By: Robert Murphy
Well it looks like The Walking Dead’s success has decided
to pour over from the TV screen and into the hands of the gamers with “The
Walking Dead: Survival Instinct,” but we won’t be following the story people
have seen from the series like “The Walking Dead: The Game” but we will be
seeing a few familiar faces in the game. “Survival Instinct” is a prequel to
the story people have been watching along with and lets fans and casual gamers
alike take control of and be a part of the zombie killing experience that comes
from “The Walking Dead” at a point nobody has experienced so far.
As you all may have guessed by just looking at the cover of
the game, players will be taking control of none other than the motorcycling
redneck Daryl Dixon as the outbreak spreads and he must do what he has to
survive. But that’s not the only thing that will have a smile on your face,
Norman Reedus who plays Daryl in the actual show has partnered with the game
developers of “Survival Instinct” giving them his voice and likeness to the
game, making things that much more realistic. Also along for the ride in the
game is Daryl’s brother, who is played by Michael Rooker, has also leant his
voice and likeness to the game to add to fans delight as they play the game.
The goal of the game itself is pretty much what the title describes, you must
survive anyway you can against the zombies such as searching for guns, ammo and
other supplies you may need, helping you move ever closer to being rescued. You
may have also gleamed from the title is that this is not a run and gun / shoot’em
up style game, you are meant to be stealthy and sneak your way around zombies
and avoid confrontation to survive or at least that’s what you were expected to
do. It quickly becomes a moot point though as you can easily run through most
of the levels and ignore a good portion of the un-dead that would like to make
you into a snack and for the ones that do, you can make quick work of with a
weapon like your handy crossbow.
Good man, right here!
As you progress from area to area however you a choice as to
which way you would like to travel, you can either take a back road or you can
head along the high way. These two both come with their own inherent risks and
it is basically a gambit on which one you want to choose, choosing back roads
is beneficial for scavenging things you could really need but it burns a lot of
your gas and high ways are quick and easy, good for not using gas but the
chances of your car breaking down is higher. This in itself wouldn’t be a
problem you would think but if your car breaks down you don’t go outside your
car an leg it to the next area or have to look around for a part to fix your
car, no you are placed into an outside area and told exactly where to go for
your car part using your compass. Almost the same scenario applies for if you
run out of gas, when you run out of gas you are placed into a pit stop area and
you are left to search high and low for gas cans to refill your tank and let
you be on your merry way. This in effect makes searching a previous area for
supplies utterly pointless as well seeing as you can continue on after you
break down or run out of gas no matter what, leaving you with a lack of the
whole “survival” aspect the game goes for.
Lindsey Lohan really let herself go
Now of course along the way you are bound to find other
survivors like yourself, looking to be rescued and hoping to just to survive
this nightmare in one piece and you can help them do this by having them join
you. Each survivor you find comes with a sort of side mission to be completed
and in the hopes of them joining you; you can complete these missions and have
them help you survive. Once they are a part of your group you have the ability
to give them weapons and send them out during missions to collect supplies like
gas cans, ammo and whatever they can find. This in itself is a great aspect to
the game and would serve to strengthen “Survival Instinct” if these characters
were to at all matter in the grand scheme of things. If these nameless
characters die, you are not punished or affected by it in any way except for a
feeling of anger you get if you leant them a useful weapon that is now lost to
you unless you want to brave a zombie mash pit. Also once again it comes up
that the supplies these characters collect are useless since if you run out of
gas, you end up at the pit stop area where you can find more. Sure it seems
heartless to not care for these NPC’s but hey its survival instinct man, get
used to it.
Look out, its Justine Beiber fans!!!
What can I say, my hopes are dashed with this one folks, we
had the promise of playing from a point of view that was still in “The Walking
Dead” universe but yet complete apart from the main story and featured
something we hadn’t seen before. Plus it’s Daryl, come on! This enjoyable
character is sadly the only main draw to the game, that and being able to wield
his legendary crossbow but this can only take a game so far and in this
instance, it didn’t go very far at all. “Survival Instinct” had a lot of great
concepts and ideas but they all fell very short of expectations and on what the
game should have been like but it just didn’t do anything with all the ideas it
brought to the table.
Good:
Daryl and his brother both share their voices and likeness
to the game, which was very awesome
Bad:
No real story
Scavenging for items is useless outside of finding weapons
Saving survivors is meaningless and they offer nothing to an
already absent narrative
Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10
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