Zelda Meets Uncharted And Minecraft In Open-World Survival Sandbox You Can Play Free Now

Published Sep 13, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work. Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work. The Legend of Zelda's foray into the realm of open-world design proved to be so successful that it has defined the genre for, at the very least, the foreseeable future. Its approach to freedom, its abandonment of the mollycoddling of yesteryear in favor of player-guided exploration, and its rewarding the player through discovery, rather than the abstract concept of the intangible loot, have become staples in an ever-growing subset of the genre, inspiring future developers to rethink their approach to the formerly Ubisoft-dominated design philosophies of open-world games. Naturally, that means we are starting to see an influx of indie titles attempting to ape the best qualities of The Legend of Zelda's Wilds era. To be clear, this is in no way an indictment of the Wilds-inspired indie, as the relative lack of new open-world Zelda games has practically forced the industry to fill in the gap. Indeed, a new indie game that utilizes not just the best aspects of The Legend of Zelda, but also Uncharted and Minecraft, proves exactly why the world is in dire need of more games like Breath of the Wild. Uncharted Meets The Legend of Zelda Is A Surprisingly Good Combination With Zelda's return to the Wilds era still up in the air, it has fallen upon indie developers to deliver the next great innovation in open-world design. Sometimes, that innovation comes in the form of a brand-new idea, one that completely revolutionizes everything we believed we knew about a formula, warping and transforming it into a whole new concept that becomes the driving force for future iteration. Occasionally, innovation is merely the merging of multiple mechanics and ideas, the clashing of genres and gameplay conventions to create an amalgamation that somehow, against all odds, works. Such is the case with the new open-world Zelda-like game on Steam, Mayday: The Survival Island. One would be forgiven for wondering how a game that dares to blend the visual style and exploration of early Zelda titles with the setting and mystery of Uncharted and the survival mechanics of Minecraft would even work. Yet, Mayday: The Survival Island, with its diametrically opposed concepts and influences, somehow manages to pull it off, delivering an experience that will undoubtedly surprise you. Mayday: The Survival Island Is Free Right Now In Mayday: The Survival Island, players take on the role of a survivor who has crash-landed on a mysterious island teeming with danger. Upon arriving, much like in Minecraft, you'll have to gather resources to fend for yourself, establish a makeshift base of operations, and strike out from there in search of answers. After all, the relics of a bygone civilization scattered across the varied biomes, much like in Uncharted, are begging to have their secrets discovered. It is your choice how you wish to approach Mayday: The Survival Island, whether you want to freely explore the massive open world, raise animals and tend to your crops, improve your base, engage in the non-linear narrative and uncover the mystery of the titular island, or simply soak in the atmosphere and while away the time fishing. This, of course, will be very familiar to fans of Breath of the Wild, its freedom of expression through exploration being a tenet of Mayday: The Survival Island's core DNA. If you want to play Mayday: The Survival Island, you can do so for free right now. It has a fairly sizable demo giving prospective fans access to a vertical slice of its total offerings. It should let you know whether the full product will be for you when it launches on Steam on November 2, 2026. Of course, if its merging of so many incredible and tantalizingly interesting genres doesn't quite catch your fancy, you likely won't have to wait long until the next Legend of Zelda-inspired indie rolls along. Released March 3, 2017 ESRB E for Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Use of Alcohol, Mild Suggestive Themes Developer(s) Nintendo EPD Publisher(s) Nintendo Engine Havok Cross-Platform Play no Cross Save no Franchise The Legend of Zelda Steam Deck Compatibility yes