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‘The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct’ Review: An Apocalypse Not Worth Surviving
Like many of you, I’ve been skeptical since the beginning. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct’s marketing campaign has been a rocky one, after being soured by a series of disappointing trailers — both fake and official — screenshots, and an obvious push by Activision to get the game out during the third season of the television series. It didn’t help that the game was quietly crammed into the very busy march lineup, almost as if Activision realized the game wouldn’t live up to expectations so they let it die in the shadow of several of this year’s more high profile releases.
I won’t bury the lead: this game isn’t good. If you’re interested in finding out just how bad it is, I suggest reading on.
For fans of The Walking Dead, there are certain things we’ve come to expect from this series. The story, characters, and how they interact, is crucial to a successful TWD game. You need drama and dread in equal measures, and sadly, because of a series of bad decisions, Survival Instinct fails in both areas.
Let’s start with the dread.
Struggling to survive, alone and not as well-equipped as one might like during an apocalyptic scenario, should be a terrifying experience. Due to a number of poorly implemented mechanisms, Survival Instinct is never scary. For example, one of the worst things that can happen during a zombie apocalypse is getting surrounded by the hungry undead. That’s brought the end of many a brave survivor in games, books, movies and television. In this game, getting surrounded is the best thing that can happen to you, and it’s often the easiest way to clear an area of zombies. This is due to the fact that when you’re surrounded, the zombies are polite enough to have a go at you one at a time. All you have to do is jump into a group of them, successfully execute a few quick time events, watch the shallow collection of canned execution animations, and you’ll soon be free.
For the most part, guns are not your friends. You’ll have a decent arsenal to choose from — including rifles, shotguns, and handguns — but a zombie only dies by a headshot. Ammunition is rare enough, this is a zombie apocalypse after all, that it quickly becomes easier to just pick up one of the myriad superior melee weapons strewn about the game’s repetitious environments than it is to waste time trying to plant a bullet in every zombie’s head.
Next up, the drama.
Limiting the scope of the game could have worked well. Some of my favorite episodes of the TV series have been the ones that worked on a smaller scale, following only a few characters rather than the more complicated episodes that moved from group to group. Because this game follows backwoods brothers Daryl and Merle Dixon — and specifically the former as he searches for his brother — they’re interesting enough characters to base a game on.
So what went wrong? Unfortunately, a lot.
Much of the game has Daryl traveling across the South in search of his brother, Merle. This is experienced via a map, by the way. You can’t actually drive in this game. Going from one destination to the next uses up precious gasoline, which you can scavenge (along with other supplies) from one of a handful of recycled maps. You’re also given the option of taking to the highways to conserve gas, but that can bring with it a smaller chance of finding supplies and a greater chance of your car breaking down.
You won’t be alone in this, as you can pick up survivors along the way. You’re able to arm them and send them out to get supplies on their own, but more often than not, doing so yields less supplies than you could have gathered on your own. This means you can send them out to endure the intensely boring scavenge missions, or you can punish yourself and get more supplies. Also, they can die. However, like everything else in this game, they’re never interesting enough to really care about. I don’t imagine anyone losing sleep over that bland, faceless character meeting a gruesome death as they fetched you some Gatorade.
Should you decide to spend your time scavenging for supplies yourself, prepare to fight the same fights and see the same maps over, and over, and over again. If the repetitive scenery doesn’t get to you first, the combat will. Survival Instinct could have benefited from a deeper, Condemned style combat system. I wanted the fights to be difficult, to force me to me strategic in how I pursued them. In The Walking Dead, a lone zombie can be a major threat and you’d be crazy to run into a group, guns blazing.
Unfortunately, zombies are never much of a threat, unless they sneak up on you.
The fact that this was released before it was ready becomes apparent rather quickly. Visually, it’s on the same level as an Xbox 360 launch title. It’s buggy, and brimming with awful level design ideas, including an almost impressive overuse of invisible walls. The checkpoint system doesn’t do it’s job very well, mostly since they’re too few and far between. The enemy AI is unpredictable, and not in a good way. It’s not uncommon to see a zombie get stuck on small objects in the environment or ignore you even when you’re very much inside their personal bubble. This goes the other way, too, as I had zombies notice me as I was crouching twenty feet away, quietly assessing my surroundings.
Did I mention you can see sweat pouring down your screen after Daryl overexerts himself? Yeah, that’s weird and a little gross.
It’s also unforgivably short. I completed the campaign in just under five hours, and with no co-op or multiplayer in sight, there’s really no reason to return to it after you’ve beaten the game. That is, unless you pre-ordered it — in that case, you can continue punishing yourself by mowing down waves of zombies in the single-player Herd mode.
The sad thing is, we’ve seen how amazing a game based on The Walking Dead can be. Sure, Telltale’s effort was a buggy one, but it was also well-written, emotional, and often unpredictable. Quality licensed games are becoming more common, thanks to Telltale, Rocksteady’s Batman, and High Moon Studios’ Transformers, among others. As a prequel to the TV series, this game’s potential was squandered by pushing it out long before it was finished.
The Final Word: Whether you’re a fan of The Walking Dead or you’re just looking for a solid zombie game, Survival Instinct isn’t worth anyone’s time.
This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.
As you’ve probably gathered by now, this game isn’t well designed. It’s also buggy and often frustrating. Youtuber MarphitimusBlackimus recorded a few of the many, many issues plaguing this game, which you can see below:
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
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