Breaking your way across the island
DYSMANTLE drops you into a handcrafted open world after you climb out of your shelter. There are no other humans left, and most of the wildlife has turned into aggressive, beast-like creatures. Your main goal is to find a way off the wretched island, but the road there is built out of scavenging and destruction. Over 99% of everything in the world can be broken for materials if you have the right tool, so you will spend a lot of time smashing furniture, walls, and junk to collect plastics, rubber, and metals. Recipes you find let you craft permanent weapons, tools, outfits, and trinkets that stick with you as you level up.
Playing together
DYSMANTLE supports Steam Remote Play Together, so one person who owns the game can host a session and invite friends to join in. Everyone shares the same island, the same outposts, and the same pile of loot. Split up to cover more ground, or stick together when clearing an area of monsters so you can claim it and build an outpost there. Combat works with melee and ranged weapons, and you can set traps and lure creatures into them, which gives the group room to coordinate who tanks, who shoots, and who handles the trap placement.
What to know before you start
This is not a starvation sim. You will never die of hunger, and you will not be hunting cockroaches to stay alive. The pressure comes from the hostile creatures and from getting strong enough to push into tougher areas. When a fight goes badly, you can run away and come back later with better gear. Progress is mostly permanent: crafted items, recipes, and upgrades stay with you, and cooked recipes grant permanent stat and ability boosts. The island also hides Tombs of the Old Ones with puzzles above and underground, plus ruins with technology from the hitech era that gives you an edge against the environment. Farming, fishing, and hunting are all there to feed your base-building and crafting loop rather than to keep a hunger bar from emptying.