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 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 49
Fantastic game. It's similar to This war of mine but even better imo since I prefer the zombie setting and the controls and combat actually feel very good. Really liking the exploration part due to how they did the different locations.
As of writing this review I'm only 10 hours in but I've seen enough to recommend this game. Absolutely worth 25€.
Steam User 54
Easily one of the BEST zombie games I've ever played. Crazy that the series started as one of those runner mobile games, and somehow eventually got turned into this absolute masterpiece. Super excited to see what's next.
Steam User 40
So far the game is great. People that compare this game to be inferior to This War of Mine need to take a step back and look at this game as a different entity. This isn't about war. It doesn't carry a special message, or even need to. This is another zombie apocalypse game, and just another side scroller game. Appreciate the game for what it is. I enjoy the unique mechanics and different kind of intensities this game has.
Some good feedbacks:
+Having zombies sitting by the sidelines is absolutely great. 1 mess up, and the game can get incredibly hard. Game is more spatial because of this.
+Get scratched badly and there's a chance the survivor can turn into a zombie despite getting all the medicines and support they can get.
+Survivors being at the same spots are fine. Though if they can be randomized would be more interesting.
+I'm fine with loot locations not being randomised. Just means I can optimise my runs better each time.
+Relocating from one safehouse to another is good mechanic. Would like to add a danger level when moving depends on various effects like survivor current statuses, street can be roamed with more zombies at that period of time. And maybe finding random loots when moving.
+Limiting how far you can go scavenging is good. Game is based around a city, so people shouldn't expect to be able to coop in 1 house only and go loot your neighbourhood.
Some negative feedbacks:
-Story is pretty barebone but acceptable.
-While story doesn't need to be special, there should be more depth to the characters. Add some dialogues when people use Communal Area. Choosing correct dialogue can help increase the affection more.
-Combining with characters being randomised at specific locations, there should be another layer of story that recruiting people can either help the OG party or wreck them. Assume Garrett can be recruited, but if he joins Hao's party, it's just straight bad news. But if Mei is friend with Michelle, chemistry of the group is better than with any other recruitable survivors and it'll the one of the most ideal suvivor groups.
-Add a crosshair when aiming. Maybe even add recoil or focus into the guns. People without gun experience can still do critical hit to the head, but needs longer time to aim and recover from gun recoil. Can still spam but accuracy decreases depend survivor's traits.
-Blunt weapons is currently not ideal to use as it attracts zombies easier. Every character is pretty much using stealth and kill with sharp weapons, and Penny is a perfect character for this. There have to be a balance trade off. Like Scrapper trait + Tough Skin trait for a big guy. Take less damage, harder to get wounded/infected, but do mad damage with blunt weapons. Yet clumsy. Can randomly make loud noise when looting, opening door.
Keen to see what the devs gonna do next for the game.
Steam User 47
My expectations were low, as I thought it was just a reskinned This War of Mine. Now that it's had a few updates, oh man has it proved me wrong.
Great atmosphere. Great challenge. So many scary, tense moments and lots of little surprises. I hope they keep adding to this game as it has potential to be one of the best zombie games out there.