The Survivalists is a survival sandbox follow-up to The Escapists

The Survivalists, Team 17's follow-up to The Escapists, was announced during Nintendo's indie showcase, but it's also coming to PC. Set in the same universe as a jailbreak sandbox, this one's a co-op survival game with players stranded on an island. Give the announcement trailer a watch above.

It seems a bit like the kind of thing you'd make before you embarked on a less well-trodden game premise like a prison break. The aesthetic has evolved, but my impressions from the trailer and the Steam page is that it's pretty conventional.

You need to hunt for food, build a home and sometimes raid temples for loot, and you can craft everything from a boring axe to a tasty smoothie. If you need a hand, you can team up with up to three mates, and if you're a misanthrope you can instead recruit monkeys and make them fight and build for you. An army of monkeys? I take everything I said before back.

The implication is that the monkeys are your friends, but I've never asked my friends to build me a house while I kick back with a smoothie. Clearly these monkeys have been tricked. Also, looting ancient temples? I'm starting to think there's a good reason we've been dumped on this island.

The Survivalists is due out next year.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.