Survivalist is a game akin to State of Decay that gives you control of a group of survivors during the Zombie apocalypse. You start out withSurvivalist is a game akin to State of Decay that gives you control of a group of survivors during the Zombie apocalypse. You start out with one guy exploring the world by doing quests and picking up other survivors on the way to form your own little community. There is a rudimentary source gathering mechanism to nourish your community, provide them with shelter and protection. There are quests, often quite elaborate, that keep you going.
There are notable differences with State of Decay. In Survivalist the most dangerous opponents are other humans and not the zombies. Also in Survivalist characters do have personalities that impact their behavior towards you and rubbing people the wrong way can make them leave and even hostile enough to refuse to help or join you during quests. Also while State of Decay stressed the importance of silent weaponry, with melee weapons and silenced guns, Survivalist has no melee weapons and stresses guns. There is a certain irony in that State of Decay offers a wide set of different fire-arms, while Survivalist has just five types. A last but not unimportant feature is that Survivalist allows you to control your survivors at the same time and create your own groups and send them off in different directions to do different tasks.
For me the main weakness of the game became glaringly noticeable on the second run through. Discovering the world took a backseat and I was aiming for doing things better and more quickly. And then Survivalist becomes a plodding game.
For the most part you are trudging from point a to point b and back again as part of quests and to gather resources. Early into the game you can't take much with you thus your characters have to go back and forth a lot. Some of this activity can be automated, but not everything. Especially some quests seems to consist of going to one side of the map and then to the other side of the map several times over and it feels a bit like that that chipmunk Ratatoskr from the Norse mythology that runs up and down the world tree to carry insults between an eagle in the crown and the dragon at the root.
Moving your base requires a herculean effort if don't do it early in the game, but even then it is boring work, especially as your community is constantly beset by roaming bands of zombies and looters.
The game becomes also wearisome because your survivors require a lot of looking after. If you don't they might get themselves or you killed, especially during battles. But even more, they will put on hold their assigned tasks to go in search for food and water or go and sleep, even when you want them to finish that final gate before the next zombie horde arrives. The only way to do that is by controlling that character yourself and wait around until it has finished the job.
Survivalist is a nice game the first time around, especially for the price, but when the thrill of the first time experience is gone it becomes a uninspiring game with too much walking and waiting for your characters to finish their assigned jobs. To go through it a second time requires from you to be a determined person. But maybe you are that person.
Post script:
One special mention I like to make is that the story line of the game has a few very sardonic twists, one that is tied in with the here and now. You have to wait till almost the end of the game for it.… Expand