I’ve discovered this Indie game thanks to Humble Indie Bundle Number 5, buying it I’ve got this one as Bonus game, and I must say that it’s been a great, and positive surprise.
Lone Survivor is a psychological survival adventure, with art, design, and music by the one-man studio, Superflat Games. The surgical-mask wearing protagonist has survived a disaster and must now face the world’s twisted creatures, as well as the potential unraveling of his own mind.
The Background
Lone Survivor takes place in a society that has long gone to waste after being overwhelmed by an infectious disease that turns humans some kind of mutants. Once infected, the humans become a mindless body that moves around in search of fresh flesh, possibly your.
You start your adventure in the protagonist house, where you’ll find a diary with notes of what happened and although plagued by the constant doubt that it is all a fiction of his mind, our protagonist will show the urgent need to immediately get out of that prison to get food and search for other survivors, while haunted by horrible creatures.
While moving in this world you’ll have to enter dark places with the only help of a small flashlight, and keeping it turned on will inevitably attract the monsters toward you, so you’ll have to choose between moving in without seeing where you are going and risk to turn on the flashlight to examine some particulars of the highly detailed rooms.
The sense of anxiety that pervades the entire game experience is accentuated by occasional encounters with weird characters that will not hesitate to plague the already fragile mental state of the protagonist with evocative lines of text, though often indecipherable. Soon we become aware of the possibility of provoking encounters with certain characters by using the colored pills that magically appear on the sink every morning: the ingestion of a pill before resting will meet in a dream, but use them with care, the use or abuse of them will give to you a different final, yes there are many finals in this game and you’ll have one depending on your choices and actions during the whole game.
The graphics
The graphics are done with very few pixels, making the game look like something like a 16-bit game. Between the graphical style and its two-dimensional foundation, some will likely be turned off initially by the game’s design decisions and i feel pity for them, they are losing a chance to play a great game..who cares the number of pixels if the plot is so well done ?
Gameplay
Lone Survivor is a side-scrolling 2D platform game that, despite the complexity of the level layouts, is very simple to use and navigate. The player can find detailed maps that assist them when taking a stroll through a new area. The map marks an objective with a question mark, and other landmarks are color-coded and detailed in a map legend.
The player character’s apparent hallucinations provide directions for the player. When exploring the game world the player will discover items, keys and food. Two-way mirrors found in the game world are used to teleport back to the survivor’s apartment. Items can be combined in order to solve puzzles. Players possess a flashlight with which to navigate the game world, using the flashlight drains batteries, replacements can be found by scavenging.
The survivor’s apartment serves as a hub, the player must return with food in order to survive, as well as sleep. Sleeping is necessary to avoid the player character descending into madness, it is also required to save the player’s progress. It is possible to combat lack of sleep with pills, these further damage the survivor mentally but the resultant hallucination may result in extra supplies appearing in the survivor’s apartment.
The game hosts some fantastic audio design. Even though the game is two-dimensional, there are a ton of excellent audio effects; from hearing something echoing from the distance in a dark hallway, to hearing a strange noise gurgling from behind the wall you’re passing.
Conclusions
Put in a mixer: I’m legend, Twin peaks, Existenz and Shutter island this will bring up something similar to lone survivor. It’s a great game that take you by hand and bring you down into the exploration of the mind of the character (or your ?), the horror don’t comes from a fast paced and hyper-detailed graphics but with the plot that bring you where you would never go… alone.
The game is available for $10 from the official site , where you can find also the online demo.
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