Survive the Nights
a2z Interactive
Survive the Nights has been in development for several years now. It’s a zombie-pocalypse style game in a similar vein to 7 Days to Die, where the undead are more docile during the daytime hours and deadlier at night.
My first game involved choosing a server and then spawning into the game’s world, which apparently is in some sort of Eastern European-looking region. Unfortunately, it was nighttime, and I saw an industrial compound with some warehouses and lots of debris scattered around in the fenced-in area. I crept through the entry gatehouse and looked around for anything useful.
Before I could go much further, I could hear a zombie grumbling and gargling nearby in the darkness. So, I began running in the opposite direction. I think that was a big mistake; zombies in Survive the Nights fully utilize their sight and hearing, especially at night. It immediately began chasing after me. I sprinted out of the compound but it was right on my heels. I tried to run up a rocky hillside but the ravenous creature clawed at my back a few times and I was dead within seconds.
Even though my whole first game lasted close to a couple of minutes, I was happy that the zombies in this game are truly as dangerous as the developers say they are. They reminded me of the ones in 7 Days to Die, but with much better modeling and texture work. In fact, one of the first things that I noticed about this game was that its graphics are pretty well done. They’re not quite on the level of Miscreated’s visuals; I’d say they’re slightly better than DayZ’s, but with better-looking environments.
For my second game, I managed to spawn in near one of the game’s many campsites that make it easier for new players to adjust to the game’s basic mechanics, such as crafting. Luckily, the sun started coming up shortly after I built my first weapon; a basic wooden club that I fashioned out of some found firewood.
I scavenged around through a nearby settlement that consisted of a few houses and found my first firearm—a pistol. Of course, as is typical in these types of games, it didn’t have any bullets. Therefore, my next task was to secure some ammunition for it.
I encountered a few more zombies that were in a house. Since it was daytime they lumbered slowly towards me and broke out a window to crawl through it, and get to me, their would-be next meal. Fortunately, this two-legged meal was armed and I bashed their brains in with my handy club. This was a nice reprieve from my first game where I was quickly killed.
Survive the Nights also has full-on day and night cycles, as well as a dynamic weather system. I’ve seen mist and fog and have also been caught in rain and snowstorms. Fortunately, you can occupy and fortify pre-made structures so you can always seek shelter instead of being caught out in the cold.
Once you secure a structure that you feel is adequate for your needs, you can put locks on the doors and also nail wooden planks on any windows. I found this system of shelter to be much more realistic than building a base up from found resources—it’s also much more convenient because you can fortify a place relatively quickly if you know what you’re doing.
And you’ll need to; at night the zombies spawn in higher numbers and have better senses. Once they locate you, they’ll immediately run after you as they did in my first game, or they’ll try to smash into your shelter as in my second one. The latter experience can be quite harrowing as undead attempt to claw their way in, which reminded me of some of the scenes out of past zombie flicks.
Survive the Nights just saw its 1.0 Alpha release, which has added a whole new slew of features, such as breakable windows and more zombies to contend with. If you’re thinking of purchasing a zombie game with some unique features, now may be a good time to try out Survive the Nights, because it’s only going to get better.
SCORE: 82%
Survive the Nights has some pretty good looking graphics that make its horror gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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