The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is a product of a different time. I say that because back in the day every hit movie and TV show would have a tie in game. Most of the time these were rushed, not that great and nothing more than a cash grab to get money out of fans. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct has some pretty neat ideas, but it never really does anything with them.

There Go Them Dixon Boys!

The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is based on the TV show so that right there is cool. The game is actually a prequel to the first season and sees Darrel and Merle try and make their way in a world full of walkers. Both Darrel and Merle are voiced by their respective actors so that is awesome. Darrel in particular sounds just like the Darrel that we all love on TV.

Zombie Shooting

This is a bare-bones first person shooter game. You play as Darrel (co-op is a missed opportunity!) and you need to get through each area without dying. The game is clever in that like the show ammo is scarce and gun noises will attract the dead. You would think that this would force you to play the game in a more stealth manner, but the game is poorly designed so it is not necessary.

For example, you can just run straight to the objective and ignore like 90 percent of the walkers in a level. Also, you can jump on a car, wait for the zombies to come to you and kill them one at a time as there is no way they can grab you! This is just poor game design and spoils what could have been a tense first person game.

As well as the main story, you can also talk to NPC’s who will give you more missions to do. You can have people come with you and you can send them out to look for supplies while you are worrying about the main mission. This again is a good idea, but it is rather poorly executed as you are never really that stuck for supplies.

On The Road Again

One thing that I think they were onto a good idea with was how you travel in the game. Before a level, you need to pick which way you are going to drive. Some ways will take longer and use more gas, but there will be more chance to scavenge for supplies. A shorter route will use less fuel, but there will be a higher chance of breaking down.

If you run out of fuel the game will load up what for a lack of a better term is a side level. Here you can deal with walkers all the while picking up a ton of gas from the million gas cans that are laying around for some reason.

Now Quite Like It Is On TV

The presentation in The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is very poor, even on the highest settings this is not a pretty game. Everything has a rushed and low budget feel to it. There are jaggy edges all over the place and walkers flat out disappear in front of your eyes! It comes across as if the game was rushed to get it out at a certain date. The voice acting to be fair is great, but it is severely let down with how basic everything looks.

Pros:

• The voice acting is great
• Seeing Darrel and Merle together is cool
• The travel idea is quite clever
• There is a lot of blood
• It is set before the first season of the show

Cons:

• It feels like a budget game from 2002
• Overall the game is just very poorly made

It may have taken a while, but The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is a game that is actually based on the TV show. This is nothing like the games that the people at Telltale and Skybound put out. In many ways, Survival Instinct is what most people expected when they heard there was a game based on The Walking Dead: The Game coming out.

The Story

Man, I so, so wanted to get invested in this story! While The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is in fact based on the TV show. The game is actually set before it. Having a prequel is actually a pretty neat idea and seeing what some iconic characters were like before they all met up on paper is a great idea.

The game is about the Dixon brothers, Darrel and Merle. These two are just trying to get by and do what they can to ensure that they each survive the walkers and the other people that are around. The whole story is a bit of a mess, but I do think if you are a fan of the show you will be willing to tolerate it.

The Presentation

I will start with the good. They actually managed to get the proper voice actors from the show to do the voices for Darrel and Merle. This right there gives the game an authentic Walking Dead kind of feel whenever you hear the two of them talk. The quality of their voice acting is actually pretty solid so I give them a thumbs up for that. Sadly, the rest of the game has a very rushed, almost low budget kind of feel to it. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is not a bad looking game, but it is not going to blow you away. Character models are kind of rough, lip syncing is just god awful and I swear some of the cars have square wheels!

The Gameplay

The Walking Dead Survival Instinct is a first person shooter. A first person shooter set in the TV world of The Walking Dead is a great idea and there are some very interesting ideas in this game. This is only single player and you take turns playing as the Dixon brothers and that I feel is the first missed opportunity for the game. This should have been a two-player co-op game.

Each mission sees you having to make your way to the end point. On the way, you may have to get gas, ammo or something like that. Oh, and there is, of course, an army of walkers wanting to eat you as well. The problem is that the game is very poorly designed. You can actually just run to the objective point and ignore nearly all of the walkers that are after you. There is very, very little challenge here.

You can get extra people to join you guys and you are able to send them out on their own missions to get gas and other supplies. This is something I feel that was a very clever idea and something that I would like to have seen expanded on.

Another good idea the game has I getting from mission to mission. You have a map and choose how you get to where you want to go. You will have different paths you can take, some will require more gas and give you more chance to break down, but the rewards could be higher. When you do run out of gas, you have to get more which is just a case of killing some walkers and picking it up as you go.

Final Thoughts On The Walking Dead Survival Instinct

This really is a disappointing game. It is the kind of game that would have been released on the PS2 to cash in on a movie or a TV show. There are some good ideas here, but the overall gameplay and presentation are so average that it is really hard to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. This is one that is for die-hard fans of the TV show only.

Final Score: 5/10

Pros:

• The voice acting is good
• They got the actual actors from the show
• Some ideas are quite interesting
• The idea of it being a prequel to the show is good
• It is not shy about spilling blood

Cons:

• The gameplay is very poorly thought out in every regard
• The presentation is really, really bad