The faint flickering of lights, a click- the hiss of hydraulics. Movement. Light. Your eyes blur at the unwelcome invasion of the overhead halogens, your ears sensitive to the high pitched, unearthly buzz they emit. How long has it been? How did you end up here and, more importantly, where IS everyone? Fuzzy halos circle every light source you glimpse at- your body slow to adjust. Sitting up, your bare feet graze the metal floor, recoiling initially at the sharp cold. As your vision clears and the ringing in your ears subsides, it becomes painfully obvious that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. The underground lab you seem to have found yourself in a dizzying swirl of chaos and complete disarray. Quickly, you gather what little you can for supplies- lucky for you, you found clothes and a radio to boot. Radio static pierces the silence as Dr. Veronica Grimes’ voice carries across the frequency, a barrage of information. The New Humanity Project? Mutant Substance? Your lack of memory is making this difficult… your only chance at finding out the truth seems to lie on the surface. There’s nowhere left to go but up and out into the harsh surroundings of Andorna Island.

How exactly you got here is just part of the slew of unanswered questions you'll encounter.

Night of the Dead is a game I was eager to re-visit, as I had actually tried my hand at this title almost exactly 2 years prior to the writing of this review. Needless to say, it was a title that ended up swiftly returned, just under the two hour mark. Lacking any real substance, I found no quality about it worth holding onto, at that point in time. After casually looking over patch notes, I felt that enough progress has been made that, perhaps, it was time to yet again take up the gauntlet. I will say, within the span of two years, the developers over at Jackto Studios have been quite busy! This is where I feel my own process became much more complicated, as, when you see where Night of the Dead STARTED from in earlier builds, it is far too easy, far too tempting to be overly lenient with its’ current state. However, after spending a large amount of time back in game, I do believe I can look at it through an objective lens once more.

A deceptive amount of sliders for a menial amount of customization. All the characters still end up looking "samey" by the time you're done.

Character customization (as minimal as it may be) aside, one of the most noticeable additions to Night of the Dead is the large increase in story. While in earlier builds, this was very threadbare your character now finds themselves freshly awoken out of a sleep pod, only to be immediately thrust into the chaos that seems to be a zombie apocalypse. While story is given, a fair amount of it seems watered down and stretched thin- lacking any real substance, or detail. In the initial moments of game play, you’re give the vaguest of “where” s, but not much more than that. Who is responsible, who did this, how did this happen, why is this happening? None of these questions are really answered to enough of a degree to truly encourage you to WANT to find out more. What you receive, instead, is a steady onslaught of tutorial information, questionably voiced, and by characters that leave you pondering “Why should I care?”. All the while, you are being tailed by a randomized NPC who is about as useful as a bag of rocks and a personality so bland you’d sooner have The Adoring Fan from Oblivion keep you company.

Sorry, Leah. The Wood Elf is looking really tempting right about now...

Speaking of company, there is a sever lack of it for something that is classified as a Zombie Survival Craft (You are, perhaps, wondering why many of my images are mostly dry in the "zombie" department-?). Daytime navigation is beyond dull in most cases, lacking any real encounters with enemies-or just the ability to easily avoid them altogether. Most enemies are places, clustered around Points of Interest (Quest oriented locations, or obvious curiosity points) or within buildings, during the day. Upon entering a building, you are usually swarmed by the entire mass populating the building, leading to an irritating cluster, followed by an uneventful and dull looting session without any further encounters. Night-time, on the other hand, even on normal can be woefully overwhelming. If you haven’t taken enough time to fortify your very first “base” structure (which is VERY easy to overlook, mid tutorial) you’ll most likely meet a gruesome end come nightfall. Wave after wave of zombies with little to no reprieve- all magically alerted to your position, no matter if you’re making a racket, or hoping to pass the night safely in absolute silence. The learning curve here is unforgivingly steep, and really would be best dealt with as a multiplayer experience, rather than a single player one. Even then, it could be viewed as far too overwhelming out the gate to hold any real sense of enjoyment.

A glimpse of the fairly sizable city- and sadly, only a few sprinkled zombies throughout.

Unfortunately, it seems to only go downhill from there when it comes to controls, enemy AI, tracking, pathing, and crafting. Overwhelming, nothing shows as fully polished or complete. Controls and movement feel clunky- and while at surface level are passable, the constant use shows where they fall short. Games like Valheim feel fluid in comparison to the clunky mess that Night of the Dead throws at you. Enemies show lackluster design with only the most basic spark of intelligence, with less than desirable pathing capabilities and then… there is the absolute mess that is resource gathering and crafting.

Waterworld, the game: Craft all the things to craft the things. While you can scavenge some of the higher components from breaking down random junk in the world, most will be made by you from the bottom, most core materials.

When it comes to survival craft titles, I love crafting as much as the next guy. That is, as long as the system that is put in place is well thought out, and efficient. While the UI seems thought out enough in Night of the Dead, efficient it is not. Gathering the most mundane or resources seems like a long, drawn out affair of dancing around rocks, breaking down garbage, and thanklessly hammering away at trees, making sure you're perfectly lined up. Not too close. Not too far. Not in the same place. Not only is gathering all the required materials turned into a hassle, but there are a slew of crafting stations from the very beginning required to make some of the most core necessities to your survival. Many items require quire a few resources, many of which seem refined. While this is expected, especially late game in survival crafts, being hit with the Waterworld scale crafting this early in game was really more of a deterrent than anything. It can also lead to inventory space feeling excessively short- even with the ability to throw most other items onto your follower. Overall, some of the core mechanics of Night of the Dead felt as though they fell short of what we’ve come to expect from other similar industry titles.

You'll easily find yourself likely overwhelmed even on the most basic of difficulties with clunky controls and weak combat implementation.

While initially I was nervous that my prior experience with Night of the Dead would cause me to be far more lenient with my review- I feel as though it did give me some perspective. While there are absolutely vast improvements that were made across the span of two years, I feel that when it comes to substantial quality that helps set Night of the Dead apart from other titles in the survival craft genre, Jackto Studios simply hasn't brought enough to the table. In just about every way, when it comes to enjoyment, crafting, resource gathering, combat, and enemy design-I can easily think of another title that has done it better. Unfortunately, this seems to be growing more commonplace, as zombie infestation seems to be one of the most frequently used troupes with the survival craft genre. It’s hard when the market is this heavily saturated to stick out- and requires an astounding amount of fine tuning and polish. Sadly, it seems as though that is a missing aspect for Night of the Dead. Overall, if you are someone who likes to sink your teeth into most survival craft titles, on sale, this maybe well worth your coin. If you are a more refined palate, however-there are other titles that will sooner be worth your time and at equal or less cost.

Currently, Night of the Dead is available for PC on Steam.