Expedition Zero

Review

Expedition Zero is a survival horror set in a mysterious anomaly zone made of creepy forests, military outposts and abandoned research facilities.  You play as an explorer who has been sent to collect artifact samples of the anomaly and understand what happened to the previous expedition team. With only a few items in your pocket, you will scout every corner looking for resources you can use to craft new items and upgrades using 3D printers placed in different locations.

The premise of the story is very light and introduced through a short exchange of dialogues. There is a very weird and unpleasing stealth moment at the beginning when someone asks you to meet him, but then he shoots you on sight if spotted. It wouldn’t be that awful if you didn’t die with only two shots, so in my opinion, it’s rather annoying to introduce the story this way. The plot could have been interesting to develop further, but it’s abandoned soon after the prologue and ends up being just another set of repetitive tasks with only some documents left to read, a plot twist that doesn’t make much sense and a disappointing ending that possibly teases a sequel.

While this is a survival horror game, you don’t have to eat food or drink water in order to survive. You only need to pay attention to your body temperature and your mecha-suit battery, which will be essential to your survival in the dark cold forest. Fortunately, you can find plenty of wood and use the stoves to keep you warm while also recharging the battery in the nearby stations. There are a few safe shelters where you can rest on your bed, use 3D printers to upgrade your gear or simply take a breather from the most dangerous moments.

The game gets more intense as you move far away from these “comfort” zones. To find the anomaly samples you need to use your scanner, which will pinpoint the exact location as long as you walk in the correct direction of the signal. Be ready to fight though, as the creatures of the forest will do anything to protect those samples. Zombies will constantly appear, but their AI is so weak that you can take them out easily with a crowbar. The real threat is the invincible and creepy monster that hunts you through the forest and becomes more aggressive as you progress further with the samples collection. There is no way of defeating him and you will be forced to run towards the nearest safe house while defending yourself using an old rifle (or you can just reload your saved file prior to the monster appearence). Shooting isn’t great though; it’s clunky, inaccurate and doesn’t show any feedback. Paired with the clunky movements and rough animations, it makes these monsters encounters more annoying than scary.

Visually the game has some good-looking locations. The forest is the main setting, but you will also explore more interiors, such as those of the abandoned research facilities. While there are not many jumpscare moments, the atmosphere is great and exploring the map feels intriguing enough but, as mentioned earlier, there isn’t much to do other than looting resources and reading documents. Optimization isn’t that great and despite being far above the recommended specs, I noticed multiple frame drops on both cinematic and high settings.

It took me around 4 hours to complete the game while exploring almost every corner, including all the optional areas. You can expect to finish it in 2 to 3 hours if you only follow the story tasks, depending on how many times you die, reload your saved file etc.. I always value the quality of the experience more than its length, but in this case neither was really great and the price tag is a bit higher than I would have expected.

That said, Expedition Zero is still a decent survival horror experience. A bit rough around the edges and clearly in need of more polishing (including controller support), but the atmosphere is solid and the exploration, mixed with the looting, crafting and upgrading system, is somewhat satisfying. The amount of content probably doesn’t justify the full price though and you will have a better experience once all the major flaws are patched.

Review written by Sonic Punk for Zeepond.com

 Expedition Zero Steam Store Page