DIG THAT: LONE SURVIVOR

SYSTEMS | PC, MAC
DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER | SUPERFLAT GAMES/JASPER BYRNE
RELEASE DATE | 4.23.12

I want to preface this review by saying that Lone Survivor isn’t bad. It’s good, maybe even great. I guess it’ll just always be a problem when a game’s genre is marked with classics, leaving it to live up to those very lofty expectations.

Lone Survivor is a true survival horror game in an age where “survival horror” means “first person shooter with some zombies and jump scares.” Here, you play a masked protagonist who is trying to gather supplies in his apartment building in the aftermath of an epidemic that turned most people into monsters. The protagonist has to battle fatigue, hunger, and monsters along with strange hallucinations and events that twist the world around you.

The premise itself is very dated, and I often found myself comparing it to old-school horror titles like Silent Hill 2. I kept thinking about how it could be improved to match this standard, maybe with less repetitive gameplay, a protagonist who wasn’t so needy, and less horror movie cliches, some of which don’t exactly work.

The game was featured in Humble Indie Bundle V for a reason though, and that’s because it does provide a great atmosphere that shrouds all of our actions in mystery.

I guess in the end, the fact that it is reminiscent of old school horror titles is what makes it so gleefully engaging.