The Walking Dead: Survival Instincts sees you assume the role of Daryl Dixon from the hit TV series and a mysterious infection has taken over which has turned the dead or the infected into zombies or as their known in the Walking Dead; the ‘Walkers’. No one knows why this infection has arrived, but one thing for sure; there is little safe places to go. With the help of his pure bad ass brother Merle, Daryl must trek through Georgia and scavenge what they can to survive, as they make their way towards the apparent safe city of Atlanta. Which of course fans of the TV series will know that this is where the TV series first kicked off with season one and it was here we were all first introduced to the redneck brothers Daryl and Merle. But Atlantic City is a long way from town and the two brothers will go through anyone and anything to reach the safe haven, that’s if that safe haven even exists in this new, cruel world they now find themselves in.
To be brutality honest, I thought Aliens Colonial Marines looked bad, but then The Walking Dead: Survival Instincts took that crown, which has since been awarded to the woeful Ride to Hell: Retribution. A while back, a supposed leaked video featuring early footage of the game made its way on to the internet. This footage did not look all that good, but in all fairness it was during the very early stages of development, so most games can be forgiven in that respect. So when I got hold of the full retail copy (via rental thankfully), I found that the visuals have not really progressed far since the leaked footage. Yes there may be a little more detail in the environments and the textures may be a little better, but it’s not all by that much. In fact the environments are very bland and dull, textures look blurry when close up and the ‘Walkers’ kind of remind me of mutated Ken and Barbie dolls with some kind of plastic Lego man haircut.
If you haven’t played Telltales Walking Dead, then you’re missing out and you need to play it. With the Telltales game, the visuals were cell-shaded and had that cartoon look, as it was based upon the hugely popular comic books. Terminal Reality’s Walking Dead is based upon the hit TV series, so you’d think that they’d go for a more realistic look, well they never (or at least they tried and the visuals certainly do not complement the hit TV series in anyway shape or form.
Campaign Mission
Survival Instincts in essence plays like any normal First Person Shooter, but if you go all guns blazing, then you are going to draw a lot of undead attention. So the best way to go about each mission is by utilising your best stealth ninja skills. You can do this by sneaking up on a Walker and by holding in ‘RB’ when behind them, you will perform a stealth kill. In most cases it’s probably best not to go in for the kill at all and if you have an opportunity to sneak your way past, then that would usually be the best method. But at times you will come across certain areas of the game, where there are crowds of the undead and sneaking past is almost impossible. You can get round this by throwing objects such as a glass bottle, which in theory when the ‘Walkers’ hear the impact noise, then will then walk towards where the sound came from, giving you the perfect opportunity to sneak on by.
Though should you have no objects to throw or there is no other way of getting around, then you may have to go all John Rambo and unload a shotgun to their undead faces. There is one neat touch of when a zombie gets in too close and you must time the melee attack just right, to perform a gruesome hit melee kill. This element can add a little much needed panic factor, but this soon wears fine as the Walkers seemingly line up one after another to get a knife to the face and as you progress through the game, and Survival Instincts quickly becomes far less scary.
Completing the main quests are pretty much the A to B formula, arrive in a town, go to a certain location, find or collect a required item and leave town for the next destination, before finally making your way to Atlantic City. The main principle of each mission or town visit is to scavenge for items, most importantly fuel. If you do not have enough fuel, you will not be able to travel from location to location. Along the way you will also have to scavenge for new weapons, ammo and food. But never fear, as you will have some much needed help along the way to scavenge for those much needed items. During the campaign you will meet fellow survivors, once you have completed additional side quests on their behalf; they will join your group. Once in your group you will be able to send them on scavenging missions, whilst you search for items yourself and most importantly complete mission objectives.
The way this would work is that once you visit a town you can instruct the survivors to search for resources or if you have little faith in that particular survivor, you can instruct them to wait in the car like a couch potato while you complete your mission. Each survivor will have their own unique skills and flaws, so it’s up to you to make sure that you send them on the correct scavenging mission with the correct weaponry to defend themselves. If you send out a survivor on their own, there will be a risk that they might not come back or if they do, they may look a little worse for wear.
You can increase survivor’s chances of surviving by sending them out with a fellow survivor to accompany them. If you’re familiar with Assassins Creed: Brotherhood and the missions that involved sending fellow assassins to complete quests, then you will know where I’m coming from. In principle it works almost the same. Though I have to add that I do not know how these ‘survivors’ survived in the first place, because they are almost next to useless and in most cases, will die when on a scavenging hunt.
Scavenging Mission
As I’ve mentioned, Survival Instincts follow’s the actions of Daryl Dixon and his brother good old Merle. So just like many of the Walking Dead fans, I was glad to hear that from the TV series, Norman Reedus (Daryl) and Michael Rooker (Merle) will be voicing the games lead characters. Having their voices on board doe’s benefit the game, as it would not sit right if some impersonators would be brought in to voice the leading characters. In the TV series, Daryl is a much loved character and Norman Reedus plays his role superbly and Michael Rooker as Merle has hit almost legendary status. While Norman Reedus sounds a little stale at times and as if he’s just turned up for an easy payday, the game suddenly springs to life (no punt intended) when you first encounter Merle.
Just like Michael Rookers role in Black Ops 2 as Mike Harper, you can tell that he really enjoys the roles that he plays within the video game industry and it’s a testament to the man’s acting skills when in front and not in front of the camera (so to speak). But unfortunately the same cannot really be said for the vast majority of the games supporting characters, I’ve seen more passion and drive from the puppets in ‘Team America’. Fans of the TV series will also appreciate the instantly recognisable them music that greets you when you fire up Survival Instincts on your console, it’s a good touch as it will win nostalgia points almost instantly with the most loyal of fans.
If you manage to see the campaign through, depending on the player, you could be looking at anywhere between 6 to 8 hours (perhaps less on a speed run). You have of course the additional and optional scavenger missions, if you choose to miss them all, you won’t get very far. So it’s wise to participate in some of them for the valuable resources. Obviously how many of these additional missions that you choose to finish, we affect the overall length it takes you to finish the campaign. Throughout the campaign, if you choose to search for them, there are various hidden items to find. Also once you complete the campaign and acquire certain survivors into your group, some relics will give you skill boosts such as melee weapons, speed, inventory expansions, additional weapons and attachments. For you achievement hunters out there, there will be the usual 50 achievements to hunt down and trophies for PS3 gamers.
If I said that I had high hopes for Survival Instincts, then I’d be lying. In fact I had very low expectations for the game, which in theory worked in my favour. If for some reason I had expected this game to be a GOTY contender, then I would have been extremely disappointed. So when I got the chance to play this game, with my low expectations, the blow was cushioned somewhat. Now this doesn’t mean that I’m not disappointed in the game, because I am. I love the Walking Dead series, so of course I really wanted this game to be at least half decent. Some of you may get on really well with this game and I’m glad if you did, but for me, once this game is finished, there’s very little urge for me to come back. The game pick up somewhat when you finally meet up with Merle, but a few more missions down the line, things will begin to drag once again.
If there was ever a game that stunk of milking a much loved franchise name to make some easy money, then The Walking Dead: Survival Instincts in my opinion is one of those games. The franchise and its fans deserve so much more, with the right development team behind it and having the benefit of time to develop a quality game; Survival Instincts could have and should have been so much more. If you’re a fan of the franchise, then you might as well give it a go, just to see if it floats your boat. For me this game will go down as one of the big missed opportunities of 2013, but if you want some real Walking Dead gaming action then head towards Telltales amazing adaption and with the promise of a sequel from Telltale Games, there is some real hope on the horizon. It’s just unlikely that you will find it in Survival Instincts.