When comparing Darkwood vs Rust, the Slant community recommends Darkwood for most people. In the question“What are the best survival games on PC?” Darkwood is ranked 12th while Rust is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose Darkwood is:
Darkwood is a top down game that has dark murky graphics with misty fog that fit the mood really well and awesome lighting effects from the players flashlight.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Beautiful top down graphics that illustrate a creepy and murky world
Darkwood is a top down game that has dark murky graphics with misty fog that fit the mood really well and awesome lighting effects from the players flashlight.
Pro The random generation of the game makes it all the more terrifying, as you never know what will come next
The game is really dark, has a lot of atmospheric tension, and is randomly generated to keep it from being to predictable. This way the player never knows what will happen next, which ups the element of surprise by quite a lot.
Pro Extremely replayable thanks to the random generation of the game
The maps are randomly-generated, adding extra replayability value since you never know what you will find with every new game.
Pro Optional permadeath makes for an easier time for those that want it
If you die and don't want to start from the beginning losing all of your progress you don't have to.
Pro Immersive sound effects suits the game and its creepy environments well
Sound in horror games can really make the difference on whether it’s scary or not and Darkwood's has really awesome sound.
Pro Non-PvP servers are available
If worrying that another player might kill you and loot your corpse is not your thing, or if you don't want to deal with someone constantly harassing your base, there are servers available that take away the risk of other player's malicious behavior.
Pro Building system is simple, efficient and intuitive
Hold a key while holding a hammer, and with your cursor, select the piece you want to build.
Upgrading a piece of building is done in the same fashion.
Pro Game's multiplayer nature creates psychological tension
While there's obviously potential for working together with other players towards achieving certain goals, the more likely scenario is someone trying to kill you to get your stuff. Or even worse, deceiving you in working together to achieve a particularly difficult goal only to stab you in the back when you're not needed anymore. It's easier to take stuff from someone else than gather it yourself. And since your base is a the perfect bullseye to other players, there is constant threat of griefing.
Pro Lots of variety in ways to die
Fauna, including bears and wolves, is trying to kill you, radiation, that's ever-present, is trying to kill you, zombies, in a multitude of colors, are trying to kill you, other players on the server, equipped with guns, are most definitely trying to kill you, and you, yourself, if you don't find food, will die.
Pro Base building allows for less punishing gameplay
Because you can build your base that you respawn back to when killed, losing only what you had on you at the time of death, it allows getting back to where you left off quickly.
Cons
Con May start to feel extremely tedious
It's very hard to find valuable gear in this game. Most of the caches the player finds will be filled with items that can be crafted into useful gadgets, and even they are very rare.
Not having good gear means that you will be dying a lot, especially in the early stages of the game, since you will be venturing to find anything you need while being practically defenseless.
While pretty fun at first, scouring the map with little to no protection will start feeling pretty tedious soon enough.
Con Poor tutorials
The short tutorials in the game do not do a good job of explaining certain aspects of the game such as cooking or leveling.
Con Hard to play solo
Rust is all about clans fighting for territory and loots. Solo players (or ones with a couple friends) can easily be killed by bigger clans.
Con Not yet finished (buggy)
Since it's a Steam Early Access game it still has lots of glitches, placeholder text and unreliable infrastructure. But for all its unfinished nature, it's surprisingly playable.