How to Survive

Yes, it's another zombie game. But How to Survive tries to teach you how to survive, it tells you to sleep, eat and make your own weapons. The question is - can it be played?

A great concept that chose the wrong genre. Fun for those looking for a Dead Nation type of game, but it lacks the edge of your seat, lightning gameplay of the former to keep gamers engaged for long.

How To Survive's big problem isn't what's there, it's what isn't - that it’s less half a game as half of several different ones, duct-taped together in its own crafting system to create something functional, but hardly desirable. It's an adequate twin-stick shooter, and a few years ago that might have been enough. With so many zombie games out there now though, one this uncommitted to its own ideas can never hope to be more than just part of the horde.

How to Survive is not a bad game, but it isn’t a good one either. While it sets its sights on a survival experience and has plenty of good ideas, the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. If the controls were a little tighter, the graphics a little nicer, the zombies a little more interesting and quests a lot less repetitive it could have really gone somewhere special. As it is, it is an average game and a missed opportunity. The crafting system routinely perked my interest, but the rest of the game pulled it down after the novelty wore off. It is a real shame.

What we’re left with is a quirky combination of tones and systems that never really mesh together to create an engaging whole. The game feels like with a bit more depth, length and ambition it could’ve given us a pretty unique experience. Instead we get monkey/parrot taskmasters and their trivial pursuits, Kovac with his abominable tutorials and a fun little crafting system that belongs in a better game.