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Into the Dead : Our Darkest Days is a shelter survival game that tasks you with guide a small grouping of survivors out of a living dead - infested urban center . The best comparison I can make is to the game 60 secondment ! , which challenges players to assign members of a group specific action to complete each twenty-four hour period against a ticking clock .
Into the Dead : Our Darkest Days plays very likewise . The biz rotate around your shelter , its barricade , and your survivor , each of whom can complete one task during each of a day ’s two phases : day and dark . Your roadblock is attacked at the end of each stage . job can roam from craft weapons or cooking nutrient to explore the outside man . Each task requires resources — either physical cloth like wood or channel tape or survival element such as a character ’s hunger or morale . The finish is to manage these resources to keep your shelter functioning as long as potential , until you may eventually run away the city through the game ’s narrative paths , which you uncover while physically exploring on scavenging runs .
Into the Dead : Our Darkest Days is a reasonably nerveless idea for a game , but since it is still in Early Access , it ’s no surprisal that the plot has areas that could use improvement .
Visually , I reckon the secret plan knocks it out of the park . The unique 1980s stage setting is portrayed wonderfully through the nontextual matter , and the discrete character designs give a lot of personality to each of the starting pairs — further enhanced by the fact that each character has unparalleled posture and weaknesses .
One area the game currently miss is meaningful root word construction . Your resources , when not spent on eating , healing , or pass water weapons , go toward barricade upgrade or new crafting tables . While these are substantive , they do n’t feel particularly rewarding to work toward . This is n’t help by the fact that there ’s no physical defense reaction of your shelter — characters simply take damage each phase angle when the barricade breaks . Some physical basis building focused on defend against foe attack could aid make scavenging efforts feel more rewarding .
Scavenging , while done manually by the histrion in a cool turn on the genre , is limited by the fact that each map remain the same in every playthrough . While loot is randomize , important points of interest and the layout of each area stay logical in young plot . This include synergistic element of the Escape Plans , which means you’re able to speedrun the secret plan if you know where everything is . Once you strip a position , it stay foray , which is cool , but it also altogether removes the need to backtrack — a pattern choice I have mixed spirit about .
fight in Into the Dead : Our Darkest Days feels a little unusual and is by all odds one area I ’d like to see improved before launching . It ’s intelligibly designed to feel hazardous and deadly if done incorrectly . Taking striking from zombies is crushing , and attacking with weaker weapons can be sluggish — assume your weapon does n’t break and impart you fighting with your fists . The secret plan wants to emphasize stealth and stealth kill over brawling , which fits the naturalistic selection approach it ’s direct for .
However , there are a few problems here and there that can make combat find frustrative when it ’s necessary . Basic melee combat seems to swear on an animation chain and hit - stagger system , with most weapons using a three - hit combo . Strangely , your first two attacks always stagger the enemy , but zombi often break the third hit with their own attack . During this time , zombi spirit are invulnerable and always down a hit , making the third onrush feel functionally useless . I think I managed to shore it once , during a zombie ’s blast invigoration , only because I had enough time and space . The plot has a dodge system , but zombi often attack too quickly or from too far for it to be efficacious . Players can also take damage while locked into murder or finisher animations , which makes them palpate useless when more than one zombie is nearby .
Stealth is n’t a perfect solution either , as stealth kills debilitate your weapon ’s lastingness and often trigger off aggro from nearby zombies . While it ’s always better to use stealing , it ’s frustrating when your arm breaks during a stealth killing or more zombie spirit are pass in immediately after . Some players might find these features naturalistic , but they do n’t feel great in recitation .
Regardless , I ’d like to see zombi animations and collide with frames align so combos feel rewarding and execution do n’t penalise you with inescapable damage . While difficult scrap is core to the plot ’s identity , I think it could be a little less punishing , especially with multiple zombie involved .
Overall , I think Into the Dead : Our Darkest Days is a really cool concept . The alone presentation and shelter - based gameplay bid a eccentric of zombie game we do n’t have right now — something like a more digestible version of Project Zomboid . However , the Early Access launching is n’t without defect , many of which are already speak in the Early Access roadmap . We ’ll have to wait and see what the plot becomes at full freeing .
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