Zombie games are a staple diet among the gaming community, some of which are rehashed ideas of older games while others are just plain shooting as many zombies as possible. How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition keeps all the blood guts and gore you are used to having in the run of the mill zombie games, and adds its own flair to the proceedings by making you survive and struggle at every turn. As I mentioned in the preview, you wake up stranded on an island with absolutely nothing, pretty much how it would be in reality if you were to find yourself shipwrecked, hurt and lying on the beach of a strange island. Soon finding out that not only are you stranded, but the island has a dangerous population of assorted zombies that want to eat you at every moment. The campaign mode in How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition will see you having to survive on nothing but your own wits and the skills you learn along the way to craft weapons, hunt for food, cook meals and deal with the variety of different zombies.
Dotted about the island are many useful items, picking up everything is a must in this game as further down the line something that seems absolutely useless will have a use, and this more often than not becomes apparent through the pages of Kovac’s rules and survival guide that are strewn about the island. Kovac is the ultimate survivor, somewhat akin to Bear Grylls, someone that has not only learned to survive but will also show you many invaluable skills to craft items and ways to deal with the enemies. Visiting his training camp is somewhere I often found myself as the game got inevitably harder as I progressed through the missions. To bare witness to how many survivors that have died before you, other players have left tombstones where they died along the way, just another way that the game tells you it’s about to get tough as you come upon what looks like a graveyard of players all in the one small area of the island you are on. This is when you need to have your wits about you, as something killed all of these players, whether it was hunger or a horde of ravenous zombies.
How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition allows you to play all of its modes either online or in two player local multiplayer, and if you think it may be easier with two of you, think again. The needs for survival never let up, hunger can be crippling and leave you almost incapacitated and vulnerable. Night time is twice as dangerous especially if your batteries have run out, but you can always try and light a fire and carry a fire torch, that is if you have the means to light the fire in the first place. I found it a struggle at times just to cope with the daily grind of searching out the essentials for life. Playing How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition on the hardest difficulty is not only a challenge, but suicide most of the time, and really is a test for the true survivalists out there. The other modes on offer add more than enough variety to the game if you just want to jump on for some zombie popping action, my favourite out of these is Barricade, a mode that has you defending other survivors in a camp from the invading zombies, it’s the games Horde mode essentially. You gather resources by day to build barriers, weapons, sentry guns and so on, and at night the real attack begins. Gathering during the day will not see you just running around and getting what you can as the island is still populated with enemies at every turn, and the timer at the top makes you fearful of straying too far from the camp in search of items. You will also have to deal with the natural wants of hunger, thirst and tiredness on top of the worry of attack
As the name suggests, storms can also become a major factor in the game, and during major lightening storms it’s best to keep moving, stand still too long and you will find yourself electrocuted and dying in a matter of seconds. Having spent a fair amount of time playing How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition, I can honestly say I found little wrong with the game, sure it has slight imperfections here and there, but so does every AAA title out there. Every game can be criticised over something and for most it comes down to a matter of taste. How To Survive offers more in the way of variety than most top shelf titles I have played recently, as the hype usually surpasses the reality of the gameplay. For myself, I have had an absolute ball in How To Survive, I enjoyed the challenge of true survival while dealing with the ever looming threat of attack. Finding somewhere to sleep was one of the hardest, but hunger leaves you so incapacitated once you allow it to get that far that finding food becomes nigh on impossible. The crafting system is extensive and just experimenting in this by combining items can yield surprising results, as you never know what you will end up with. Character abilities are also extensive as you add to their skill with each level up.
How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition is a game that has tremendous value to it, with six of the previous DLCs bundled up into this one re-mastered title. Not only has the game been given a total graphical overhaul, but all of the problems and complaints of the previous release have been dealt with. 505 Games have managed to sneak another great arcade game onto the Xbox One following the brilliant Defense Grid 2, this game is a zombie lovers dream. You will never tire of hacking off limbs, popping heads or discovering more of what How To Survive has to offer. For me How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition is one of the best arcade titles to release onto the new generation of consoles this year, without a doubt!
