Review: Into The Dead Our Darkest Days
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Fight for your survival in a city infested with zombies.
THE GAME
Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days is a zombie-infested survival game developed by PikPok and published by Boltray Games (China) and PikPok. In 1980, Walton City, Texas, has been overrun by zombies. The government tells citizens to protect themselves and wait for help, but a voice on the radio contradicts this, saying that no one will come to help. It is up to the survivors of this city to take shelter and stay alive until they can find a way out. Search for resources, recruit new survivors, and escape this hell alive.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Surviving a zombie apocalypse is already a difficult task, but when you have to manage the resources and mental health of several people at the same time, things can get complicated. When starting a game, you choose between several pairs who have a backstory behind their relationship. Every character will have a positive and a negative trait; it's up to the player to decide which one they will have to deal with during the game. The characters evolve, leveling up and acquiring new skills that will facilitate some aspects of their journey. Your team of survivors can grow, as you can find people on your expeditions and choose whether or not to bring that survivor to your shelter. Generally, they will have some negative condition, such as illness, grief, or nightmares, which are conditions that affect their hunger, fatigue, or morale stats. These stats are crucial for maintaining your characters, as they affect their performance in the shelter and can cause problems for all survivors. Each character has a unique story, unlocking specific missions linked to their stories. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, which makes it much easier to follow the stories and understand the game mechanics.
The side-scrolling perspective gives the game a unique charm; despite being played in only one dimension, it features many background elements that are part of the interaction, whether it's hiding behind an object, climbing stairs, or even zombies that have been alerted and are now coming after you. The game's art is quite beautiful and creates a realistic atmosphere, both in the characters and the various urban environments explored.
Your shelter is your fortress, and therefore it must be well protected. A barricade prevents zombies from invading your shelter, and you should always keep this barricade reinforced, sending one of your survivors to repair it from time to time, provided you have the necessary resources. This barricade takes damage from time to time, so it is highly recommended to find new shelters to move to constantly. When moving to another shelter, all the improvements made in the previous shelter move along, so don't worry about having to make all the improvements again in the new shelter. Creating a kitchen or a first aid station are some of these improvements mentioned and are extremely important for people's survival. Crafting items or weapons is also possible, using resources found on your expeditions.
Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days goes beyond just managing a survivor shelter. The action takes place in expeditions to locations on the map, where you will search for resources and potential new survivors for your shelter. Stealth is essential, as prolonged combat with a zombie will alert other zombies in the area, potentially putting the player in a difficult situation. Various melee and blunt weapons can be found and used, but remember that they break after a certain number of uses. Firearms can also be used, but as mentioned before, stealth is highly recommended. Your backpack has a limited capacity, so think carefully about what you take on the expedition and what you bring back. You can always revisit looted locations if you left something important behind. In Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days, death is permanent. If a survivor dies on an expedition, there's no going back; the game continues without that character. Therefore, the tension during expeditions is very high, being the highlight of the game.
Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days is still in early access at the time of this review, but if you play without knowing this, you might not even notice, as the game is already very good. It's a very fun game that offers many attempts, since you can always start with new characters and the map is always randomly generated. For those who enjoy a good zombie game with consequences for the characters, Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days will be very appealing.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Unfortunately, the game doesn't have achievements, but as mentioned before, the game is still in early access, so in the future we may see the addition of achievements to the game, which could add another layer of challenge depending on what is required of the player.
CONCLUSION
Although the premise isn't groundbreaking in the zombie genre, Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days is very competent at creating a fun and easy-to-play game. Everything is easy to understand and do, especially managing the shelter. The game's atmosphere is excellent, and juggling the advantages and disadvantages of each character is a well-executed balancing act, emulating the difficulty of surviving a zombie apocalypse. I don't know what else the developers intend to add or improve, given that it's in early access, but if it's already a great game as it is, anything more will be a wonderful addition to such a fun game.
Comments