The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (2013)

I just realized that I never uploaded this here.

I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure

Game number 61 was Walking Dead Survival Instinct. This is a zombie game from 2013 that primarily uses survival horror elements and first person shooting to tell a prequel story for 2 prominent Walking Dead characters. The issue is that this game was clearly underdeveloped and feels like a low quality cash grab.

Graphics/Sound: The graphics in this game are poor by 2013 standards. Survival Instinct looks like a low-budget title with blurry textures and poor models. It definitely does not look very good. There isn’t much to say on the sound side. The sound effects were not impressive, but they also didn’t annoy me. I would say they were passable.

Story: Survival Instinct is a prequel story for the characters Daryl and Merle. It goes over the zombie outbreak and shows how the duo survived their first few weeks in the zombie world. I have never been a huge Walking Dead fan, but I did watch the first few seasons. Because of that, I do think that this prequel is slightly interesting and provides good context… but that doesn’t mean that the actual story was done well. There is very little happening other than the brothers finding each other and figuring out how to get to safety. The basic premise of Daryl and Merle fighting zombies is basically the entirety of the plot, which leaves the player with very little to follow.

Gameplay: The gameplay in Walking Dead Survival Instinct has been done a thousand times before, after, and better. It is a first person survival game where the player can use melee weapons and shoot guns. I would say that this is all passable, but below average. Nobody will be pleasantly surprised about this game’s combat. There is also some basic stealth gameplay that you will want to utilize to not attract the attention of every zombie.

One of the Walking Dead’s main selling points is its source material, but that is also one of the largest weaknesses in the game. There are no special zombies, so every zombie in the game is the exact same and very basic. This is a huge letdown when there are great games like Dead Rising or Dead Island that have a large variety of zombies.

The mission structure is set up so that there are different levels that the player will have to explore. These levels succeed in having a decent amount of variety and some slightly interesting areas to explore. The player will have to complete a series of objectives in order to finish the mission and hit the road to the next one.

In between the main story missions, the team will have to drive to their next location. The player doesn’t get to act this out, but will choose the path that the crew will take. Different paths can either be more or less direct and will use varying amounts of gas. Most of the time there will be some side missions to do to clear the road of debris, get more gas, or find supplies. These are all awful and feel like complete game padding. They are usually very easy, simple, and pointless. You will rarely leave the level with more supplies than before you entered. The level locations also repeat often and get boring quickly.

Finally, there is a follower mechanic where you can send out extra survivors to find you supplies. I only tired this once and it took more supplies to heal that survivor than they actually brought back… maybe it gets better late into the game, but I never was in a spot that I needed to engage with this mechanic. The fact that I could completely ignore it for essentially my entire playthrough means that it was a dumb mechanic.

My experience: I honestly had a pretty decent time playing this. It has been awhile since I last played a zombie game and I have always enjoyed the subgenre. Survival Instinct is also short enough that I was able to blow through it in only a couple of days. I was rarely impressed, but often satisfied. It was like eating fast food. I know it sucks, but sometimes I still crave it.

Overall, Walking Dead Survival Instinct is a bad game. It is clearly a cash grab designed to make a buck on the popularity of Walking Dead and zombie video games in the early 2010s. Nothing the game does is very original nor is it done well enough to justify its existence. I would only recommend it to someone who is a die hard Walking Dead fan who wants to see Daryl and Merle’s backstories. (3/10)

I spent 4 hours, 22 minutes, and 19 seconds playing Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.

I have spent a total of 780 hours and 26 minutes on the Road To 360 challenge so far.

Next Game: Crackdown

I was exited for the game as it was the walking dead. I loved the show and thought it will be great, but after I played the game i really didn't like it.

The storyline was not that good , graphics were ok and the gameplay really sucks and there were some glitches. Like the out of map glitch .

The worst thing is that it has very bad optimization . It lags very much.

Just DON'T WASTE MONEY on the game.

I give it 1 star .