I didn't realize how big a trend survival games had become. There are the usual zombie ones but there are also a lot of new ones that are less horror themed. Subnautica caught my eye the other day. Basically you crash land your spaceship on a water world and must build an underwater sea base to survive. Here is a list of some of the ones on PC right now. I think a few of these have been or are being ported to consoles. Rust sold more than a million copies in it's first two months. Ark beat that by selling 1 million copies in one month. The games isn't even a finished product. DayZ Ark: Survival Evolved Don't Starve The Long Dark H1Z1 Miasmata Banished Rust The Forest State of Decay Subnautica 7 Days to Die
I've heard about Ark: Survival Evolved... but when I check out the trailer it doesn't match the hype. Looks like some garbage people funded on Kickstarter. The Subnautica concept seems cool, but it has the same cheap cartoonish look of Ark.
Indeed, almost all of them are early access games and a majority of them look horrible with buggy combat systems. I watch a bunch of let's play of Day Z just to see what it's all about and the zombies bug out when you kill them. But much like you, Subnautica is the most impressive one also looking like it's the most complete one. Complete being a more polished project. There's a youtuber named frankieonpc and he does magnificent video editing on his playthroughs of these survival games which made me run across subnautica.
I thought he was the in game voice until he said wikipedia. I got a fear of open water and things that want to eat me so I may not be able to play it.