How to Survive is pretty much what it says on the tin; your average zombie game with a bit of a twist. Yes, you still have to fight off an array of advancing zombies, yes, it’s very scary especially when the night comes in, but what How to Survive offers is a sense a of humour.

You start off by choosing who you wish to play from either Kenji, Abby or Jack. Each character has their strengths and weaknesses, although it doesn’t seem to affect how the character actually plays. The only glimpse of each character’s back-story is a small paragraph written about them during the selection process, which can easily be ignored, and then they all stay mute throughout the game, making you feel quite disconnected.

There is no waiting around with How to survive as the game opens with you crashing into an unknown island, you are told you are the only survivor from the crew as you wake up and find yourself surrounded by disembowelled zombies. You’re thrown straight into the deep end as you’re introduced to a bitten island survivor, who sends you on your first mission and lends you a stick to protect yourself.

You soon find that the island is swarming with the undead and with very little combat knowledge it can get a little intense, but don’t worry, Kovac’s survival guide is scattered around island to help you out! The survival guide is a series of mini-tutorials, but you don’t get any practice time. They are displayed as chapters of a book which include eating, drinking, sleeping and importantly fighting, all put across in a humorous way with happy soul music playing and some great graphics. These scenes cut into the game’s otherwise quite serious nature, which is sometimes welcomed and at other times can ruin the flow of the game, especially when you come across the same chapters more than once.

One thing the game does particularly well is upgrading your character. There is a lot of freedom in terms of what you wish to equip your character with, which armour you feel works best and the skills that you gain. It’s not very long before you start to learn how to create your own weaponry from scraps and blueprints scattered around the islands. There are a few versions of guns that you can create, which you generally find the parts for just as a new boss or creature is introduced, along with various melee weapons, which once again seem to upgrade as you do.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of How to Survive is that you can’t just shoot your way through. During combat and with each mission you have to find your way around certain obstacles. It could be that you are fighting three very different forms of the undead, there may be a zombie stag charging at you, while the ‘screamers’ (which will only run off at the sight of light) could be scuttling toward you and zombies in helmets trying to snap at you. It’s difficult to figure which one to tackle first, and believe me there is an order you need to use for those situations.

When it comes to the actual missions it’s all about getting parts or meeting other survivors in order to get yourself off the island. None of them are that compelling and most of them mean fighting your way across the island, then back, and then back again. Even though you’re faced with different enemies and you have to worry about night-fall, it can get slightly repetitive.

The biggest plus-point for the game would be its design and mechanics. The game looks good, it isn’t high-class graphics and there is only one camera view looking down from above, which is quite reminiscent to the Diablo games, but everything fits well with the game’s style. The mechanics are smooth, although if you do play it on PC I would recommend using a controller as mouse and keyboard control doesn’t quite work.

Overall, the game is slightly lacking in a story-line and the tone isn’t always fluid, but saying that it is incredibly fun and will easily suck you in. How to Survive is a zombie game without being a zombie game. There are so many different elements which will always have you thinking to keep you on your toes. It is well designed with a bit of extra flare it could have been so much more.