Survarium
Survarium is a post-apocalyptic arena FPS built around quick PvP matches and character progression. Players jump into compact maps, earn experience and skills, and slowly expand their arsenal of weapons and gear while fighting for objectives in a ruined world.
 | Publisher: Vostok Games Type: Arena FPS Release Date: January 05, 2015 Shut Down Date: May 2022 Pros: +Deep skill progression with meaningful build choices. +Strong post-apocalyptic tone in maps and sound. +Snappy, arcade-forward firefights. Cons: -Character models lack personality and variety. -Technical issues and bugs can disrupt matches. -Unlocking upgrades can feel overly grindy. |
Survarium Shut Down in May 2022
Survarium Overview
Survarium drops you into a harsh, overgrown wasteland where firefights are short, lethal, and decided by positioning as much as aim. Instead of long-form survival systems, the game focuses on arena-style PvP across three modes: Team Deathmatch, Battery Retrieval, and Research. The time-to-kill is low, so learning sightlines, flanking routes, and when to disengage matters as much as raw reflexes. Between rounds you gain experience, level up, and invest in skills that nudge your character toward a preferred style, for example quicker aiming, improved durability, or movement-focused perks.
Loadouts are flexible rather than locked to rigid classes, but faction choice still influences your identity and long-term progression. Each faction supports different roles and equipment paths, whether you lean into careful long-range play or aggressive close-quarters pushes. Adding to the setting are anomalies scattered around maps, creating dangerous zones that punish careless movement and occasionally reshape how teams traverse the arena.
Survarium Key Features:
- Apocalyptic Atmosphere – battle through maps framed by a bleak end-of-the-world vision, with irradiated hazards and nature reclaiming abandoned structures.
- Skills – earn experience from matches and unlock a broad set of perks that let you tune your survivor toward a specific combat approach.
- No Classes – build your kit freely, mixing weapons and equipment without being forced into strict class templates.
- Factions – pick from four factions that encourage different battlefield specializations and progression priorities.
- Large Arsenal – work toward a sizable lineup of firearms and gear intended to support multiple playstyles.
Survarium Screenshots
Survarium Featured Video
Survarium Review
Survarium is in Early Access. MMOs.com will update this review when the full game is released.
Survarium is easy to misread if you come in expecting a pure survival sandbox. Its branding and setting suggest a broader, exploration-driven experience, but the playable core is much closer to a traditional match-based shooter. That identity makes more sense once you know the studio background, Vostok Games was formed by developers with roots in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lineage after S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was canceled. Survarium is not set in that universe, but it borrows familiar genre flavor, particularly the idea of anomalies and artifacts inspired by Roadside Picnic.
The result is a PvP shooter that leans into tense, deadly engagements and grim atmosphere, even if it does not fully capitalize on the deeper survival fantasy many players might expect from the premise.
An Arena Shooter Wearing Survival Clothes
Moment to moment, Survarium plays far more like an arcade-minded team shooter than a survival game. There is no open world to roam, and there is no cooperative campaign to tackle with friends. What you get instead are instanced arenas, quick matchmaking, and a loop of fighting, earning experience, then improving your character through skills and equipment. If you judge it as a competitive arena FPS with progression, it has a solid foundation. If you judge it as a survival title, it will feel like a different product.
Getting started is straightforward. A tutorial introduces the basics and hands out a few early rewards, then you are pushed into the equipment interface to assemble a functional starter kit. Character identity is expressed through gear rather than a robust character creator, at least in the version reflected here. Once equipped, you queue up and let the maps do the rest, tight lanes, tall vegetation, and plenty of cover that turns every corner into a potential ambush.
Modes and Objectives
Survarium offers three match types: Team Deathmatch, Battery Retrieval, and Research. Team Deathmatch is the cleanest expression of the game’s strengths, compact maps, quick trades, and a constant need to watch angles. Battery Retrieval adds an item-running objective, while Research plays like an objective control variant that tries to push teams into set locations.
In practice, however, many lobbies drift toward kill-chasing regardless of the mode. Objectives often become secondary to controlling the best firing lanes, and it is common for fights to cluster around key intersections rather than around the win condition. That does not make the modes unplayable, but it does mean the variety can feel thinner than it looks on paper.
Anomalies appear across maps as environmental threats. They are dangerous enough to punish careless sprinting and can temporarily block a favored route, which is useful for forcing movement and breaking stalemates. Still, they often come across as an extra hazard layered onto a deathmatch formula rather than a system the match is built around. The Artifact Hunters faction can interact with anomalies more directly, but doing so in a live PvP match can be risky when enemies are eager to punish anyone standing still.
Gunplay and Lethality
Survarium’s best moments come from its lethality. Fights resolve quickly, and strong positioning is rewarded. Maps typically provide multiple approaches to the same area, so you rarely feel safe holding a single angle for long. Rotations, timing, and the ability to read where the other team is spawning matter a lot.
Weapons, especially rifles, can drop opponents in very few hits, which creates a tense rhythm. You spend a lot of time moving between cover, listening for shots, and taking brief windows to peek. When it clicks, Survarium delivers that satisfying post-apocalyptic skirmish feel where every mistake is costly and every clean engagement feels earned.
Movement and Inputs
The control scheme is familiar for the genre, but there are a few choices that may surprise players coming from more modern twitch shooters. Notably, there is no prone option, which limits stealthy use of tall grass and removes a common tactical layer for long-range play. Movement also has a slightly weighty feel, and jumping in particular can seem less immediate than expected. That extra heft may be aiming for grounded immersion, but it can clash with the fast pace of arena firefights where responsiveness is usually the priority.
Visuals, Audio, and Map Craft
Built on the Vostok Engine, Survarium generally captures an appealing sense of decay. Maps lean hard into vegetation overtaking human structures, and lighting can create dramatic sightlines that feel thematically appropriate for the setting. Larger environmental pieces tend to look strong, and the arenas themselves are structured well enough to support flanks, mid-range duels, and close-quarters brawls.
Up close, some smaller props and textures can look muddy even on higher settings, which undercuts the otherwise convincing atmosphere. Character models are also a weak point, with limited variety that makes teams feel visually uniform. Audio is a standout, gunshots have bite and presence, and the soundscape contributes a lot to the tension when engagements break out nearby.
Progression: Skills and Gear
Survarium includes layered progression that mixes shooter fundamentals with light RPG-style build tuning. You level your character to unlock skills, and you also advance faction reputation to access new weapons and equipment. The skill tree offers incremental bonuses, for example small boosts to aim speed, survivability, or mobility. These perks usually do not swing fights on their own, but they can reinforce a preferred playstyle over time.
The drawback is pacing. Unlocks can arrive slowly, and the path to specific weapons can feel like a long haul, especially when both level and faction rank requirements gate the same item. If you enjoy a steady progression grind, there is something to work toward. If you prefer a more even playing field where most of the toolkit is available early, the system may feel like an obstacle between you and the loadout you actually want to use.
Premium and Monetization Pressure
Survarium is not the most aggressive example of pay-to-win design, but spending money can clearly accelerate progress. Because items are level-locked, paying does not instantly skip all barriers, you still need to meet the required progression thresholds. In actual matches, mechanical skill still matters, and competent players can compete effectively with basic gear.
Where the monetization becomes concerning is in the idea that not every desirable item path feels equally accessible through normal play. Even when paid weapons are broadly comparable to earned alternatives, limiting acquisition options can create distrust. Premium accounts also increase experience, reputation, and income earned by 50 percent, which primarily benefits players who like the gunplay but do not want the slower unlock cadence.
Expectations Versus Direction
The biggest point of friction is the gap between Survarium’s current reality and the broader concept often associated with it. As it stands, it is an arena PvP shooter with progression systems and a strong setting. Promised future elements, such as a more open, exploration-focused experience and cooperative play, would fundamentally change the game’s identity. That kind of pivot is difficult, and it is fair for players to be cautious until those features are actually playable.
To the studio’s credit, Vostok Games has historically communicated through official channels and community-facing posts, and the intent to deliver on the larger vision has been stated. The question has always been timing and scope, especially when updates focus on incremental improvements rather than structural changes.
Final Verdict – Good
Survarium works best when approached as a fast, lethal, post-apocalyptic team shooter. It delivers tense firefights, strong atmosphere, and maps that support a variety of engagements. At the same time, its objective modes can blur into kill-focused chaos, its progression can feel overly grindy, and its presentation is held back by bland character models and technical rough edges.
If you are looking for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-style experience, Survarium is not that. If you want a free-to-play arena FPS with a bleak setting and quick time-to-kill, it can be enjoyable in short bursts, especially with friends. Ultimately, it is a competent PvP shooter that hints at bigger ideas, even if it never fully becomes the broader survival experience some players hoped for.
Survarium Links
Survarium Official Site
Survarium Steam Store
Survarium Wikipedia
Survarium Reddit
Survarium Wikia [Database/Guides]
Survarium Gamepedia [Database/Guides]
Survarium System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
CPU: Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz or Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+
Video Card: 512 MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GT or Radeon HD 3870
RAM: 2GB
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
CPU: Core 2 Duo E7600 3.06GHz or Athlon II X2 270
Video Card: GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4850
RAM: 4GB
Hard Disk Space: 10 GB
Survarium Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon…
Survarium Additional Information
Developer(s): Vostok Games
Engine: Vostok Engine
Announcement Date: April 25, 2012
Alpha Test (RU): May 13, 2013
Closed Beta (PvP Mode): December 20, 2013
Open Beta: January 05, 2015
Release Date: January 05, 2015
Steam Release: April 02, 2015
Shut Down Date: May 2022
Development History / Background:
Survarium was created by Ukrainian developer Vostok Games using the studio’s own Vostok Engine. The team formed after the cancellation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, when former GSC Game World developers established a new studio backed by Vostok Ventures Ltd. The project was announced on April 25, 2012, and while it is not officially part of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. setting, it draws from similar inspirations, particularly the anomalies and artifact concept associated with Roadside Picnic.
After early testing phases, Survarium entered Open Beta on January 05, 2015, and later arrived on Steam on April 02, 2015. On February 07, 2022, it was announced that the game would be shut down in late May 2022, which ultimately ended active service for the title.