Zombie survival sims usually thrive on scale. We comply with a ragtag group of civilian survivors who’ve been pressured into horrible odds towards a gelatinous horde of rotting flesh that smashes towards the barricades and swims by the streets till, finally, humanity’s final lights are snuffed out for good. Some nice video games have been solid on this mould, however Into The Useless: Our Darkest Days, developed by New Zealand indie studio PikPok, subverts these tropes fully. That is an expertise about the sheer, spleen-squeezing nervousness of being alone in a room with one—sure, usually precisely one—member of the dwelling useless. And because it seems, that is a lot terrifying, too.
At its core, Into The Useless: Our Darkest Days has rather a lot in widespread with different grim, post-collapse administration video games like State of Decay. The participant is put at the helm of a meager band of unlucky souls who’ve abruptly discovered themselves surrounded by the shambling husks of the not too long ago deceased. The one goal is to remain alive. So you will retrieve meals and water from deserted outposts whereas steadily bettering the circumstances of no matter hideout you’ve got determined to name dwelling. All the whereas, zombies at the gates chip away at the makeshift barricades exterior, guaranteeing that your crew can by no means stay in the identical place for lengthy. What makes Into The Useless distinctive, although, is that every one of the gameplay is introduced on a good 2D airplane, bringing a higher sense of intimacy to the motion. Gamers won’t ever discover themselves mowing down a tidal wave of zombies till their our bodies are stacked up like mountains on the horizon. As a substitute, fight normally begins by peeking right into a cellar door and subduing a walker with an previous pair of scissors earlier than they ever knew what hit them.
