*start game max difficulty
*30 minutes of gameplay in on death 17, starting to consider changing difficulty
*2 hour in, smooth sailing
*5 hours in, relized I couldn't win due to earlier bad choices
*took a moment to set fire to an icecub out of spite
*reloaded earlier save
*1 hour of no fuel leap frog
*finally get what I'm after
*Devs made a choice..... ####### you devs!!!! You know what you did. Well played, nice touch. :)

I really liked the game. However, unless you really love a difficult game that is more akin to using your head to break a concrete wall, don't choose the highest difficulty setting. I enjoyed it, but I wanted a challenge. Worth the money IMO. I've not tried a second play through, but it doesn't strike me as a game that will have a replay value.

Overall: 9/10

Really enjoyed this game, great atmopshere. Just moving objects in the wind was the anoying part, but rather then that would reccomend this game.

I would give it 3 out of 5. Much more enjoyable in the beginning. The ending still strikes me as odd. Enjoyable story and action, really gets your heart pumping. I would purchase it again.

Near Death is a brutal first-person survival game - you versus the viscious elements of the Antartic. There is no micro meter-management as found in many survival games, and your role is to escape rather than remain. The story starts with you surviving a plane crash at abandoned Antartic station Sutro, and you must gather enough supplies to plan your escape/rescue while not becoming victim to the hostile minus 100-degree temperatures and storm blizzards. Resources such as batteries for your torch are scant and you must use these VERY carefully, as is your only source of heat: a portable kerosine heater. Make these last because they've all you've got!

The game also involves a small amount of resource gathering and crafting to make rooms of the shelter tolerable and functional. These steps are optional objectives but your survival experience will be much easier if you do this.



The totally believable atmosphere and difficulty scale. Although the game is short, it is INCREDIBLY atmospheric - perhaps one of the most atmospheric survival games I've yet played (and I've played quite a lot of them). Nothing feels unreal or silly. Everything feels urgent and not at all easy - as it should! There is very little hand-holding. The difficulty curve seems spot-on: hard without being frustrating.



One of the complaints people have about this otherwise-excellent game is that it's short, but it's only a quarter of a full AAA game price, so I would expect a quarter the amount of playtime, and I exceeded that easily with 7-8 hours (others have reported less, so this might rather depend on how fast you speed through games). I would have liked to have had a little further playtime at the end of the game as part of my escape away from the base but that wasn't to be. There were a couple of minor world glitches such as being sometimes a little too easy to fall into impossible-to-escape crevaces and I did accidentally drop a piece of vital equipment a few feet ahead of me, only to find there was an invisible barrier prevanting me from walking towards picking it up (presumably I had reached the edge of the map but objects were able to sail over that same edge). Still, save-games weren't spaced too far apart, so no huge deal there. It wouldn't stop me recommending this game.



For those "challenged" by video games like, er, me, the 'normal' difficulty is difficult enough! You WILL die, you will become lost (and die), you will freeze (and die). There will be times when you're groping around in the dark because you didn't listen to yourself when you said "be sparing with those batteries!" and you will absolutely run out of necessities. I haven't tried the higher difficulty modes (ho ho - I'm no mug!) but at 'normal' difficulty you will be returned to the point of your last save following death - which will usually be the last moment you managed to use your kerosine heater to generate warmth succesfully (you can also quick-save).



It will be eminently replayable for me, but I'm the kind of person who can read a good book several times over. Some reviewers don't feel the same replayability, but for me it's a definite and I intend replaying at a harder difficulty level immediately.



Despite its somewhat short length, this game is currently carrying a 91% positive feedback score for good reason. It's a must-have for every escape/survival fan.

This game is boring and horrible.

Near Death is an indie survival adventure game that has been developed by Orthogonal Games. The game places you in Antarctica after the plane that you were traveling in has crash-landed. You are stranded and alone. Thankfully, the plane crashed near an abandoned research facility. Unfortunately, however, you have crashed in the midst of a deadly blizzard. It is blindingly dark outside and obviously frigid. In order to survive, you must explore Sutro Station.


There are so many survival games on Steam that rely on resource management. They have almost become a clone of one another. If you throw a different skin and setting on it a developer may assume that they have a new game. But it’s certainly not true because there is little to separate them from one another.

If I were to compare Near Death to any genre on Steam it would be the Unity engine horror games. This is strictly because of how the game plays and controls are. However, because of the genre differences and the associated quirks that come as a result the similarities end there.

Therefore, because of the lack of resource management, I feel that this may prove to be a major positive selling point for the game. That doesn’t mean you don’t need to look for tools to aid your survival. You’ll need things such as kerosene to fuel your heating device (and the heating device, of course). Consequently, your focus is not on finding X amount of an object but rather where it should be – on the adventuring itself.


The game isn’t a particularly simple game to play… at least in the beginning. It certainly controls well but it is difficult. I died several times very early in the game. Your body can only sustain the Antarctic conditions for a short period of time. Consequently, you must constantly search for the next safe zone. This is a place where you can set your heater down on the floor in an enclosed area and generate warmth.

The game makes superb utilization of the realities of Antarctic conditions. If you ever wanted to understand what it was like without experiencing it yourself then this game does a very good job of simulating it. One of the highlights of the game is the dynamic weather system. It utilizes snow, wind, temperature and lighting to create a realistic setting. It feels as though you are in a genuine blizzard where there are genuine moments of calm weather interspersed with craziness.

Further, the temperature simulation takes into consideration each room and area of the map. This is an outstanding feature of the game as it realistically calculates what each area of the map you are in and what the conditions would be like.


For all of the plaudits that I can willingly throw towards the game the biggest negative is arguably its brevity. For a $14.99 game, I was expecting to be glued to my seat for a number of hours. I am not sure where players are claiming to get more than several hours out of a single playthrough. I clocked in my first playthrough at about three hours and twenty minutes. For the amount of content – albeit much of it is quality – that you are getting I would claim that the asking price is too high. As others have recommended a $9.99 price point would be more reflective of the title.

Another complaint about the game that I have is that the difficulty appears to be front-ended. The game starts out difficult and becomes easier the longer you play. I personally favor games that offer a consistent level of challenge across a game or an increased level of challenge. The problem is that the availability of life-sustaining items becomes too frequent the longer that you play. You can almost guarantee that if you survive the beginning parts of the game that you’ll be able to complete the game.

Another issue that I have with the game is that because of the way that it is programmed it doesn’t allow for an exploratory playthrough. I readily admit that it was in reading GameSpew’s Christian Mincks’ review of the game that this truly dawned on me. While I appreciate that that is not the intention of the developer having the ability to have a game in this setting that you can explore would have been nice.


Near Death has a set of Steam trading cards and 18 Steam achievements. You’ll have to complete the game on each of the levels in order to unlock all of them. This may be a sore point for players who would like to perfect the game with only one playthrough.


I love the way in which the weather systems have been implemented. I’m never going to be able to travel to Antarctica and explore it. Therefore, I have to commend the developers on creating a game that was able to take me there as well as any documentary that I have ever watched. On that basis, I recommend the game but perhaps you would be best served to wait for a lower price point just because of the lack of content will disturb some patient gamers.

For similar reviews and your chance to win great giveaways please visit Steamified

A short but good game. Atmosphere is nice, sounds are good, music is adequate. You should buy and try this game if you have interest in survival genre with dark theme environments.

Very tense moments! Not real long or deep which not a knock to the game. Was fun and is a good time if you enjoy survival gameplay.