Survivalist: Invisible Strain

Review

Survivalist: the Invisible Strain is a familiar test of Survival through a Zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic world, where I found myself to be alone for the most part, immersed in the post-apocalyptic world trying to keep myself warm, fed and breathing.

It’s been 10 years since the collapse of society.  An infection has spread throughout the world. One by one, every social structure around me fails. I end up alone, trying to survive, trying to reach the mounts, where I hope the infected can’t reach, in the hope of finding more healthy souls.

The very start of the game dropped me off at an unknown desolate area; not knowing my immediate surroundings and only carrying some minor utilities and a gun with only a few bullets to spare was a terrifying experience. Taking the fog-covered road, old broken-down cars were spread across the world, giving me temporary cover from the roaming undead.  I went from car to car trying salvage whatever I could get my hands on to survive the harsh zombie-infested world. 

After a long, fearful walk alone, I came across two healthy living souls; I said to myself, “Thank god, I am not alone’’. They seemed to be in trouble, under attack by an undead.  I rushed to their aid and killed the zombie with my last remaining bullets. The poor distressed souls thanked me for coming to their aid. After a brief chat, they pointed me towards a nearby settlement; I was glad to know there were more of us around.

I started my journey knowing I could find a healthy settlement that could take me in.

Though I struggled a bit with the controls, I quickly familiarised myself, and to my surprise I really enjoyed the game. I never thought I would find an RPG game based on a zombie-infested world with this unique style. The gameplay was buggy, yet very enjoyable, and I was very glad to see regular updates fixing issues. During day one of gameplay I found a bug that didn’t allow me to get into fights, and the attack button became disabled. The very next day, to my surprise, that issue was fixed with an update; it’s always great to see developers taking care of issues very fast and keeping the game running on in great condition.

In the beginning the game took me to a character customization screen; simple, yet full of options, everything from changing a name to changing body shape, which gave my character a certain feel and attitude.

The sound of this game was excellent and on point with the theme. The feeling that the sound effects and background music gave me while roaming around the empty, zombie-infested world was, in short, amazing! The base gameplay and the music alone was enough to keep me going for hours.

The game focuses on the dialog system to communicate with NPCs with a lot of options.  Although it’s impressive, it needs a ton of work to be put into it; the dialogues felt very repetitive at times.

Seeing both the Inventory and the Item Management System this complex in an Indie was a great sight. Although they are nowhere near perfect yet, gauging by the rate of updates I feel that we won’t be waiting long for improvements. The crafting system was a great touch and very newbie-friendly. I’d love to see more useful and trade-worthy items being added to the game.

Now let’s talk about the combat system . . . although I am not a big fan of this style of point, click, and hold-down targeting/aiming, I think it works for RPG games such as this one. As I mentioned, there was a bug that disabled my Attacks (which was quickly resolved). I would love to see more combat machines implemented in this game.

The stage of the world where society no longer stands and zombies roam free was done very well. The world around me felt empty and ominous. The sensation that anything could happen at any given time, with creatures coming after me from the depths of the fog, felt surreal.

The menu and the options are minimal.  I hope there will be a lot of new features implemented in the future, but for now this is enough and helps the game just fine.

I was really looking forward to experiencing the co-op side of the game but sadly, couldn’t find anyone to play with.

The trading system in-game was just fine but could use NPCs with more interesting items to trade with.

If you’re an RTS/Zombie/Survival genre fan, this is the game for you. Keeping yourself warm, fed and safe has never felt that surreal. Keeping an eye out for hidden dangers in the mist of your foggy, ominous surroundings was an experience.

Review written by BiteMexD for Zeepond.com! 

Survivalist: Invisible Strain Steam Store Page