Okay, so I'm gonna review a roguelike, for once. Rogue Survivor is a fancy retro roguelike zombie survival game. I like the music. Okay, that's just about it. Bye.
No, just kidding. Rogue Survivor has incredible depth, both in the AI and gameplay. More after the break.
No, just kidding. Rogue Survivor has incredible depth, both in the AI and gameplay. More after the break.
Okay, so the AI is incredible. Most of it will work with you (not all of it, obviously zombies don't, and I'll just call the rest them), but the survivor mechanics are what I noticed most. When walking around, I saw survivors with fair frequency. They do a number of things: search for food, ammunition, barricade materials (and may make their own from furniture, should it present itself, if my observations are correct), and run from zombies. However, there's also a community aspect. Survivors will trade (though I'm not 100% sure they do so intelligently), share information (ZOMBIES!!!!), wake up survivors in the case of an attack, and tag-team enemies (though this may not be so much instinct as coincidence). They will scour for supplies (though I do wish they'd close the doors after themselves, it's hard when trying to stay undetected and a random survivor waltzes through your hiding place and exposes you to hunters). They hear conflict and move towards or away from it. They're hardcore.
Zombies, on the other hand, can track you. They will hunt you down, track you, and destroy you. I do not exaggerate when I say that the best ally you can have is rain. If you need to dart from safe-house to safe-house or need to gather resources, rain is your best friend. Move under cover of darkness (generally evening is the best time to move, so long as you can get to a safe place by midnight, when the zombies attack) to remain undetected, without a flashlight. It helps if you know where you're going, by the way. You can hole up in a grocery store for days, which, with the game's mechanic of 1 day=1 level, allows you to train fellow survivors and yourself.
Advancement is tough. Not so difficult, per se, but you will never become a super soldier. You can be killed by a single zombie with good luck at any time. Or you can kill zombies in droves (by the way, I recommend crossbows, they can hear you!).
Despite being in alpha right now, this game is awesome. All I want is a way to become a super zombie-slaying machine. Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for normal zombie slaying machine.