Into the Dead
Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days is a side-scrolling shelter survival game that tasks you with guiding a desperate group of zombie apocalypse survivors to safety. Craft weapons, scavenge resources, balance your group’s needs, and try to get everyone out of danger alive.
Texas, 1980. Walton City is a sprawling, coastal metropolis in the grip of a scorching heatwave and crippling economic crisis. Everything changes when an unstoppable zombie outbreak reaches US shores. Walton City is soon overrun by hordes of the undead, the few remaining survivors cut off from any chance of outside help. Forced to band together, these everyday people must make their way to a rumored safe zone outside of the city and their only chance of survival.
PLAN
- Gather a group of ordinary people who have been left shaken by the sudden zombie outbreak that has devastated their city.
- Establish upgradable shelters to house your survivors and protect them from the zombie threat — but remember that no barriers can keep them out forever.
- Keep moving from refuge to refuge to stay one step ahead of the encroaching zombie hordes. As their numbers grow, parts of Walton City will become more difficult to scavenge, or completely uninhabitable.
- Balance the physical and psychological needs of the group, and try to maintain order when fear and paranoia set in.
ADAPT
- Creep through the remains of Walton City to scavenge precious resources, risking the life of each survivor as they encounter both zombie and human threats. Stealth is key — one loud noise could alert an overwhelming zombie cluster.
- Choose whether to engage in brutal combat or run from a fight. Not everyone is a natural fighter, but desperate people will do anything to survive.
- Convince others to join your group, deceive them out of supplies, or cut them down and claim their resources as your own.
SURVIVE
- Test your humanity as you make tough decisions on who will live, who will die, and who will be left behind.
- Inhabit the rich and atmospheric cityscape of Walton City, the once-bustling metropolis now an eerie ruin swarming with zombies.
- Craft tools, weapons, and shelter upgrades to better equip your survivors for the struggles ahead, or give them a moment of comfort and familiarity in their dangerous new world.
- Encounter a dynamic urban environment that changes over time, so every playthrough is a new experience.
Game Discussion
Steam User 112
Its fun, but considering, that you are very likely to die at some point or another, the game could use some randomization.
Everything in the world is exactly the same on every playthrough. Every container has the exact same loot and every potential party member is always at the same location. Randomizing some of that would immensly increase replay value imo.
Steam User 113
TLDR: Into the Dead is a difficult survival stealth side scroller, and it's very, very good. There is a tip at the bottom on how to make the game much easier, if you choose to.
The Good: The setting of an 80's American town in the throes of a zombie outbreak is really well done. Just looking at a location, you can get an idea of what had happened there a few days prior. The carnage, the desperate last stands, people choosing to end things on their terms. Walking into a torn-up restaurant, seeing floating balloons among the blood stains. Realizing this was a children's birthday party when it all went down.
The level design itself is also quite good. Every location is a puzzle on how to navigate it effectively. It is so, so easy to paint yourself into a corner when being careless or impatient. The game is punishing but generally does a good job escalating the difficulty and introducing new concepts. There are also a few unique set pieces designed to keep you on your toes.
The Mixed: This game sacrifices a bit of realism in order to create a satisfying gameplay loop. Melee weapons break down so easily that they may as well be made out of cardboard. Since they're only really useful for stealth kills, if you're forced to fight an aware zombie, it's better to do it with your fists.
The survivors are all very similar in terms of their basic actions. Even the little Asian grandma can muscle up to a ledge like a gymnast and use a frying pan to stealth kill a zombie with the grace of Jackie Chan. In terms of traits, the only thing that matters is survivors that can make more with less (or have extra backpack space). One of the starting characters can produce extra food and medkits. Picking anyone else is just choosing to make the game more difficult.
The Bad: Honestly, there isn't much to complain about. It's still in early access, so some thrown noisemakers work inconsistently. The humble brick is still the best throwable. Negative survivor traits are mostly "doesn't matter," with an occasional "never using this one."
P.S. Any scavenging run can go from smooth to permadeath in a matter of seconds. If you don't enjoy this level of difficulty, you can exit to the main menu at any time, press continue, and the game will rewind you to the start of that day. Useful when in the middle of a lethal fall or when you just forgot to bring the right tools to the mission.
Steam User 435
The people complaining about low weapon durability and item "scarcity" are the same people that will complain about Balatro or Slay the Spire having "too much RNG" - they simply do not play games like this the way the game wants you to play it.
Fact is, every "problem" you'll read in 99% of these negative comments is quite literally user error. The game doesn't expect you to kill every zombie - it has designed levels in a way that expects you to take advantage of hiding spots, door pathing and dead ends to move around zombies quietly and manipulate their patrolling to be avoidable. Anyone complaining about them being "stronger than you" is objectively wrong - you can kill any zombie with your bare hands. That being said, you'd obviously prefer NOT to do this and if you get crowds on you, you're dead if you don't run; but remember - you are SMARTER than they are. You can intentionally kite them off ledges, lure them via sound in to areas you want to move them to, even break down barriers prematurely before exploring the full zone by utilizing sound to anger them in to breaking it for you. The levels are like puzzles, this is not Left 4 Dead. You aren't expected to be a zombie murder hobo.
Resources are tight but as you find more survivors you can skillfully juggle resource expeditions with base tending - be smart and send your fighters and scouts out to clear and prep zones, send your bigger backpack guys to clean up afterwards. Many of these POIs are not one-trip spots, plan for multiple visits.
Weapon durability is an early game issue - once you unlock higher tier weapon crafting, you will be able to craft weapons that can KO many many zombies in a single relatively cheap craft.
The game is a very well designed balance of challenge and reward, just make sure you are maximizing your time efficiently and map out where you find survivors for future runs. As you get better and better at finding them quicker in subsequent runs (they are static in their POI locations) you will be covering more ground quicker and quicker and have a solid resource supply in no time.
Stay safe out there!
Steam User 78
One of the most promising Early Access games I've stumbled upon lately. Fingers crossed the devs don’t ghost it halfway through, like so many others.
From the get-go, it’s a delightful exercise in suffering. Not sure how many zombies a decent character can handle at once, but judging by the first experience—probably not more than three or four. Hordes? Yeah, no. Not in this game. Resources are scarce, which is perfect!
The tutorial? Let's just say it's more of a polite suggestion than actual guidance. If I hadn’t played This War of Mine, I might’ve rage-quit 15 minutes in.
And the task queuing... seriously, one bench per character? So you’re telling me my guy can’t finish a knife, whip up some dinner, and crash for the night like a functional human being? Time management feels like punishment. And I’d love to know how close I am to collapsing (how many hours I have left), instead of just guessing.
Still, let’s be real—only a hypocrite would rate this negatively. It’s Early Access, and for what it is, it's already damn impressive.
Keep it up, devs. Just... don’t disappear, please.
Steam User 63
I'm having a blast with the game. I really hope it doesn't stay in early access hell because it has SO much potential. Beautiful graphics and fun game play
The only issue is the combat can be a little buggy. The climbing up and down can be as well but it hardly impacts the game play enough for it to be a serious issue
Steam User 47
This game is very addicting. Its like This war of mine meets State of Decay. I've spent many runs on this game to learn this crucial tactics: when youre outnumbered : just RUN.
Steam User 45
I've got 240 hours in This War of Mine, and FINALLY someone made a game to scratch that same itch!
The main difference is that instead of sneakily looting all you can with a time limit, you're looting while (stealth) killing whatever zombies you dare to, and honestly it's better, there's plenty of tension.
On top of that, I've got about a dozen survivors and without fully exploring the city yet, have found over 3x as many locations as in TWOM and they're all beautiful and interesting.
If you love the looting gameplay of TWOM, this is a hard recommend.