14 DAY TRIAL // 
I had three Red Cap mushrooms in my inventory and I needed the space to pick up some honey from bees I killed earlier, so when I made my fire for the night, I decided to take the items and cook them in order to create a sort of food item that I then ate to nourish my character.
The problem was that my stomach seemed uninterested to actually quit its rumblings after ingesting the cooked mushrooms, so I needed to use the honey to make sure that I did not actually starve.
As I was exploring the game world to get some more flowers and maybe spot a butterfly or two, I finally understood what cooked mushrooms did as the landscape started to gently change and I noticed a strange beast following me, made up entirely of shadows.
I decided to confront it using my wood armor and my pickaxe, but it simply turned away and disappeared.
My strange mushroom-induced trip then subdued, but I became eager to see what a higher dose would do to my character.
Unfortunately, a bear killed me soon after, unimpressed with my armor and weaponry.
This is the kind of gameplay sequence that a player rather easily puts together in Don’t Starve on the PlayStation 4, the new version of the Klei Entertainment game that was already available on the PC.
The basic structure is deceivingly simple to explain: you are a rather odd-looking man trapped in a weird world who needs to make sure that he does not starve, die because of trauma or simply because the last traces of his sanity are gone.
In practice, this means that the daylight of any given day will be spent exploring the world, with its various resources and creatures, picking up the required components and crafting the tools needed to defend, attack and satisfy those other needs.
When night comes, a fire is required to keep the monsters at bay and the main character also has the time to prepare himself for the coming day and probably get a bite to eat, preferably something other than mushrooms.
The dialog and the atmosphere of Don’t Starve are very well put together and the mechanics, while simple, manage to create a compelling experience, filled with a wide variety of options.
The game is written in such a way that it suggests that there’s a deeper meaning hidden behind the pigs, the creatures and the general weirdness and it’s interesting to see exactly how the various pieces of the puzzle fit together.
But in order to enjoy the Klei game, the best idea is to put together a clear set of objectives and try to achieve them while seeing what the crafting system has to offer and while unlocking more content.
The potential problem is that after a while, new content tends to become scarce and some players might struggle to find the motivation to carry on, especially given that once in a while, they have to repeat tasks and crafting builds to keep their character alive.
The control system for the PlayStation 4 version of Don’t Starve works pretty well, with the trigger moving players to crafting and the resource panel and the face buttons used to take care of normal actions.
Once the layout is clear, there’s not much difference from playing on the PC, although the constant prompts that appear in front of each item tend to be a little annoying.
Graphically, the game also presents itself well and the art style remains as engaging and interesting as it was previously.
The music is another unchanged element of the game, smart and built to emphasize the quirkiness of the world that the player is exploring.
Don’t Starve is not a must buy for any PlayStation 4 owner, but the fact that it is free to those who subscribe to PlayStation Plus means that it’s relatively easy to get access to an interesting experience and see how indie developers can benefit from the launch of the new Sony console.
