Developer: Rocketcat Games, Madgarden
Publisher: Rocketcat Games
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Death Road to Canada – Review
Death Road to Canada would be a great name for a heavy metal festival (or tour) that goes on for weeks within the borders of Canada. Booze, loud music and walls of death as far as the eye can see, would totally be the formula of such an event, making it go down in history like no metal festival has ever done before. Sadly, we can’t make this come true, but the actual Death Road to Canada is something bite sized you can take along with you, as it’s a roguelike/lite game that’s currently available for Nintendo’s Switch. You’ll be playing with a party of survivors, in a pixilated zombie apocalypse, all while trying to make it to Canada, which seems to be the last space on Earth the infection hasn’t spread to.
Story
The world has been overrun by zombies, which is a fairly cliché plot of a game, but Death Road to Canada does have a small interesting and original twist. It seems the world has met its end, and there are hardly any survivors left to repopulate the planet and of course evade the countless hordes of zombies that currently infest the planet. There seems to be a glimmer of hope however, as rumors state there is one zombie-free zone on the planet, namely Canada in its entirety. You’ll be playing a random or self created survivor who is trying to make his way to Canada by car. That’s pretty much all you can go on in terms of the bigger picture, but the game itself is riddled with small random encounters that offer you different choice possibilities, ensuring different outcomes each time.
Graphics
Death Road to Canada is a retro inspired pixilated game, which throws you in a world overrun with zombies. You’ll often be looking at the ‘on the road’ screen, where your car is depicted, to show your journey’s progress. There is a variety of cars, or in case your car breaks down, you’ll have to gaze upon your party on foot. Other than that, there are several menu screens, and of course the actual active gameplay moments in which you explore a location to find precious loot. You’ll be treated to a diverse amount of sceneries, ranging from stores, houses, forests, and other random encounters, which make the game rather fun and never dull. It has to be said, while the characters can have many distinct features, the actual assets for the buildings and shops are recycled a lot, and many zombie models are very similar as well. Nonetheless, the game is charming and the retro style just clicks with the actual gameplay.
Sound
Surprisingly, the game has a fairly upbeat soundtrack that doesn’t always match the surroundings. Nonetheless, it’s catchy, it’s retro and it has a certain vibe that makes you like it. Other sound effects are also on the simplistic side, making you think back to the 8 bit music of the original NES, which again does have its charm that makes you like the game as a whole. That being said, it would have been nice with a slightly more rough and rugged soundtrack, to put you more on edge than the game currently does.
Gameplay
Death Road to Canada is a survival roguelike/lite game, which revolves all around surviving the zombie apocalypse and making your way to Canada, the last untainted bastion of humanity. You’ll mostly be on the road, deciding which random encounter you’ll go for, and which you can best avoid, but sometimes you have no other choice than to pick one, or even survive sieges when you’re trapped.
The concept of the game is pretty simple, but the actual game is quite hard. You’ll start off with one or two characters, who each consume food, fuel, and medical supplies when injured. You can stock up on supplies when you decide to scout certain environments. Of course, this does not mean that all loot will be useful, but most of the time you’ll find one of the three required materials for your survival, and of course some new spiffy weapons if you’re lucky.
Weaponry in the game is very random, as you can go days without finding a gun, and just find planks, wrenches and other melee weapons, but during other playthroughs, you immediately find a rifle, which can help significantly with your survival rate. Nonetheless, it’s fun that every attempt is different, especially when looking at the different encounters. There are also ‘unique’ encounters, that can get you a car that doesn’t use any gas, or a knight that temporarily joins your party, and so on. Overall the game has fun ideas and it does work.
How the game works is fairly simple. You’ll only have an attack button, one to switch weapons, one to pick up items and so on, making the controls simple and limited enough for everyone to get the hang of them in moments. When you die, and you still have other party members, your journey will continue, if everyone is dead, the game is over. Nonetheless, the game will remember the earned skill points, with which you can upgrade starting perks, and thus have a slightly easier start when you want to retry reaching Canada.
Conclusion
Even though Death Road to Canada is available on all major console platforms, we loved the Switch version because this is an ideal game on the road, as you can easily play it in short sessions, as surviving is pretty hard. Nonetheless, the game’s mechanics are superb, the concept is enjoyable, the graphics likeable, and the overall experience is interesting, a bit hard, but very rewarding each time you survive a bit longer and longer, coming across more encounters, gaining new interesting party members and of course, hopefully make the trip with your party intact.
Death Road to Canada - Review,
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