Game Info
GAME NAME: Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut
DEVELOPER(S): Superflat Games/Curve Studios
PUBLISHER(S): Curve Digital
PLATFORM(S): PS4
GENRE(S): Survival/Horror
RELEASE DATE(S): October 14th, 2014
With so many survival horror games that have come out for the past generations of systems there hasn’t really been a 16 bit survival horror game. Until Jasper Byrne under Superflat Games came out with Lone Survivor. A 2D side scrolling survival horror game that originally came out on PC, Mac and Linux in 2012, later on it was released as Lone Survivor: The Directors Cut on the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita. The Directors Cut was most recently released on the Wii U and PS4 in 2014.
In Lone Survivor you play as a man with no name who wakes up in his apartment to a post-apocalyptic world. He must then find a way out of the apartment building, having encounters with zombies and other survivors, some of which have no clue what’s going on. The game tries to be serious with the hunger pangs you experience while searching for an exit or clues but to me falls off the rails when you can teleport through mirrors to areas you have previously visited. You start off with nothing and you have to scavenge for everything from food, items, keys and more.
You will navigate through the game with a map which is confusing at first but once you advance through the game and get over the fact you can travel through mirrors you will catch on and find the right path to go. In the game, you will find rotting meat that you will drop to lure the monsters so you can sneak past them. I understand the way they really wanted to be serious but micro managing in this game is a bit ridiculous. I found myself either eating food, taking pills or finding a bed to sleep almost every 10 minutes which prevented me from progressing through the game.
There is a new game plus as well as multiple endings which adds in the replay value. A couple of things I really do like is the sound and the 16 bit style mixed in with Resident Evil mechanics. When you first start the game it tells you how to get into the right setting to play the game which really does bring out the sound and it got me really excited to play it.
The Recommendation
Lone Survivor is one of the few Indie games I did enjoy and would recommend to anyone who is a survival horror game fan or even anyone who enjoys older style games. I really liked this game and even though the micromanaging was really annoying it was minimal to the great experience I had with the game. This would make a great addition to your PlayStation 4 library right before Halloween.
