Lone Survivor Review
Developer: Superflat Games
Format: PS3/PC/Vita
Release Date: Out Now
Lone Survivor is one of the reasons why game publishers should be afraid of the indie game movement. While not everyone will forgive the 16bit pixelated graphics, anyone playing the game will be confronted by an adventure that mirrors the pioneers of the horror genre such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Jasper Byrne’s psychological thriller is a fantastic piece of nostalgia that manages to capture the magic of games from previous generations and remind us of what exactly we the player need to keep us happy when we play games.
Set in world destroyed by a virus that has turned the vast majority of the human population into monsters, Lone Survivor places you in an apartment complex which you have lived in for a while. It doesn’t take long for you to realise that not everything is as it seems and you will need to decipher what exactly is happening in the world and what is happening within your own head. As you try to find your way through this destroyed world, you will make decisions that impact the progression of the game and its final ending. As you go through the game, you can find out more about what happened by collecting various diary pages and speaking to people who know more about what what events led to the current state of the world. Its also up to you how you want to progress through the world, you can usually use stealth and cunning to get past monsters you need to but often the temptation is there to simply put a few bullets in whatever is blocking your path, and all of these actions, regardless how trivial they seem, affect your progress through the game. Resources are not unlimited so its almost always worth consideration before using any of them.
When playing Lone Survivor for the first time, it gives some great advice about immersing yourself in the game. It suggests building the correct atmosphere for fuller effect, standard fare for those who enjoy the nervy excitement of the horror genre. It seems unlikely that in the age of HD graphics and surround sound that a game with such a simplistic art style should be as effective but Lone Survivor reminds of us exactly what we have forgotten in our transition to fine detail and amazing shaders. Like most of the best horror games, the greatest weapon the game designer has is your own imagination and this is actually assisted by the rudimentary graphics. When moving in one direction, you can quite easily come face to face with a monster that will start to attack you as you try to reverse in panic. The audio is also superbly done, with acknowledgements to 16bit tones and melodies while exploring the more sophisticated sound quality available. The soundtrack is arguably the most important tool used in creating the atmosphere for the game, as when playing it on silent and the theme tune to my kid’s TV show came on, the game appeared comical, and as though it was attempting to be a child friendly horror game. Embracing the need for immersion, I placed my headphones back on and sure enough, within moments, my heart rate started to climb as the ominous tracks started to reinforce the need to survive.
Sony has been ushering in a new era of indie game promotion, showing us that games don’t need to be multimillion dollar endeavours with teams of more than a hundred people. Increasingly complicated gameplay with photo-realistic graphics have their place in our gaming libraries but Sony is reminding us that as long as a game is fun, it has its place on their platform also. And Lone Survivor is a great example of what the indie game movement is capable of. A fantastic achievement and a game that will definitely appeal to the more mature gamers, it may have trouble engaging younger players used to something with more visual clout.
Score: 4/5
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