How to Survive review

Imagine that you have boarded a ship to enjoy a cruise in the wonderful tropical seas. Imagine, however, being subjected to a trick by fate, secluded like a tiger in the savannah waiting for you: in no time at all you will find yourself on a small archipelago following the shipwreck of your vessel.

However, do not draw hasty conclusions: we deliberately did not use the words “desert island”, as you will not be alone at all, but will have to deal with endless hordes of zombies ready to feast on your character’s skull, even if in this case the connotation of the game deviates from horror to fall into the humorous category.

This is the plot, if it can be defined as such given the lack of depth, of How to Survive (henceforth HtS). Looking at it in detail one can easily think of a limited imagination of the developers, given the poorly elaborated and very inflated ideas, in particular the presence of the undead, the absolute protagonists of the video game scenes, given their constant participation in many titles.

What distinguishes this HtS, however, is the survival and crafting component, which make the nature of the opponents a detail of little importance: if instead of zombies we were faced with sumo wrestlers, rather than ___s or green aliens little would change. But let’s go in order.

do-it-yourself

As soon as you touch the ground, having chosen one of the three available characters between the father’s son Kenji, the adventuress Abbey and the wrestling enthusiast Jack (each of whom is characterized by slightly different statistics, among which resistance, agility and strength stand out respectively), you will know Kovac, one of the few survivors who has made survival his passion and will try to pass it on to you as a tutorial.

Kovac will show you, first of all, how to transform a stick into a fearsome weapon with which to beat your enemies. From the remains of the fallen and from the exploration of the environments you will obtain other objects that will allow you to create increasingly complex and useful tools. For example, using an elastic branch and a rope you can decide whether to make a bow or a fishing rod, while with shreds of a tire and some leather bands you can obtain a protective legging and so on, to get to put together armour, protection , rudimentary firearms and even a fearsome chainsaw.

The object creation mechanic is the fulcrum around which the gameplay revolves, it is functional and so well thought out that it is almost addictive. All of this is the basis on which the combat phases are based.

Armed to the teeth

Combat is divided into two types of weapons: melee and ranged, both characterized by a different control system. While the former require the timely press of a single button to obtain the desired result, the latter instead require the use of the analogue stick to aim. Once you have hooked the unfortunate person in question, however, you will have to wait for the viewfinder to turn red to be sure of killing, which requires time, which you will not always have available as you are surrounded by others similar to your prey.

Likewise, the use of melee weapons is not very easy, and discourages button smashing in favor of a reasoned rhythm in order to get the best from the piles of scrap that you have transformed into weapons.

All this, combined with the alternation of day and night, with enemies with clearly different characteristics, makes the gameplay fun and at least varied, even if the repetitiveness soon makes itself felt after a few hours.

Physiological

However, to make the gameplay more profound, there is a series of bars that keep your character’s physiological needs such as hunger, thirst and sleep under control. As these indicators decrease, your alter ego will see your strength, speed and aim decrease respectively, making your raids on the island infested by demonic beings increasingly difficult.

To restore your state of optimal shape you will have to hunt game and cook it in the available bonfires, fill bottles in the various sources of drinking water, as well as go to the shelters which, once freed from the inevitable undead, will be able to host you for your well-deserved rest.

As the adventure progresses, your avatar will see certain skills evolve as in the most typical RPGs, which will lead to the three available characters becoming very similar in terms of characteristics, reducing the effectiveness of the gameplay variety.

The night of the living gardens

The technical sector concludes our of limited polygons. The graphics sector, however, is redone with some pleasantly crafted lighting effects. The sound does its job, with a decent English dubbing and some music that accompanies the action.

A longevity of around 10 hours in total (completing the campaign with all three survivors), a challenging challenge mode and the possibility of playing in cooperative multiplayer conclude the offer of this How to Survive, which is proposed to the public at budget price.

AUTHOR’S COMMENT

In conclusion, How to Survive is a decent action game that combines a well-crafted object creation mechanic with a gameplay capable of providing healthy yet ignorant fun with the aim of tearing apart the classic enemies of all time: zombies, but seen in an ironic guise.
The gameplay is explored in depth by managing the fitness of your character, who will have to rest and feed himself as in reality.
It’s a shame for an almost absent narrative, for a backward technical sector and for an accentuated repetitiveness, which however do not reduce the excellent quality/price ratio, thanks to the reduced purchase price.