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0 Set in 1980s Texas and soon to be entering its early access life cycle, comes Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days. A side-scrolling survival horror game with management mechanics. It’s developed by PikPok and looks rather similar to This War of Mine except with zombies. If any of this catches your eye and you’d rather give it ago yourself without reading this article. Then a demo is available now on Steam with the game launching today.
Even in the darkest of days, there is always hope.
Gameplay
At the start of Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days, we get to pick what duo of survivors we wish to play. Each has its own traits that will either benefit or hinder them during the game. I found it neat that they do have brief backstories to show how they know one another. Once selected, we spawn into a random building that acts as our first shelter. Here, we have a barricade to maintain to stop the infected from coming in, and as time passes, the bar will deteriorate. That’s really the only thing to manage for the building itself, which is a little bit of a shame.
But the primary focus should be on the well-being of your survivors. We have to manage three things: Sleep, Hunger, and Mental-wellbeing as each can cause problems. Now, to manage these, you’re gonna need supplies, and this is where scavenging comes in. We’re able to send multiple people out at once, but not to the same location. I loved this as it made getting supplies easier.
Scavenging Buildings
If you’ve played This War of Mine, you will already be familiar with how scavenging works. When it comes to picking a location, the game does well to tell the player what is actually there to get. For example, food, medical supplies, and weapons. Once there, you can explore and grab what you need. Each survivor has a different inventory size, so prioritize where to send them.
The infected in the areas are your major concern, and if you manage to disturb them, run. They will be relentless as they pursue you, although they’re not impossible to hide from, just challenging. After grabbing what you need, run to either side of the map to head back home. The day won’t end until you’ve played all the characters you’ve sent out. While also out, you might come across “leads”. These, I assume, are the end goals, since the main objective (besides surviving) is to escape the city. So far there are two ways to escape the city, with more coming soon. You will need to find three leads before you can escape and they are found in different locations.
Graphics & Audio
The visuals and audio are excellent. The well-designed areas and character designs look straight out of an 80s movie. Not only are environments packed and brilliant to look at, but textures, lighting, character portrait art style, and animations are superb. The vibrancy of the environments is stunning, and even the minute details like visible heat waves in the sunlit areas. Animations are smooth, and I didn’t notice any awkward movements or frame rate issues the entire time I played, even when multiple infected were nearby. This was not only pleasant but also a welcome surprise considering it’s an early access game.
The flow of animations isn’t the only impressive thing about them; I particularly enjoyed the various animations of the infected. How they twitch and shudder when idle, how they rise from the ground only by their feet in the most freakishly flexible way, and how they frantically slide belly first across tables and out of windows to attack you. It really drives home the almost animalistic nature in which they gun for you on sight. They also turn the creep factor up a notch with the voices for the infected. From unsettlingly less than human gargled shriek-speech, to almost demonic sounding growls, they sounded truly unnerving and unexpected. Whoever voiced the infected did a stellar job.
Longevity
I can see people putting a fair amount of hours into Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days. Mainly due to the constant trial and error you’ll be doing. I know that’s what got me. But even with all that, there is a decent amount of content for the player already. And there is a scenario game mode either coming or unlocked after your first escape. Which I haven’t done myself, but I’ll keep trying!
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed the atmosphere that Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days creates. With the day and night phases, it really helps to shift the tension. Mornings feel slightly safe, although this isn’t the case I found, as the infected aren’t harder during the night. But seeing more dark silhouettes in corridors adds a decent horror element.
Gameplay is easy to pick up while the management elements help keep you on your toes. I never reached the escape plan, as I always ended up under-managing certain survivors, and the weaker ones would perish. However, I like that every time I attempt a new run, I learn something new. I did struggle to keep my water supply for crafting, but that might have been just me.
A small list of features I’d like to see:
When a survivor dies, they come back as an infected.
Glowing eyes forthe infected at night.
Conversations between survivors at the base.
But here is hoping Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days has a great early access cycle. And if you enjoyed the game This War of Mine, I’d suggest giving it ago.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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