ESRB M
(First person description of gameplay as Marko)
Marko, Day 4:
It was at the Supermarket. We had food for a day or two, and I knew the Supermarket would empty quickly. I’d heard there were looters there, so I’d crept up to the building quietly as I could. I’d made it inside when I heard the voices, to find out if they’d be friendly or hostile. I heard one woman, looking for food. I also heard one man, and it was clear what he was looking for. I heard “No” and the sound of a rifle butt and screaming.
I looked through the keyhole into the next room. He was already yelling at her. He was about 10 feet away from the door. My hand tensed around my crowbar. Then I recognized the bulky outline of his helmet, armor, and assault rifle. I’d never get to him before he gunned me down.
As he dragged her away to the storage shed, I weighed my options. I could lock the shed from the outside, but that would lock her in there with it. If I tried to jimmy the door with my crowbar, I’d make a noise that scum would hear even over the woman’s cries.
It was at the Supermarket. We had food for a day or two, and I knew the Supermarket would empty quickly. I’d heard there were looters there, so I’d crept up to the building quietly as I could. I’d made it inside when I heard the voices, to find out if they’d be friendly or hostile. I heard one woman, looking for food. I also heard one man, and it was clear what he was looking for. I heard “No” and the sound of a rifle butt and screaming.
I looked through the keyhole into the next room. He was already yelling at her. He was about 10 feet away from the door. My hand tensed around my crowbar. Then I recognized the bulky outline of his helmet, armor, and assault rifle. I’d never get to him before he gunned me down.
As he dragged her away to the storage shed, I weighed my options. I could lock the shed from the outside, but that would lock her in there with it. If I tried to jimmy the door with my crowbar, I’d make a noise that scum would hear even over the woman’s cries.
I
offered a whispered apology, and crept away to the Supermarket looking for
enough food to get me through the week. I found canned goods, parts, two broken
pistols, a jug of water, and some medicine in a locked cabinet in the basement.
And then I snuck away, trying to ignore her fading cries.
God forgive me; I did nothing.
God forgive me; I did nothing.
Marko, Day 5: Last night, while I was at the supermarket, they came, desperate, starving teenagers, armed with makeshift weapons. We had no food to spare... not that they bothered asking. We’d expect they would try the door, but they instead rushed through the makeshift tarps we’d placed over the holes on the first floor. We need to board that up.
Katia tried to hold them off with the spare crowbar, but there were already three kids inside, and she received a wicked slash to her arm as she was paying attention to the other one. She still managed to hold them off until Bruno arrived with the hatchet we’d just picked up, screaming curses and waving it wildly. The looters ran off, having gotten nothing.
The cut wasn’t too deep, but the combination of fatigue and fighting off the infection had made her flu far, far worse. Katia put on a brave front; said she just needed bed rest, but we both knew different. She stayed in bed all day, and by 6pm she was shaking with fever, and sweating despite the fact it was only 15 degrees. We’d traded the last of our medicine earlier for what we’d needed to make the hatchet, and a few measly cans of food.
“I’ll get the medicine.” I said. That night, I went out to the suburbs. I knew there was a retired couple whose home had survived the shelling. They hadn’t even locked the door.
They ran, screaming, as soon I barged in with my hatchet. “We have nothing! Please!” They said. They half ran, half stumbled upstairs, terrified. I followed. The medicine would be upstairs. “No, please! Why are you doing this?” I heard them pleading, barging by the frail old man. I went into their bathroom, and raided their medicine cabinet. “Please, no! My wife is ill! She needs those!”
God forgive me.
(End first person description of Marko)
 |
| 11bitstudios.com |
1
. “I have strength to
do what I need to protect my family. Because when it all collapses, you must be
ready to do “bad” things to keep your children alive and protect your family.”
- One
Year in Hell interview
The soldier’s fight, but you aren’t a soldier; you are all just a small group of civilians trying to survive without a steady source of food, water, or anything else. There are no zombies to fight, no oppressive government to rebel against, just the day to day trials of surviving in a war zone with nothing. Violence is quick, brutal, and there is no guarantee you’ll survive any given encounter. I’ve never been so happy to have been so utterly depressed by a game.
There are hundreds of things you want, and you’ll have the resources for only a few of them. Absolute necessities (food and medicine) will take almost all of your time anyway. I made my survivors dig through wreckage with their bare hands, simply because a shovel was too great a luxury – I needed the metal parts for that to make more crowbars, traps, and a stove. Sorry Pavel, I know you are sick, but I can’t spare the medicine right now – we need it to trade for parts so we can have regular fresh water.
Scavenging is tough. You can only carry so much, and are only allowed to send one person out per night (the others have to rest or defend the camp). You’ll have to contend with other scavengers (people defending their territory) or pick over the scraps of useless material. You’ll have to decide whether or not you want to rob people.
And of course, the game makes it clear that these are human beings, not “hard men making hard choices.” On one mission, I was shot at by someone while scavenging. I ran like hell and hid, and he walked right by my hiding place. I killed him from behind with my hatchet. Then his friends screamed bloody vengeance against me, and somehow, I killed them too… somehow.
Once my survivor returned home, he immediately fell to the floor and began sobbing in shame and guilt, he was broken. Even the other survivors were saddened. I tried having them talk to my scavenger, but that just put everyone into a cycle of depression that effectively made survival impossible, none of my survivors had the will to do anything anymore, and the group fell apart shortly after Marko committed suicide.
Everything about this game conveys that feeling of desperation, of bleak helplessness. The world is a nearly colorless blend of grey and black, but it feels all too real, especially with your survivors and anyone else you meet complaining about what they are going through, the fact that they have injuries you can’t afford to treat, or are incredibly tired from standing guard all night. The radio blares this weird mix of useful news, propaganda and classical music. The game knows its theme and handles it well with both random and scripted events.
As an example, the supermarket encounter I mentioned earlier wasn’t much of an embellishment. This is actually a scripted encounter that can occur when you go to the supermarket. Yes, the soldier really takes her to the back shed. Yes, you can actually hear her sobbing over your speakers. And yes, I felt awful not trying to stop the soldier. I felt so bad that, the next time it happened, I did try and stop him, and was immediately gunned down by the soldier as I tried to creep behind him. The soldiers are as tough and calloused to suffering as you’d expect a veteran in a hellish warzone to be.
Hell, most of the civilians are pretty tough and uncaring, with a few exceptions. At one point of the early play through, I was down to 2 meat rations with 3 hungry survivors. Someone showed up at my door and gave us 5 vegetables, just to be a good neighbor: “That’s what good neighbors do, right?” If you’ve been trying to be nice to your survivors, it can restore your faith in humanity. If you’ve already resorted to robbery, burglary or murder to survive, it makes you feel like an absolute jerk.
And being a jerk is exceptionally dangerous. Violence in general is something that is to be avoided unless you are truly desperate, because even when it works, it goes wrong. I already mentioned the problem with depression breaking your survivors earlier. There are other practical reasons not to be a jerk. Keep killing people, and soon the traders will stop coming. There may be worse retribution if you keep going, but I’ve never been able to keep up a violent streak for too long before something went horribly wrong.
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| media.giga.de |
It
may seem safe, but it isn’t. Make sure you have people on guard and make sure
they have weapons. Board up your windows and sleep in the day, because raids
are ugly.
This is no first
person shooter. A bullet wound is usually a death sentence, assuming it doesn’t
kill you outright. Once you get hurt, you can’t run so much as hobble away from
danger, and good luck overpowering someone when you are injured. If you are
hurt, you’ll need medicine, bandages, bed rest, and plenty of food if you want
to survive. These are things that you simply do not have to spare. Guns? Good luck. Even if you find them, one or
two raids will leave you completely without bullets.
All in all, this is a tough, bitter and depressing game about a tough, bitter and depressing subject. It’s rare that a game makes you consider not only how to survive, but how far you are willing to go to ensure that. You aren’t a big damned hero fighting against some nameless oppressor, just a small group of desperate people trying to make it through another day. Sometimes, that means resorting to theft or worse. And that’s the reality of war for civilians. That desperate day to day struggle to find food, shelter… that is their war.
Pros
-Does a wonderful job of capturing the bleak, depressing theme
-Rogue-like randomization and different strategies keep it interesting over multiple plays
-Wonderful writing and attention to detail.
Cons
-Tough as hell, and there are no saves except when you quit
-Not appropriate for all players; this game is dark and includes non-graphic depictions of abuse and rape
-No tutorial plus a sharp learning curve, so expect to lose
All in all, this is a tough, bitter and depressing game about a tough, bitter and depressing subject. It’s rare that a game makes you consider not only how to survive, but how far you are willing to go to ensure that. You aren’t a big damned hero fighting against some nameless oppressor, just a small group of desperate people trying to make it through another day. Sometimes, that means resorting to theft or worse. And that’s the reality of war for civilians. That desperate day to day struggle to find food, shelter… that is their war.
Pros
-Does a wonderful job of capturing the bleak, depressing theme
-Rogue-like randomization and different strategies keep it interesting over multiple plays
-Wonderful writing and attention to detail.
Cons
-Tough as hell, and there are no saves except when you quit
-Not appropriate for all players; this game is dark and includes non-graphic depictions of abuse and rape
-No tutorial plus a sharp learning curve, so expect to lose
In short: If you
can withstand the depressing subject and don’t mind losing (a lot), this is a gaming
experience worth having. This is true survival horror.
Some tips
-Have everyone tear up your house immediately for materials. You want a metal shop, crowbar, and bed.
-The upgraded metal workshop provides a hatchet, which can turn the useless furniture in your base into fuel and wood.
Some tips
-Have everyone tear up your house immediately for materials. You want a metal shop, crowbar, and bed.
-The upgraded metal workshop provides a hatchet, which can turn the useless furniture in your base into fuel and wood.
-An uninjured
character can survive without (or with limited) food for a day or two. I only
feed my survivors on odd days starting with day 3.
-The upgraded
workshop allows you to board up the holes in your shelter. You need to build
this quickly.
-Characters will
recover from minor sickness and injury with bed rest. Try not to use medicine/bandages
for slight wounds or sickness
-If you must
fight, try and do it from a hiding spot so you can backstab, or after the enemy
has come down a ladder, stairs or short drop.
- It’s almost always worth it to trade for wood: it may be common, but it is a nightmare to haul around
-A still plus an alcohol purifier lets you turn sugar, water, fuel and a filter into two bottles of purified alcohol. These are fantastic trade goods.
-A herbalism workshop will let you turn components and tobacco into cigarettes. You can also turn pure alcohol into bandages or herbal medicine.
-The hospital will treat people for free and has some spare materials. If you don’t have any medicine and someone gets really wounded and/or sick, consider sending them there.
- It’s almost always worth it to trade for wood: it may be common, but it is a nightmare to haul around
-A still plus an alcohol purifier lets you turn sugar, water, fuel and a filter into two bottles of purified alcohol. These are fantastic trade goods.
-A herbalism workshop will let you turn components and tobacco into cigarettes. You can also turn pure alcohol into bandages or herbal medicine.
-The hospital will treat people for free and has some spare materials. If you don’t have any medicine and someone gets really wounded and/or sick, consider sending them there.
#keepitnerdy
Written by Marc
Thompson
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