Rating: 7/10
Overview:
Set in an apocalyptic 1986, the survivors of a zombie outbreak live on among the remains of human civilization, trying to survive this hell on earth by any means necessary. You play Randall Wayne, an introverted and slightly paranoid survivor searching the destroyed streets of Seattle for his loved ones. Through tense platforming and life-threatening zombie encounters, you must decide whether to use scarce ammunition and weapons to decimate the horde or navigate the environment to sneak past them and hide. There’s more than one way to survive against the walking undead remains of the human race, now known only as ‘shadows’.
My Views
This was my first foray into the modern-day puzzle side scroller genre and I have to say I did really enjoy myself. The game did have a couple of flaws but it didn’t detract from the overall experience. I will say that this game does class as a horror game due to it being set in a zombie apocalypse, however, the zombies are used more as a plot device to keep the player character (Randal) moving through the levels rather than a horror monster of sorts.
The story
You play as Randal and have been separated from your small group of survivors, you must dash across the city of Seattle to find the safe zone and reunite with your group I don’t really want to spoil anything beyond this as the game only took me 6 hours to complete on my first play through but I will say that the game follows rather cliched zombie tropes throughout its story beats, especially to anyone who is into The walking dead, but is still engaging enough to keep you going through its short run time.
The art style
The game uses 3D character models and background’s even if the game only plays in 2D and the graphics are passable for a game made in 2012 and is consistent through the game. It is obvious that the developer was putting emphasis on building a solid gaming experience rather than graphical fidelity and I am honestly okay with that. The Randal’s character model is pretty much just a silhouette with a couple of highlights so that it is not a completely flat image on the 3D backgrounds and this feels appropriate for the tone and the characters story throughout the game.
One off-putting part of the game is during a flashback where you run through a quick tutorial on how to fire a gun. The main part of the game seems to be set at sort of dusk time and so everything is sort of dark and dreary throughout, so Randal’s black silhouette never feels out of place when running throughout the levels. During this flash back however it is a bright sunny day and Randal ‘s still just a black silhouette which is just off putting, this is compounded on when Ben the guy giving the tutorial is a fully rendered 3D model, I’m not sure why they couldn’t just give Randal a fully rendered 3D model for this sequence; it’s not like the creators wanted him to be a mysterious character as we see his face all the time through cut scenes.
Now the cut scenes are stunning, truly the best part of this game, The presents the majority of its story through a living comic book style, where still images are laced with moving elements, such as rain falling or slight movement of the hands etc... The drawings in these are gritty and dirty, like a slightly more polished Frank Miller comic or a dirty Greg Capaullo drawing and it is perfect for the tone of the game and to be honest just great for and apocalyptic setting in general, if they realised a comic series or even some animated shorts done in the same way explaining more about this universe or other survivors I would totally be first in line to buy that. One short fall during these cut scenes however, and something they would need to fix if they where going to do more animated shorts, is the voice acting. Most of the time the voice acting is absolutely fine, and none of the characters voices are offensive, except one character in the final chapter of the game, but it is painfully obvious the actors where nowhere near each other when they recorded there lines because some of the responses are just off; the tone used just doesn’t feel appropriate sometimes and really threw me for the first hour or so. It can really have what I like to call PS1 acting sometimes. The most obvious examples of PS1 acting come from the early resident evil games although it never drops that low.
The gameplay
Now it is a side scroller so you are limited in scope to what you can do with the character dimensionally but the controls are by no means simple, the character can crouch, sprint, roll, tackle, jump, swing attack, shoot and climb as well as interact with certain objects, to be honest in the faster parts of the game it did become a little to much and I did find myself needlessly dying because I couldn’t remember what button to press to do what but after a couple of tries I normally got it. Something I did find be inconsistent though was the jumping, well honestly most of the time, I was sure I had pressed the button but Randal would just fall off a ledge to his death, it just felt a little to harsh for my liking that’s all.
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Most of the puzzles are not to difficult although I did have to look up the solution on two separate occasions but I did kick myself when I saw the answer so maybe I was just being too impatient with it. All the puzzles revolve around platforming sections, like any good side scroller, where by you have to figure out how to get to the next part of the level or past a certain trap. It was fun for the most part and really helped the game to slow down from time to time, giving you the chance for a much needed breather and a chance to get away from the zombies.
I personally found the zombies to be a little under used, I would say out of the six hours run time I recon you saw zombie for most of that but they never really felt like much of a threat, I mean yes I did die to them on numerous occasions but they just feel like set dressing, a way to move you quickly through the level and keep the pace of gameplay going, they could have easily just been a slowly rising water level and there would have been no different. I suppose what I’m really getting at is that the zombies had no character nothing to make them feel different or unique from other zombie games, no different types of zombie like in the last of us or left for dead, they where just zombies there to constantly appease from vents and doorways never ending, keeping the pressure on to go forward.
My last thoughts
The game was highly enjoyable and didn’t overstay it’s welcome, although if it was any longer I’m not sure I could say the same, and despite some of its issues I would recommend it to someone if they just wanted to experience a short zombie story for one night. This is not a triple A title and I knew going in to it that it was one of those shorter games, but the price point does also reflect this so it wasn’t an issue but there is plenty more to do then what I have shown here. Apart from the story mode there is also a few other modes like nightmare and survival mode which I didn’t play but I will be going back to at some point. Overall the positives of this game outweigh the negatives and if you get the chance give it a go, and if you see it on offer definitely grab it, it is definitely worth six hours of your life.
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Until next time... Toby