the beating heart of a local settlement, where I stood once more, morally bankrupt conscience in tow, and began to make my preliminary argument for the right to rule the community. Sure enough, they told me that The Tribe Must Survive — and I agreed, even though I hadn’t the slightest idea of how to secure their safety in a world that was so desperately trying to eradicate them. But I accepted, all too quick, might I add. I had experience, albeit a small amount, and I knew, alright, how to yank on a few strings.

Of course, I wasn’t quite ready to tackle the antics that  would eventually follow suit in the aftermath of my election. In my mind, I honestly believed that, having slugged through Frostpunk and somehow managing to wind up with the vast majority of its citizens favoring my efforts than setting them ablaze to keep themselves warm, things couldn’t get any tougher. But I was wrong — so very, very wrong. Sure enough, the tribe would survive, but not without a few minor setbacks and sacrifices.

The Tribe Must Survive is a lot of things, but for the most part, it’s a tough-as-nails village-building game that invites its players to control their own silhouetted puppets and evolve their natural habitat—a Lovecraftian biome comprised of gloomy woodlands and charcoal-smothered caverns. It isn’t an easy cookie to crack, but it is, in ways, one that you’ll want to take a bite out of.

But at What Cost?

If you’ve ever taken the opportunity to hurl yourself into the thick of the menacingly tough city-building sandbox sim that is 11 Bit Studios’ Frostpunk, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of how The Tribe Must Survive works. To cut a long story short, you take on the role of an overseer—a jack-of-all-trades type who, as the ruler of a small communal village, has the power to not only shape the future of the Stone Age, but also lead it out of the shadows and into a new era of hope and prosperity. It’s reaching that point, however, that’s the issue.

It goes without saying at this point, but The Tribe Must Survive is not a happy game. Or at least, it isn’t in the traditional sense, anyway. Sure, it does conjure several moments of joy, particularly when you manage to solve an ever-growing issue that threatens the welfare of your people, but for the most part, it is all rather, shall we say, bleak. And it’s bleak, really, because people will die, and folks who you come to develop genuine empathy for will succumb to the shadows around them, regardless of how thick of a wall you wedge between them and the outside world. Therefore, the only thing you can really do, as the puppeteer of an ill-fated tribe, is perform to your heart’s content, and do all in your power to ensure that they have a future to work towards.

There is, unfortunately, a catch to all of this: your tribe, as moldable as they are, is mostly made up of folks who like to take measures into their own hands. By that, I mean, they like to wander and tackle social issues thrice their size—a task that usually, and rather annoyingly, leads to failure.

Against All Odds

Like a huge portion of city-building games, the goals of The Tribe Must Survive largely consist of crafting, upgrading, and rebuilding from the grassy roots up, all whilst keeping a lid on the dangers that lurk beyond the paper-thin walls of your communal home. Similar to Frostpunk, the idea is to establish the foundations for a well-oiled machine of a world, and preferably before the shadows entice your villagers into straying too far from the pack. With that, there’s a tough prologue to shovel through—a trial phase, if you will, that ultimately tests your ability to adapt to the harsh conditions and secure stable ground for your people. Spoiler alert: it isn’t a walk in the park — and you will, to some extent, fail to make ends meet in the first twenty or so minutes of picking up the slack.

It goes like this: you’ve acquired the keys to a small patch of land—a barebones husk of an encampment that’s shrouded in shadows and an ever-intrusive veil of darkness. It’s within these shadows—a threat that squashes you and your villagers into the smallest of pockets of land—that a growing population of creatures and hostile forces wait in vain, if only until one of your citizens decides to brave the unknown and tiptoe into the depths out of complete and utter morbid curiosity. The only issue here, unfortunately, is that the vast majority of the natural resources are located beyond said veil, which means you’ll need to decide who to sacrifice, and who to keep ahold of for the sake of balancing the food chain.

You’re Safe With Me…For Now

While on the subject of shadows, the main objective of the game, in short, is to keep a fire blazing and the world around you from falling into darkness. If you fail to keep a fire alight, then you’ll wind up having to cater to a fractured society—a group of people who, while in a state of shock and distress, will eject themselves from their workload and opt to starve to death by the last-remaining spectacle of light. It’s your job, as their spiritual leader, to prevent them from plummeting down the rabbit hole and deeply into madness. Again, much easier said than done.

What makes The Tribe Must Survive even harder is its clever use of catastrophic events, such as an Eclipse—a week-long happening that leaves your tribe in complete and utter darkness. It’s during times like these that, in order to progress, you must forage for whatever natural resources you can find, and resort to spirituality as the days pour over and the light slowly begins to revolt. Aside from the Eclipse, there are also several other natural disasters to deal with, all of which have the potential to cause serious damage to your tribe’s wellbeing, as well as whittle its numbers down to a frail few.

The Tribe Must Survive is a game that intentionally thrives in unforgivable circumstances, and it doesn’t exactly hold back when it comes to coughing up new problems for you to shovel through with only the smallest of tools at your disposal, either. It isn’t one for the faint of heart, nor is it one for those who’ve grown a fondness of cozy, hand-holding city-building sandboxes, for that matter. On the contrary, it’s cruel, bitter, and unnecessarily unforgiving.

Verdict

The Tribe Must Survive isn’t one of those typical city-building sandbox games that you’ll be able to brush under the rug in a few hours or less. Matter of fact, it’ll take you anywhere from five to six hours just to learn the basics — and even then, that’s barely scratching the surface. With little to no hand-holding and an enormous amount of issues to chomp through right from the get-go, it’s hard to recommend such a product to those who lack the patience to see it through to its bitter end. With that said, like a lot of ludicrously tough world-building games of its kind, when the snowball does begin to roll, it is, more or less, bearable—enjoyable, even. It’s reaching that level in the process that’s frustrating — and something that, quite frankly, a great portion of players won’t ever see the light of.

Take it from me — if you’re something of an “expert” in the art of building, then you’re probably going to find something to love about The Tribe Must Survive. That is, of course, providing that you are willing to embark on a seemingly endless trial-and-error journey that’ll wind up with far more losses than gains. Aside from that, there isn’t a huge amount to fret over, as the game itself does feature its wide array of solid base-building components, all of which gel with the general flow of the gameplay remarkably well. Again, this is, of course, entirely dependent on whether or not you can stick it out long enough to unravel them in the virtual flesh. Don’t get your hopes up, is all I’m saying.