Next-Gen Reviews

How to survive looks pretty nice. You’re on a beach at times and fighting through bushes or lugging yourself through some shacks searching for goods, but you’ll notice that much doesn’t change no matter what island you have ventured onto.  Filled with dark greens and mild browns throughout, I was very disappointed to say the least, and to be honest, I blame lazy dev teams.  Surely the dev team could have thrown even the slightest bit of change depending on your location, but, no! Having said that, you’ll be so busy and under so much stress that you won’t get much of a chance to look at it and appreciate it visually, anyway.

 

The light cycle brings on its own challenges with the little hobbit night zombies. These little pests sneak up to you and aggressively scratch you unless you put a light in their face.  When you’re under attack by a horde and you notice a hobbit coming, you know you’ve got beef! Daytime is slightly easier due to you being able to see but you’re more likely to bump into a horde and they usually consist of a few idiots and a fatty that, when you get close to, explodes and hands out some serious damage.

 

Being as you need to survive, surely you’re going to want some decent tools for killing the beast and animals… yes, actual animals. Zombies have to die for obvious reasons but you can also kill deer, birds and others in order to get meat and hide which can be used as food (once cooked) and armour and bags. This is another great addition that I wasn’t expecting because of the lack of survival from other “survival” games.  I also like being able to fill empty bottle with water so that I didn’t have to constantly worry about where a clean well was.

 

Weapons are easy to come by if you’re after a machete or stick but if you want guns, you’ve got to get out there and search every nook and cranny for the parts and then build the beast.  There are various types of weapons that you can create, including variations in each.  I personally enjoy the shotgun and the longbow which basically consist of flare tube, gas tank, leather and bendy branch and reel. There is something for everyone depending on their play-style as well as items that you wouldn’t expect… boomerang!

 

Missions are your typical fetch quests and that is it. Even if you’re told to go and meet a survivor, they’ll have you fetching something. I appreciate that people get bored of this type of mission but they work and are used in many games that we all love and put hundreds of hours into, the only difference here is that you will cover the same boring ground mentioned above, over-and-over again.  As you can imagine, it get’s annoying and repetitive quick.

One of my highlights of the game is Kovac. Kovac is a strange survivor that has left parts of his survival guide all over the islands. When you pick one up and watch the video you’ll probably laugh at the tongue-in-cheek humour and admire the silly illustrations.  You’ll meet Kovac early on so that he can give you a lowdown on actual survival ie water, food and sleep but apart from that you won’t hear much from him.

 

Overall, ‘How to survive’ is a very good game but it could have been better.  It’s missing the graphical beauty and 4 player co-op story but at least you can explore with one mate online or offline.  The controls work but can be a horrible hindrance that will have you running into a horde instead of shooting. I think the game will sell well just because people are still in-love with zombies but for me personally, I’d like to see a price cut already.

 

 

6/10