Distrust

Review

“Mayday. . . Can anyone hear us? . . . We need help. . . We’re losing people one after the other. . . HELLLP!”  Then . . . silence. That’s when we decided to send a rescue team to our neighbouring Arctic base. But then, as the helicopter approached the base, screams were echoing all around. All we could decrypt on our end was “what is that light?” After that, all communication was cut and there was no sign of the chopper on our radar. I hope the rescue team survived the crash. That’s just the start of Distrust!  

Distrust is a survival adventure game where you control up to three explorers who are stranded on an Arctic base with extremely deadly aliens and limited supplies.

After launching the game, you’ll be watching a short introduction and will land straight onto the main menu. From here, you’ll have access to a small, well-designed tutorial, or you can select to start a new game.  Two options will be available to you: the first is the adventure mode, which is for beginners and will give you additional information on the types of buildings on the map screen. The other option is the challenge mode. Here you will be totally blind; you’ll have to discover each building, and the difficulty will increase substantially.  After that, you select your characters; there are fifteen characters to choose from.  On your first play, you can only select two out of three, and the rest have to be unlocked mostly via the challenge mode. Each of the personalities have a description, including skills (resistance to the harsh environment, and speed in walking and running) and inventory (up to three items at the start).  Then, it’s all up to you.

At the start of the game, your characters will be located near the helicopter crash. Now you have to make sure to keep them warm, well-fed, and monitor their energy status all the way through six zones. Each of the zones is basically a map with buildings and you need to find a way to exit each zone into the next one. I really like the fact that each zone has a specific way for you to exit. You might have to find a certain number of levers, find a wire to repair the exit door, or any of a number of interesting options.  Make sure that all your members are together when you exit each zone, otherwise whoever is left behind will die.  One or two of your crew may already be dead (due to your great survival expertise).  In any case, you have to explore the zone and search buildings to find useful objects, such as tools, food, wood, fuel and medical supplies. I strongly recommend collecting as much wood and fuel as possible so you can keep the furnaces and generators going in each structure. Otherwise your characters might develop frost bite, and without light they will move slowly from room to room. Fatigue will take its toll and your characters will need to rest, either on a cosy bed or a sofa, so be sure to find which building has that furniture. Otherwise they might develop strange moods. The only downside is every time one of your members has a snooze, a black, electric or cold sphere-thing appears. Not only will you be feeling unwell but you will lose health points if they get too close to them. Yes, another way to die!

Graphically, the game looks great, runs smoothly and I really enjoy the artwork during the loading phases. Great soundtrack too; it intensifies the atmosphere.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com