How to Survive

As we mentioned in our preview of the game, the inspiration to create this game comes from the famous Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, the author of World War Z (a tip, read the book, because it gives a thousand turns to the movie). Here we will not follow the advice of Brooks, but of a certain Kovac, one of the few survivors of the four islands where How To Survive takes place , located off the coast of Colombia.

Los Riscos, La Vendida, La Soñada and Santa Bárbara will be the four islands that we will visit while trying to survive under extreme conditions. And it is that in addition to facing the zombie plague that has killed the locals and the rest of the castaways, and even part of the local fauna, we will have to find our lives to eat, drink and sleep, since despite their Arcade mechanics, How To Survive displays quite a few RPG elements .

Just pressing Start, How To Survive will force us to choose between three characters: Kenji, Abby and Jack. Each one has its own abilities and different parameters of health, energy, precision and strength. As in life-long rolling, we will add experience as we solve missions and cut zombies, which will allow us to unlock the skill tree of each character. Do you love the bow? You can improve your aim. Do you prefer to avoid direct confrontation and are you worried about staying alive one more day? In that case, you can make your character better support the lack of food and water.

In the long run it may be a good decision, because in addition to the life bar, the screen displays three other markers, which indicate the degree of hunger, thirst and fatigue of the character. Don't worry, because here nobody starves, but a thirsty character can't run and with hunger he moves even slower. And taking into account that we will meet not only sprinting zombies, but spider crabs the size of spider crabs, the difference between living and dying will often consist of knowing how to get out by legs when things get dodgy.

How to Survive will make even something as basic as sleep difficult . We can only do it in specific shelters, protected by alarms that will attract zombies in the surroundings. So if we want to iron the ear, first we will have to face hordes of purulent dead with a desire for mambo. And of all sizes and shapes. From loose zombies like the arm of a chess player to explosive musicians, and the odd boss who seems to have escaped from House of The Dead .

The true grace of How To Survive is the absolute freedom it gives the player to build their own weapons and tools. As in Dead Island , we can combine objects to make all kinds of weapons, only here we will not need a work table. We can give free rein to our imagination at any time, achieving explosive combinations. From making homemade pistols to bows, stone axes, protections for our whole little body (from head to calves) and even drinkers with surprising effects.

The limit is in your imagination . For example, when hunting. You can use the bow to kill all the fauna you have within range. From deer and tapirs (which give meat and leather) to seagulls (whose feathers can make arrows much more efficient), and then cook their meat at the stake. Or, directly set the bug on fire and chase it while it is on fire. A few meters further you will find it well roasted, and ready to sink your tooth. Or you can use raw meat as a bait with which to chase away that herd of zombies that has been chasing you for 20 meters.

The isometric view of How To Survive may not have the same impact as the Dead Island first-person camera, but after the first night out in the open, it won't be long before you realize that not everything here will be beheadings and messing around. There is also room for the funk and anguish. The game unfolds its own day cycle, and when night falls it is better to be near a campfire, because a race of much more lethal and sibylline zombies moves through the darkness, which will only stop before the fire of a torch or the light of the lanterns.

Controlling How To Survive is direct and precise like an arcade. Although the arrangement of the buttons has given us the odd headache at the beginning (at least in the Xbox 360 version, which is the one we have been able to test), the game exploits the two analog sticks (one to move and the other to aim) impeccably. In just a few minutes of gameplay you will have mastered archery and charge attacks, essential to decapitate zombies with a single blow.

Along with the story mode , which we can face alone or with another player in online and offline cooperative, How To Survive also displays 8 challenges for all those who want to jump into the bush without needing to solve missions. Among all the challenges, our favorite is Dark Zoo, in which we will have to kill all kinds of zombie animals. As funny as it sounds, there is nothing more terrifying than a zombie deer. The damn are capable of continuing to take for sack even in flames.