Deadly Days Review

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Deadly Days has now launched on consoles following arriving on Steam towards the end of 2019. Developed by Pixel Split and published by Assemble Entertainment comes this Retro-inspired Zombie title.

In Deadly Days Never Trust a MKing Burger

For those that are unaware Deadly Days is a semi Strategic and Semi Roguelike Zombie game. The difference with this one is you actually get an explanation as to why the outbreak started.

Gameplay

The opening to the game gives you the background as to what has happened. Famous burger chain MKing has released a brand new burger, containing a secret “addictive” ingredient (with a view obviously to increase sales and profits – as with most evil cooperations)

The side effect of this addictive ingredient is that it makes it really…REALLY addictive. So much so that it makes the person only crave MEAT…fresh warm…MEAT.

Your job is simply to survive – with a bus taking you to and from locations you can scavenge stores and warehouses. You have a ton of objects that you can collect including weapons, food, and new special abilities.

Moving your players around a fairly small map you hunt for food, rescue fellow survivors and add to your camp and look for weapons to fight off the horde of zombies. Whilst this sounds like a lot it is a really simple game to pick up and play. The tutorial is excellent in showing you what to look out for, which buildings to scavenge and just how far you can push into darkness before things become too much.

This is where the strategy in the game comes in, how far are you willing to risk your survivor’s lives to loot a building. The loot timer may be seconds or for bigger buildings could be a few minutes. That risk/reward factor plays heavily into Deadly Days and becomes even more apparent when darkness falls.

Coming back to your camp without apples means you are heading for a bad time as survivors will start to die from hunger, so be sure to keep well stocked.

Graphics & Audio

With a great touch of retro-inspired graphics, it really does feel at home with this title. It is perfect for seeing what is around you and panicking when the hordes of meat craving zombies block the path between you and your getaway Bus. Never before have you wanted the engine to start as quickly as leaving it a little too late.

Finding new survivors means that your camp requires 1 extra piece of food a day. You can collect more food on missions, and if you are lucky enough to bring everyone back then you can level up the individuals so they have more health. Decide which weapon you want to give to your “favorite” survivor… I’m sure that Bob will be fine with a Kitchen knife. (I started off naming albeit in my head my starting characters.)

The audio helps to provide that gloomy survival feel that becomes more ominous the closer to dark it gets. The graphics and the audio really do complement each other.

Deadly Days weather forecast, showers with high chances of the undead

Longevity

With a lot of different missions, difficulties, and goals it is fair to say that there is a lot to get through. The downside is that despite being procedurally generated the cities all feel rather the same. I think this is the one area that does let the game down and may stop players from continuing. If you can breakthrough that you are looking at a fun title that certainly has its place.

Final Thoughts

A great fun retro style with a perfect balance with the audio, somewhat let down by the deja vu feel of the mission locations. With a little thought and some changes of color and environment, it would keep you coming back for more. It is something that PixelSplit can fix with some patches. Survivors become familiar to you and you will have your favorites. I’m awarding Deadly Days a Thumb Culture Silver Award.