How to Survive
Moderate overall intensityWhat's in it
The player shoots, burns and blows apart zombies in frequent top-down combat with heavy blood and gore effects.
The story depicts a young girl falling into the sea and later found imprisoned, a survivor doomed by a zombie bite, and a mentor who deliberately wrecks ships to strand people.
A subplot centers on a drug smuggler whose scattered smuggled packages the player collects, and a drunken former pilot; substances are referenced and appear as quest items rather than being used by the player.
The islands are a dark, zombie-infested setting with unsettling imagery, viewed from a top-down action perspective.
Drug smuggling drives a subplot in the story world; the player does not carry out the smuggling.
Wildlife can be hunted and killed for food as an ordinary survival mechanic.
Who can reach your kid
What it is
How to Survive is a top-down action survival RPG in which you play a castaway shipwrecked on a chain of tropical islands overrun by zombies. You scavenge materials, craft weapons and gear, and manage food, water and rest while fighting through the undead toward a way off the archipelago. Combat is deliberately gory: you shoot, burn and blow up zombies, and melee weapons chop them into pieces with blood spray, though the perspective is a stylized top-down one. The plot introduces a small cast — a drug smuggler, a stranded child, and a mentor figure who proves treacherous. It can be played solo or in two-player online co-op, and there is no in-game chat and no in-app purchases.
How it's framed
The game frames survival as resourceful scavenging and crafting against relentless undead, and it plays much of its violence for over-the-top, comedic gore rather than realism. The crimes in the story — smuggling and the antagonist's scheme to wreck ships and hunt survivors — are presented as plot obstacles and betrayals, not as things the player carries out.
Details
- Developer
- Eko Software
- Publisher
- 505 Games
- Released
- Aug 29, 2014
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