New Survival Game on Steam Takes the Best of The Forest and Valheim, and Throws In Some Firewatch for Good Measure

Few games have left a mark on the survival-crafting genre quite like The Forest. Rather than merely giving players the genre’s iconic ongoing loop of resource management and base building, it added atmospheric tension and environmental storytelling to the mix, and a real sense that danger was always watching from just beyond the tree line. Years later, its influence still shows up everywhere, especially in indie survival projects that prioritize atmosphere, mystery, and player-driven discovery over rigid progression. One of the most recent examples of that is an upcoming Steam game by Fairview Games called The Gold River Project—an open-world co-op survival crafting adventure where players are thrust into a camping trip gone wrong.

That influence is easy to spot in The Gold River Project, with the same hands-on crafting and constant vulnerability that made other Steam games like The Forest so memorable, while its open exploration and co-op structure feel closer to the shared survival stories that helped Valheim explode in popularity. What sets it apart, though, is the feeling of isolation it fosters and the constant unanswered questions that make it more like Firewatch than most games in the survival-crafting genre. Even surrounded by friends, it looks like players are meant to feel alone in The Gold River Project, and venturing beyond the safety of their camp, while necessary, appears to come with its own set of risks.

The Gold River Project’s Features at a Glance

• OPEN-WORLD SURVIVAL ADVENTURE in a vast Pacific Northwest wilderness.
• SINGLE-PLAYER OR 4-PLAYER ONLINE CO-OP, letting you survive solo or with friends.
• SURVIVAL SYSTEMS: manage health, hunger, hydration, fatigue, and temperature.
• CRAFTING AND RESEARCH: build tools, equipment, weapons, farm plots, and unlock new items through discovery.
• BASE BUILDING: expand and fortify your campsite to prepare for tougher conditions.
• SCAVENGING: explore the environment to collect useful items and resources.
• EVOLVING SEASONS: shifting biomes from summer to fall (and later winter) with unique challenges.
• MYSTERY AND DISCOVERY: uncover the truth behind being trapped in an experiment with puzzles and environmental storytelling.
• MULTIPLE WAYS TO PROGRESS: use stealth, solve puzzles, or piece together technology to overcome obstacles like the mysterious Wall.
• REPLAYABILITY: dynamic points of interest and changing locations on each playthrough.

The Gold River Project Mirrors the Survival Tension, Crafting, and Cooperative Loop of The Forest and Valheim

One of the most iconic features of The Forest is how powerless it makes players feel, with its ever-present tension and the sense that danger and death are not only possible but almost expected the longer players linger. Even when players are at their base, they are still exposed to the cannibals and mutants that populate the world, as they observe players’ actions and increase in their aggression over time. Valheim, on the other hand, doesn’t replicate the psychological pressure of The Forest, as the player’s base is meant to be viewed as a genuine place of refuge. Instead, it makes venturing beyond the safety of the base a calculated risk, as doing so often puts the player’s progress on the line. The Gold River Project takes these two defining features and rolls them into one experience.

Much like how The Forest‘s mutants and cannibals constantly observe players, in The Gold River Project, players are “being watched, studied and manipulated at every turn.” The game’s description on Steam isn’t explicit about what this means from a narrative standpoint, as that is presumably all part of the experience, but it does refer to players as “unwilling lab rats,” suggesting they have actually been taken captive and are now subjected to some unknown experiment. It’s clear that players are on their own, even when in a co-op group of up to 4 players, and they now have no choice but to survive while they look for a way out. That premise alone echoes the same tension The Forest is known for, though it doesn’t necessarily suggest that the players’ camp is anything but a safe place for them, similarly to Valheim.

According to The Gold River Project‘s Steam description, players “expand [their] campsite to prepare for what’s to come,” implying their camp is actually safer than bases in The Forest, which are always threatened by external dangers. This is where the risk of venturing beyond one’s base in Valheim might come into play in The Gold River Project, as players can potentially lose progress outside the safety of their camp. Add to that classic survival mechanics like health, hydration, hunger, fatigue, and temperature, and The Gold River Project looks like the best of both Valheim and The Forest‘s worlds.

The Gold River Project’s Narrative Unfolds in a Similar Manner to Firewatch

From a narrative and worldbuilding standpoint, however, The Gold River Project feels a lot like Firewatch. Firewatch is one of the scariest non-horror games simply because of how little it explains upfront, letting the player sit in a seemingly ordinary wilderness long enough to make them increasingly uneasy. Instead of rushing exposition, the game takes its time, allowing curiosity and doubt to build before revealing what is really going on, and it looks like The Gold River Project follows a similar path.

In The Gold River Project, what begins as a straightforward camping trip slowly becomes harder to accept at face value, with strange structures, surveillance equipment, and environmental barriers hinting that there is more happening than meets the eye. Rather than forcing story beats, the game seems willing to let exploration and small discoveries in its world tell players its story. As its Steam description explains, “Discover a mysterious barrier dividing the forest. Solve environmental puzzles, sneak past security patrols, or piece together scavenged tech to bring it down your own way.”

The Gold River Project Heads to Early Access Soon

Fortunately, The Gold River Project actually isn’t that far away now, though it will go through an early access period first rather than heading straight for a full launch. Players can actually play a demo of The Gold River Project right now on Steam, but its early access launch is just around the corner, currently targeting January 23, 2026.

The Gold River Project’s Early Access Info

• Early Access purpose: Designed to evolve with player feedback, allowing the developers to gather input on performance, balance, and content while continuing to expand the game.
• Early Access length: Planned for 12–18 months, with an emphasis on quality over speed and a full release once all major systems, seasons, and storylines are complete.
• Early Access Features include core exploration, survival systems, crafting, co-op play, camper factions, and the Summer and Fall seasons.
• Full release additions:
  • Winter season with new challenges and biomes
  • Expanded story and deeper lore
  • More wildlife, hazards, and dynamic weather
  • Additional camper factions, ranging from friendly to hostile
  • Deeper crafting, base-building, and co-op systems
  • Improved optimization, balance, and overall polish
• Current state at launch: Fully playable survival experience with progression milestones, base building, co-op support, and early story content.
• Pricing model: Price will increase after Early Access as new content and features are added.
• Community involvement: Development roadmap will be shaped by Steam reviews, Discord feedback, and social channels, with regular updates, developer notes, and testing opportunities.
• Developer approach: Early Access is positioned as a collaborative process, with player discoveries and feedback directly influencing future updates.

Everything shown so far suggests The Gold River Project is less interested in reinventing survival crafting and more focused on combining the strongest ideas of The Forest, Valheim, and Firewatch. With the unease and observation-driven tension associated with The Forest, the calculated risk and co-op structure that define Valheim, and a slower, curiosity-driven approach to storytelling reminiscent of Firewatch, it positions itself as a survival game built around uncertainty rather than constant escalation. With Early Access approaching and a clear roadmap in place, its success will likely come down to how well those influences remain balanced as the experience expands, especially once players begin pushing beyond the safety of their camps and deeper into whatever this experiment truly is.

Steam Early Access for The Gold River Project launches on January 23, 2026.