How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition (Review) Xbox One

How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition (Review) Xbox One
Review Score:

The zombie subculture continues to fascinate people of all ages. There is something about humanity succumbing to a virus that turns everyone into ravenous, flesh-eating ghouls that captures our imagination and haunts our dreams. Eko Software’s Zombie survival game, How to Survive (PS3, Xbox 360), incorporated action-based zombie carnage complimented by survival elements. Instead of just killing zombies, you had to live off the land by searching for water, building fires, and finding safe houses to sleep in. It was also important to feed your character to maintain his/her performance.

In the Storm Warning Edition for Xbox One, developer Eko Software implemented a treasure trove of content (some new to the game) that wasn’t present in the last gen release. The game comes replete with six additional DLCs, three difficulties for hardcore gamers, and a dynamic weather system that changes based on the gameplay. There are seven zombie-filled islands to explore, all with flora, fauna and other items to harvest for later use in the crafting system.

Despite being a next gen release, Storm Warning Edition doesn’t have any noticeable graphical enhancements. While the graphics look good in 720P, they don’t look much different than their PS3/Xbox 360 counterparts, which is a bit disappointing. With games such as Dead Rising 3 rounding out the Xbox One’s software library, it’s a bit perplexing why nothing further was done to enhance the character models or textures. But when you consider the amount of content Storm Warning Edition provides, it’s actually a small gripe in comparison.

The gameplay has remained unaltered from the original game. You start by choosing from one of four survivors – Kenji, Nina, Abby or Jack. Each survivor excels at certain skills; for example – Kenji is better at precision, but has less health and is weaker than the other characters; Nina has more health and stamina, but her precision and strength leave much to be desired; Abby is probably the weakest character out of the four, as she lacks in all four skill areas (i.e. Health, Stamina, Precision and Strength); and Jack is the ‘tank’ of the group with his best stats being both Health and Strength. His strength and precision are lacking, and will sometimes hinder his effectiveness during combat. Despite which character you choose, there will be times when a weakness will make it difficult to complete an objective.

Like its predecessor, Storm Warning Edition is a survival horror game (with the emphasis on ‘survival’) based in an open sandbox world. As mentioned previously, the player must maintain their survivor’s health by eating and drinking. Food and water are scarce, but it’s important to search for it. Water wells can quench your character’s thirst and also fill up empty bottles  for later use. Food is also difficult to find. Sometimes vegetables can be dug up from the soil. But to find meat, you must hunt local critters (i.e. lizards, etc.)  and cook their meat over an open campfire. Failing to maintain your character’s health will severely hinder their performance.

Sleeping is also important to your survival, but this can only be done by finding a ‘shack’. Most shacks are occupied by the dead and must be cleared out before they can be used. Unfortunately, opening the door to a shack triggers an alarm system, alerting nearby zombies to your current location. The only way to use the shack is to kill every zombie that approaches, including the ones outside. You can also save your in-game progress at these locations.

Combat is your standard hack ‘n slash fare, as you chop, dice and slice your way through countless zombies with machetes, bows and nail-based firearms. As you fight, your survivor gains XP and also skill points to be used in the Survival Skill tree. This ‘Survival Skill’ tree teaches your character how to make camp fires to stay warm, create explosives, and enhance skills that may be weak, among others. Some skills even slow down the dehydration and starving process.

The environments contain a large variety of useful items that range from flint to torn clothing, to name just a few.. Everything you find on the island can be used in one way or another. Broken equipment can be combined together via the inventory system to craft crude weapons that use nails and other debris as ammo, and tree branches and flint can help make a warm campfire to scare off any night lurkers. Items that may seem like junk end up becoming useful tools later on, so it’s important to collect everything you come across.

Gamers familiar with the original game will remember Kovac and his light hearted ‘help’ books  (which can be found throughout the islands). In traditional comic-book fashion, these help books – aptly known as Kovac’s Rules – take a humorous approach to the blood-soaked zombie action of the game, as Kovac himself narrates a series of ‘self-help’ guides that explain how to survive. A variety of tongue-in-cheek illustrations adorn these books, adding a needed break from the game’s stress-filled atmosphere.

While not perfect, How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition gets it right with its survival-based, hack ‘n slash gameplay. And while the graphics could have used some next gen polish to differentiate this release from its predecessor, the challenging gameplay and additional content more than make up for it.

Mike Pittaro
Platform: Xbox One
Developer: Eko Software
Publisher: 505 Games
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $19.99

How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition Official Website

Review Score
Graphicswww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.com
Last gen graphics that could have used a next gen overhaul.
Soundwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.com
How to Survive contains a myriad of bone-crunching sound effects.
Gameplaywww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.com
The survival system vastly enhances the hack 'n slash gameplay
Overallwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.comwww.dyerware.com
Thanks to all the additional content How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition is worth the second purchase.
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