Common Sense Media Review
By Dana Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Suspenseful building, but iffy content in community mode.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Survivalcraft
Privacy Rating Pass
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
After being marooned on an island, players begin to build worlds in SURVIVALCRAFT. In a new world, players choose creative, harmless, challenging, or cruel (character can't respawn after dying), then press play, and a world appears. Viewing the screen from a first-person perspective, players either start building things in creative mode or in survival mode (all modes are survival other than creative) and must start collecting tools and weapons right away. To survive, players must watch their hunger levels and kill animals -- everything from sharks to elephants -- to eat meat, or they start to get sick and die. To build a building, players tap where they want to place a block and begin to build. As players move through the world, they collect things such as wood, precious stones, electric elements, and more to help them throughout the rest of the game. Players can build multiple worlds and share them or keep them private. There's no authorized multiplayer mode at the time of review.
Is It Any Good?
Though it's a lot like Minecraft, this app may strike some kids as more suspenseful and scary and more focused on survival. Though there's a creative mode without threats and Minecraft has its own share of threats and enemies, this sandbox adventure seems to have even more realistic bad guys. It's generally OK for kids who aren't scared by herds of animals stampeding their character or sharks circling -- and sometimes eating -- him (there's only a male character). For younger kids, single-player/creative mode is the best because they can explore and craft without violence or roaming around older players' creations. In the Community Content area, it's anyone's guess as to what kids will find, and some of it has been found to be overtly violent, sexual, or both -- definitely not for kids. Though there's a setting to block access to this area, it isn't locked with a parent password, so kids can simply change it back. Also, gameplay isn't as smooth here as it is on Minecraft: The controls are much more difficult to use and can be clunky and slow. On the other hand, there are more tools for building in Survivalcraft than Minecraft, which can be a plus. For teens and adults, the differences may be a matter of taste, but for younger players, single-player Minecraft may be a better bet.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about your family's rules about online servers and content created by other people (potentially adults). Discuss what to do if your kid is allowed to view Community Content on this game and comes across inappropriate content.
Discuss the difference between suspense and spookiness vs. cruel and gratuitous violence.
Talk about what kids can learn from this type of game. What types of creativity and problem-solving does you kids use while playing?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android , Kindle Fire
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : problem solving , Creativity : developing novel solutions , imagination , innovation , making new creations
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Release date : March 25, 2016
- Genre : Adventure Games
- Publisher : Igor Kalicinski
- Version : 1.29.21.0
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 5.1.1 or later; Android 2.3.3 and up
- Last updated : February 15, 2023
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