Survivor gaming: SOS mixes reality competition with Hunger Games

Forage for materials on an island, make alliances with other players and compete in fake reality competition just like Survivor: SOS is an interesting game.

One of the biggest shames surrounding Survivor is that even though the show persists 18 years after its first season, video gaming has not followed suit in such a way. Sure, there are old PC games from the early 2000s, and Erik Reichenbach has spent parts of the past five years working on a Survivor-inspired Islands of Chaos, but few games now have elements similar to the reality competition series we know and love, save for SOS.

SOS is an interactive survival action game show where 16 players are dropped onto La Cuna Island with nothing but the clothes on their back and a map. Online multiplayer gameplay does not involve facing off in competitions and voting the other 15 players off, but instead uses elements of the show. The game is in Early Access for $29.99, meaning it is only partially developed now and will take feedback from its players in its continued development.

This includes player-voiced confessionals, a live-streaming audience watching you play on Hero TV, the ability to high-five with other players to enter alliances and the survival elements of gathering resources such as weapons, healing items and hidden relics amid monstrous beasts blocking your path.

The goal of SOS is to survive long enough to find an enemy with a relic on their back, take it from them, fire a flare for a helicopter extraction and get the hell off of La Cuna Island. Plus, players at home can drop positive (or negative) boxes down to players in order to help them out (similar to the Hunger Games). Just let former Big Brother winner Dan Gheesling showcase the dynamics of SOS in this gameplay video below.

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While the gameplay loop is different from Survivor, the idea of making alliances and teaming up with other players (who can easily kill you and stab you in the back) is fairly similar, and not found often in online multiplayer games. The idea of an audience watching your moves, plus the ability to share your own message to the viewers, does add a layer of familiarity with the show, feeding into that reality competition feeling.

Finding a relic may be a bit difficult, but the map is big enough at this moment that you need to play SOS a few times just to get familiar with the layout. Plus, as you enter matches with players that betray you in other matches, you start to form natural grudges that plays into a natural feud.

With Survivor still a month away from airing Ghost Island, SOS seems like a fun alternative for gaming enthusiasts looking to scratch parts of that itch!

A copy of this game was provided to the author, who was interested in this game from a gaming and Survivor-related perspective.