Lone Survivor First Impressions

I don't even remember buying this game, I just kind of found it in my Steam list today and thought I would give it a go, and it was a decision I'm glad I made.

Now, I took one look at this thing and thought "oh great, another indie game with retro graphics using nostalgia to try and make sales".  But I was wrong, oh lord I was wrong.  Lone Survivor is probably the best survival horror game I have played since Amnesia: The Dark Descent.  You may think that's a big claim to make, but the survival horror genre is basically dead, so I'm ecstatic to get a game that's trying to bring it back.

The plot of what I've played so far is quite basic.  There has been some kind of horrible disaster and pretty much everyone is dead.  Roaming the streets and apartment buildings are these horrible faceless creatures that will just murder anyone they can get their hands on.  You're guy, is running low on supplies and has decided it's time he took action as he tries to survive and look for any potential survivors in the process.

One thing I noticed straight away about this game is the fact it's obviously quite heavily inspired by the Silent Hill series.  The monster noises and the menu sounds are extremely similar to the Silent Hill games and the overall feel is very similar to that franchise.  However, this is a very good thing.  The early Silent Hill games were extremely effective horror titles and in recent years the franchise has turned to shit, so it's nice to see an indie developer try to bring survival horror to its roots.

It's all looking very familiar

The absolute best thing about this game so far though, is the survival aspect.  Sure, health restoration and ammo for your guns are scarce, but on top of that you need to worry about sleeping and eating.  What makes this mechanic even more effective is that there isn't a meter for this thing, your character will sometimes just stop and say "starving..." or something.  It does a lot to add to horror as you never know when your going to start to get screwed by your need to eat and it means that you have to effectively plan the routes to your objectives, like you would if you were actually trying to survive a horrible situation like this.

A shit idea from SH:Origins turned into something useful

The game also makes a big deal out of the fact you don't actually need to kill anything to progress.  For any survival horror veterans you can tell from the moment this idea is introduced that it's going to affect what ending you get, but it's cool that we have the choice to sneak around everything rather than just gun it down and in fact, the sneaky option is probably more effective at scaring the player.

Well I've not gotten very far yet, but I would recommend this title so far.  If you're not happy with the current "survival horror" games, like most people aren't, then pick this one up.  I'll keep some updates on this one coming.

A curious hole in a bathroom....I wonder where that came from?!