Developer: Jasper Bryne
Publisher: Superflat Games
RRP £11.39 (Steam) and £11.69 (Gog.com)
Released: 24th April 2012
Available on: Gog.com and Steam
Played Using: Keyboard
Approximate game length: 4 to 5 hours per playthrough
How long has it been? Days? Weeks? You’re not sure anymore, what you are sure of is that the world outside isn’t safe. Things wander the halls that were once human but now… who knows what they are now. But what little food you had is rapidly dwindling, eventually you have to venture out into the murky black.
Survival horror games seem to have all but disappeared, it’s actually a bit strange how that happened really. Resident Evil had its supporters as did Silent Hill, and there were plenty of other titles that, while they didn’t have the budget of their larger cousins, still were good in their own right like Fatal Frame. And then they all just vanished, sure they weren’t major money spinners but they weren’t flops by any stretch of the imagination. Thankfully the independent games scene is more than happy to pick up the pieces and keep the survival horror genre alive. Lone Survivor is one such title that takes the idea of survival
horror and really runs with it.
The first thing to keep in mind about Lone Survivor is that there is more than one way to progress in this game and that the choices you make will change the events that occur and the ending you receive (of which I believe there are five but I only managed to get three).
It’s clear that the developer has a very firm grasp on what makes a good horror. Sure you can go the ‘rivers of blood’ route, but one of the most effective ways to build up horror and tension is to take something mundane, twist it slightly and build up from there. This instils into the player a sense of unease that can be hard to shake, something that this game does that to great effect, especially with its backgrounds (which are hand-painted).
Sound also plays a very important role in building up the sense of dread, discordant noises occur around you (especially if you’re using headphones as the game suggests) and the noise that occurs when the monsters are nearby…
I dislike that noise. Not because it’s scary but because it feels uncomfortable to listen to.
What makes this game different from most other survival horrors is that the survival element of it is actually quite strong. Your protagonist will ask for food and sleep, denying him these won’t kill him but the longer he goes without it the more his mental health with suffer which affects his perception.
While the game handles the horror aspect well I have to say I’m not a fan of its control scheme. It’s entirely controlled through the keyboard with no controller
support. Ordinarily this wouldn’t be such an issue for me but I found the key placement to be quite awkward, specifically the controls surrounding interacting with the environment.
Yeah, this game is definitely worth the price of admission. I really like the fact that you can’t quite be sure that the protagonist is the good guy and there is a constant question of how much of this is really happening. If you’re looking for a good survival horror with a bit of a twist then this might just scratch that itch.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
The Silent Hill Series
The Evil Within
Lisa
