Walton City, 1980, a heat wave warms the city. What should be an excellent excuse for everyone to head to the pools, waterfalls or open a cold drink accompanied by a barbecue, becomes a way to spread the scent of death through the streets. The laughter and happy dialogue in the streets, houses, stores and arcades were replaced by groans and guttural sounds. This is the world of .
Leaving the mobile screens of cell phones, the Into The Dead franchise makes its leap towards the PC after arriving on the Switch with Into The Dead 2. This time, we have a side-by-side survival game, where the player controls survivors who must search the city in Search for weapons, food and materials to survive the undead. This new approach brings a more immersive and challenging tone to the series, while maintaining its characteristic tension.
Total perspective shift
Into The Dead’s mobile games started out as FPSs, heavily inspired by , and were excellent titles for mobile phones. With that in mind, Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days completely changes the gameplay and the time in which the series takes place. No more just shooting hordes of zombies; In Our Darkest Days, every hit and shot can be a step towards death.
At the beginning of the game we have a choice between several groups of survivors, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, heavily based on character archetypes from films from the 80s. We have the tough father and the distant daughter trying to survive the apocalypse, the trainer with your rebellious athlete or the therapist with her violent patient. These character combinations bring a unique and deep dynamic to the story.
Regardless of your choice, Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days guarantees the player an initial shelter, where he must plan, rest, carry out activities that boost morale and eat to survive the apocalypse. So far, I have only had access to a small part of the complete game, but it was enough to see that we will have a broad approach both in terms of narrative and survival options and endings.
While we are exploring the chosen locations on the map, which can be found in the shelters (either the initial one or the larger explored locations that can shelter other survivors), the player can find so-called “plans” that elucidate certain points of the narrative and show the best alternative for the definitive survival of the characters. This mechanic adds an extra layer of strategy to the survival experience.
Together we survive, but at what cost?
Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days works through a day phase system. Actions such as increasing morale, cooking, crafting items, building furniture, beds, benches, or reinforcing barricades can take one or two phases, with each phase alternating between morning and night. With just two starting characters in the house where the game begins, management is reasonably simple. However, as you encounter new survivors and explore new, more distant locations, moving to larger quarters becomes the best choice.
The player can switch which survivor is controlling and who will perform each task in the HQ. Additionally, inventory logistics must be precise, as the game requires the character to be as silent as possible when navigating locations. However, even lethal kills done from behind on a zombie can be noisy, like when using a frying pan or a shovel.
It is therefore recommended to opt for quieter items, such as axes or wrenches, when possible, but be aware of the condition of these tools, as they can and will break. Unfortunately, the game didn’t allow me to advance much further after my foray into the city’s arcade, but the atmosphere and gameplay so far managed to be intense and, most importantly, intimately frustrating.
We are used to following zombie stories where there is always a heroic action by the protagonist that saves him, or even to imagining ourselves as some kind of epic survivor. There’s no point in denying it; I know you also had, or still have, a plan in case a zombie apocalypse occurs! However, Into The Dead: Our Darkest Days reminds me more of works like the book World War Z or Project Zomboid, stories of friction, where only bullets are not the solution, but the beginning of problems.
