Dread Hunger should be your next gaming group experience

The imposed lockdown, which started in 2020 due the outbreak of COVID-19,  made it difficult for most people to go out and socialize with their friendship groups. This resulted in many gamers gravitating towards multiplayer party games.

Since then, the genre has stuck as, for some unknown reason, stabbing your friends in the back (in a game) has become very popular, and Among Us is a good example of this – being one of the biggest hits and stress relievers since the start of the pandemic.

Now we have Dread Hunger, which was released on Steam in January 2022. The game combines social deception mechanics with survival elements that will provide hours of thrilling gameplay for you and your friends.

Game premise

In Dread Hunger, you are one of eight crew members of a 19th-century artic expedition guiding your steam-powered ship through the icy seas.

Along the voyage through the Arctic channel, your ship gets stuck, and the crew must work together to survive and destroy the glacier blocking its path.

The game features familiar survival components, as you’ll have to manage hunger and warmth by hunting for food and and gathering coal. You’ll also have to find and make weapons to protect yourself from the Arctic wildlife, which includes polar bears and wolves.

Your tasks and duties will be determined based on your specific role within the crew, like Captain, Engineer, or Hunter.

However, there are two traitors amongst the crew known as “Thralls” whose aim is to sabotage the expedition due to their allegiance to darker forces.

The Thralls are tasked with undermining the voyage by any means necessary.

There are many ways to accomplish this, from passive-aggressive moves to outright violence. For example, you can sabotage the ship, poison the food, or shoot a crewmember dead during a supply-gathering mission.

You can even call on the dark forces to craft voodoo-like totems and use powerful magic, like commanding armies of cannibals to attack.

Communication is key

Like any social deception game, communication is key to forming alliances, tricking others, and generally enjoying the experience.

If you don’t have headphones with a good mic, your silence will make it very hard to defend yourself to the crew and it will most likely get you killed.

Graphically, Dread Hunger is okay at best. There is not much variety among the three artic-themed maps, and the mechanics within the game feel unrefined when compared to other modern games.

However, the looks and sounds of the game are not what it is about; rather, it is a game focused on strategy and deception.

If you’re an Among Us fan, then the offerings of Dread Hunger are more than satisfactory. Given the bad experiences expressed by solo players due to the online toxicity of some players, we feel that you would get the best out of Dread Hunger by playing with a good group of friends.

Dread Hunger is currently the 3rd top-selling game on Steam and you can grab it for R175.

Read: Midnight Ghost Hunt to launch on 31 March