The
horror genre has been on a downward spiral in recent times. The series
stalwarts of Resident Evil and Silent Hill have seemingly passed their best and
what we are left with is an ever increasing amount of creatures to gun down or
cheap shocks we have seen before. Lone Survivor aims to change that by taking a
different approach.
Presented
in a side on, 2D, 8-bit style, Lone Survivor is the story of a man trying to
escape a disease ridden city where monstrous creatures roam the streets and
corridors. It’s very much set in the psychological horror mould and uses a
subtle script and clever use of music to try to get inside your head. You might
wonder how a game with 8-bit graphics can be scary but when it works it
certainly does make you feel decidedly uneasy.
Before
starting the game it asks you to set up your playing environment. If you can,
you need to be in a dark place and to also use headphones. We would say that
it’s also much better to play it via the Wii U game pad, as when it’s running
on a large high definition screen it really doesn’t work as well. You can
change the size of the game window but this is clearly a game more suited to a
smaller screen. It’s also worth working out the best gamma settings as if you
get it wrong you are not going to be able to make out much of what is on
screen. The settings can be adjusted mid game as well to find the right sweet
spot. The 8-bit graphics have their charm but they can be a total nightmare in
trying to work out exactly what it is you are looking at.
The game
itself plays out like a point and click adventure game where you actually move
around. You’ll be looking for items to take to somewhere else, normally to
unlock a route or door to the next area. There is also combat and stealth
mechanics to get past the monsters. As you might expect, ammo is limited and
firing the gun makes all the monsters in the screen come charging after you so
it’s often wise to try and sneak past them.
There are also a number of
different systems working away under the surface of the game. The main one of
these is your characters sanity. At the end of the game you’ll get one of a
number of different endings based on how high or low it is. It goes up or down
depending on certain actions you take such as eating and resting properly, or
taking the different pills that you find around the world.
Food and
sleep are also key components in your adventure. If your character doesn’t eat
regularly he gets hungry, which can lead him to not sleep properly or collapse.
When you sleep you save your game but doing it when you are not tired also
affects your sanity meter so there is a constant risk reward systems at play.
If you go on a long trek and discover a load of things but aren’t tired you
risk either losing sanity or dying in an upcoming encounter and having to
retrace your steps.
Luckily
for players there are mirrors, which act as teleport points spread throughout
the world. This makes moving around a little easier but having to retrace steps
to find items lost after death is still a frustration which doesn’t do much to
enhance the flow of the game. This frustration also increases when you get
stuck in an area you simply can’t get out of without dying.
The other
main issue with the game is simply the environment. You are effectively,
continually walking up and down dark corridors for the whole game. There are
only a couple of enemy types and the game gets more difficult by pretty much
just giving you a longer corridor with more monsters in to avoid. This isn’t a major issue until you get stuck
and repeatedly die somewhere, then the feeling of repetition can kick in and
this takes away from the overall experience.
Faults
aside, when it works (and it does most of the time), this is the closest you’re
going to get to the feeling of dread and unease found in the early Silent Hill
games. It’s creepy and you never for one moment feel safe. There’s a lot to
juggle with food, sleep, ammo, batteries and sanity and a number of side quests
and different endings to experience. If you’re looking for something different
then this is the game for you. Just make sure you play it on the gamepad as
it’s much more effective in the dark with the headphones on.
Overall 8/10
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