I still remember when I was in junior high school, I saved a month's breakfast money and secretly bought a D-version cassette of “Resident Evil 2”. Hiding in bed at night, using the GBA's small screen without backlight, listening to the faint roar of zombies in the headphones, my palms were all sweaty. That kind of tension makes my scalp numb even when I think about it. Later, I played "Silent Hill" on the PSP for three days and three nights. When the battery ran out, I plugged in the charger and continued playing.
So when a friend gave me Amway's "Survivor", I was a little disdainful. Mobile game? Replica? Can it have the same internal flavor as before?
It turned out so delicious. 😅
To be honest, what surprises me most about this game is its sense of despair of "living in the moment". There is no main plot, no hero to save the world, you are just an ordinary person rummaging through the trash cans in the ruins of the zombie siege. Supplies are randomly refreshed and zombies appear randomly. You may pick up a pistol in the next second, or you may bump into a group of zombies around the corner. This kind of uncertainty makes my heart beat faster than those classic zombie games with fixed scripts back then.
In comparison, the older generation of zombie games are more like a well-choreographed horror movie. The plot, levels, and boss battles are all well designed. If you die and try again, you can always pass the level by trying a few more times. But "Survivor" is different, it is more like a living sandbox. The alley you hide in today may become a pile of zombies tomorrow. The safe house where you hid supplies last time may be exposed due to an NPC encounter. There is no sense of security, and one is always fighting for survival. This kind of reality cannot be given by pixelated images back then.
But I still have to say that the cinematic narrative rhythm of old games is still incomparable to modern mobile games. I remember the CG animation in front of the door in "Resident Evil", which combined with the vibration of the handle, directly filled the atmosphere. Although the graphics of today's games are more refined and the operations are smoother, they still feel like they lack a sense of ritual. I even still miss the GBA period when the screen was gray and I couldn't see the picture clearly, so I had to rely on my brain to make up for it. 😂
Of course, this game is not without its shortcomings. Playing in free mode can get a bit repetitive after a long time, and it's a bit difficult to click on when the screen is small, but it's much more comfortable to play in controller mode. And as a free game, I am very touched to be able to experience this intense and exciting sense of survival on my mobile phone.
After playing all night, I went to work the next day with dark circles under my eyes, still thinking about how to avoid the zombie spawn point. In a daze, it seemed like I was back in high school that summer when I hid under the covers and stayed up all night. Youth is really back. 🎒
In short, whether you are an old man who stuck to GBA and PSP like me, or a new player who is just getting into mobile games now, I recommend giving this a try. It may not be as refined as the classic masterpiece, but it uses another way to let you re-experience the heartbeat of survival in the apocalypse.