Trying to survive with online strangers is rarely an easy task. Fortunately, this makes for much more exciting online survival! Choosing the most popular online survival games of skill and strategy is never an easy task - there are so many up and coming games it's near impossible to keep up! However, let's take a look at some of the best multiplayer survival games currently out and about. Try not to stab your buddies in the back!
 
Project Zomboid
 
Despite the incredibly slow progress that this game has experienced over many years, the fact is that this is the finest zombie apocalypse game on the market. While the single-player experience may end up boring people (unless harvesting in frost is your thing) the online element adds a huge amount of extra quality. Sure the zombies are still about, but who goes out to slay them? After all, someone else has to tend the crops and cook supper. Maybe another player from your group will go and siphon much-needed gasoline to fuel the generator over the winter months. It is incredibly open-ended - besides the fact that eventually, everyone will perish! How long it takes is up to you.
 
Rust
 
If the undead isn't your thing, how about being a caveman? There's much more to the game than just scraping some flint to make a fire. If you are accepted into a tribe then the progress - and dawn of civilization - can be incredibly amazing to enjoy. Or you may be eaten by a wild animal when scavenging for some nonpoisonous berries. The multiplayer online experience can take some getting used to, but for the effort put in this can be one of the best online survival games going. Just pull your weight!
 
DayZ
 
And back to Zombies! To be a matter of fact from the outset, this game splits opinions. The online element is fantastic providing you can form or join a group, Otherwise, you'll do well to last a day. Just like The Walking Dead, the real threat isn't stumbling upon the occasional zombie now and again. It is human players who will either snipe or more likely mass attack you! Compared to the other games mentioned above, DayZ is much more about 'kill or be conquered'. This is far easier as a group, just be careful about how you go about trying to join one.
 
StarCraft
 
Quite rightly regarded as one of the best online multiplayer games ever made, this is quite simply a game everyone must experience. Forget the world being your oyster - in StarCraft you have a universe to explore, while also interacting with thousands of other players. A player may choose to just be a casual merchantman shipping too and forth... or - let's face it, being a part of a space pirate armada is much more fun! A superb mod community makes this one of those games that it's very easy to spend hundreds of hours enjoying. Apparently, it's even led to a couple of marriages!
 
Minecraft

 
When it comes to world-building, there are few games that come close to Minecraft. But let's face it - eventually, the single-player mode becomes boring. Playing online is a far more difficult and 'adult' experience. As with most games of this ilk, it will become a competition for not just resources but also territory. Do you choose to try and get along with the new neighbor who keeps chopping down 'your' trees, or maybe go burn down his home? Join the right game and it is a surprisingly benevolent and fascinating community to explore. Just be careful where you go!
 
H1Z1
 
This is still very much in the early stages - and yes again it involves a zombie apocalypse! That being said, the signs are already promising for anyone who wants to enter the George Romero world from Day/Dawn of the Dead. There's little chance of surviving on your own - but as a group the sky is the limit. Playing the game feels a little like an early release of Fallout 3 but there's clearly masses of potential here. With any luck, this will receive the community support and patience that it deserves, because the vision is utterly fantastic.

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