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THE WALKING DEAD: SURVIVAL INSTINCT (PS3)
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Publisher: Activision.
Developer: Terminal Reality. Released: March 2013. Genre: Action/Adventure. Other versions: WIIU; X360; PC. Posted 10th May 2024. By Tom Clare © 2024 |
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With the benefit of hindsight, Survival Instinct was a strange business. Many gamers were surprised by the appearance of Terminal Reality’s 2013 stealth-led zombie survival game, given the overwhelming success of Telltale’s narrative adventures that shared The Walking Dead branding at the time. However, this Activision-published title was based not on the comics but the TV series, and was framed as a prequel story spearheaded by Norman Reedus’s popular character Daryl Dixon, and his brother Merle.
Survival Instinct showcases some promising ideas as well as a smattering of clever gameplay mechanics. There’s the framework for a pretty robust survival adventure, with the unrelenting threat of zombie hordes enough in itself to keep players on their toes. Unfortunately, a dated game engine and a serious lack of polish serve to curtail its promise. Appearing only as a physical release due perhaps to licensing reasons, the product feels rushed and unfinished.
With the benefit of hindsight, Survival Instinct was a strange business. Many gamers were surprised by the appearance of Terminal Reality’s 2013 stealth-led zombie survival game, given the overwhelming success of Telltale’s narrative adventures that shared The Walking Dead branding at the time. However, this Activision-published title was based not on the comics but the TV series, and was framed as a prequel story spearheaded by Norman Reedus’s popular character Daryl Dixon, and his brother Merle.
Survival Instinct showcases some promising ideas as well as a smattering of clever gameplay mechanics. There’s the framework for a pretty robust survival adventure, with the unrelenting threat of zombie hordes enough in itself to keep players on their toes. Unfortunately, a dated game engine and a serious lack of polish serve to curtail its promise. Appearing only as a physical release due perhaps to licensing reasons, the product feels rushed and unfinished.
Interesting settings are tempered by a game engine that struggles for performance
The player’s world is about to get turned on its head when the Dixon family, who are out hunting near their home, are set upon by zombies, forcing them to flee. From here on out, it’s about staying alive and keeping on the move, with the player having to scavenge, scrap and sneak through a host of dangerous locations, meeting survivors and retaining enough supplies to move towards a final rendezvous point. Rather unusually, Survival Instinct is a first-person zombie action game that demands a sneaky approach. Stealth-killing undead foes does seem a touch quaint, but it’s a setup that works reasonably well and, thanks to the relative scarcity of ammunition and supplies, there is some jeopardy.
That being said, the game would have benefited from better balancing. There are a bunch of firearms to collect but nearly all of them are rendered unusable due to the noise attracting enormous hordes of flesh-eaters. Limiting ammo and using them as a last resort might have made sense, but it feels as though firing a gun is a guaranteed way of making any situation immediately worse. Furthermore, there’s too much enemy respawning. In the event you’d attracted a horde, more foes would be understandable, but it’s demoralising taking out individuals stealthily, only to find another in their place barely a minute later.
That being said, the game would have benefited from better balancing. There are a bunch of firearms to collect but nearly all of them are rendered unusable due to the noise attracting enormous hordes of flesh-eaters. Limiting ammo and using them as a last resort might have made sense, but it feels as though firing a gun is a guaranteed way of making any situation immediately worse. Furthermore, there’s too much enemy respawning. In the event you’d attracted a horde, more foes would be understandable, but it’s demoralising taking out individuals stealthily, only to find another in their place barely a minute later.
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There are some nice ideas, though few of them feel fully developed or fully realised. Enemies react to noise and flashlights, adding a dash of tactics to how you move around them. Along the way, you’ll find different vehicles with which to take you on your journey, with different fuel consumption rates and varying capacities for survivors. Said survivors have different skill sets and react differently to different threats. Whilst travelling, the player has the option to approach their destination from highways, streets or back roads, with each offering different fuel consumption rates and varying opportunities to stop off for supplies. These detours are a decent enough idea, except there is next to no variety in them, as the game tends to default to the same small trainyard or car park, with enemy and supply placement more or less the same in each case. There are lots of items but limited inventory space the player must manage level by level, as well as some space in your chosen vehicle. It’s not quite Resident Evil for tactical item management, but at least it makes the player think about what they might need, equipment-wise.
The game is hindered by ropey visuals, with sludgy-looking environments, bland character models and bare interiors. It has the vibe of a far older seventh-gen title, with a frame-rate that’s unspectacular at best and an outright hindrance during busy moments, and there’s a slightly uneasy feel to the combat. On the plus side, getting headshots with the crossbow is satisfying, and the melee combat allows players to push back against enemy lunges, though strikes with baseball bats and axes should really feel a lot more impactful than they do. Some of the locations are interesting, especially the eerie hospital, but the levels have a tendency to feel shallow.
The game is hindered by ropey visuals, with sludgy-looking environments, bland character models and bare interiors. It has the vibe of a far older seventh-gen title, with a frame-rate that’s unspectacular at best and an outright hindrance during busy moments, and there’s a slightly uneasy feel to the combat. On the plus side, getting headshots with the crossbow is satisfying, and the melee combat allows players to push back against enemy lunges, though strikes with baseball bats and axes should really feel a lot more impactful than they do. Some of the locations are interesting, especially the eerie hospital, but the levels have a tendency to feel shallow.
Locations often feature a lot more of a zombie presence than is initially apparent, so the player must tread carefully
Whilst Survival Instinct serves as a prequel to the TV series, it’s hard to imagine Daryl and Merle’s stilted, ponderous dialogues adding anything noteworthy to the canon. The story’s throwaway nature is only accentuated by the come-and-go nature of the secondary characters, who can be retained or dismissed from Daryl’s company but make precious little impact on unfolding events. On an emotional level, they barely register at all. It fares especially poorly in comparison to Telltale’s take on The Walking Dead, where the heart-rending choices and fantastic characters are streets ahead of this narrative non-entity.
Though hardly compelling, Survival Instinct has just enough in the tank to encourage seeing it through to completion. The last level, which sees Daryl hurtling through a stadium to a helicopter pick-up point, is one of the most dynamic and frantic of the lot, and certainly among the most exciting. Trophies ensure there’s some motivation to return for those who want to try different levels along the branching paths, though in hindsight fewer levels but with greater depth and refinement would likely have resulted in a better overall game. Not a horrible outing, but entirely inessential, and one that always seemed destined to suffer in the shadow of Telltale’s superior efforts.
Though hardly compelling, Survival Instinct has just enough in the tank to encourage seeing it through to completion. The last level, which sees Daryl hurtling through a stadium to a helicopter pick-up point, is one of the most dynamic and frantic of the lot, and certainly among the most exciting. Trophies ensure there’s some motivation to return for those who want to try different levels along the branching paths, though in hindsight fewer levels but with greater depth and refinement would likely have resulted in a better overall game. Not a horrible outing, but entirely inessential, and one that always seemed destined to suffer in the shadow of Telltale’s superior efforts.
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VERDICT
"A smattering of nice ideas and promising settings are tempered by a dated game engine and a disappointing story. A little more refinement and Survival Instinct could have been a cool game." OVERALL: 4/10 |
OTHER GAMES WITH LOTS OF ZOMBIES REVIEWED
The Walking Dead: Season One (2012, Xbox 360)
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Day's Gone (2019, PlayStation 4)
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