Developer: Scorpius Games
Publisher: Scorpius Games
Platform: PC
I Shall Remain – Preview
As a total zombie freak, I’m one of the few persons who doesn’t mind that the game market sees an influx of zombie games at the moment. A lot of you won’t share my passion for those lovely brain-eating folks but hey, we can’t adore all things right! I Shall Remain is a top down survival role playing game where your enemies are, guess what? Zombies indeed! Let’s take a look at what makes this game different from all other zombie games.
I Shall Remain tells us the story of CJ and Michael Hodges. The brothers live in a world where the infection has been spreading for several years. The world is dark, the undead are everywhere and every day is a struggle for survival. Besides trying to stay alive, CJ has one mission: finding his brother Michael in this wretched world as they were separated for quite some time. Michael is a scout for the military team that’s guarding the scientist who’s busy finding a cure for the infection. Eventually, CJ finds his sibling, barely alive and infected by the horrifying virus. Will they find a cure? Will they save the world? I Shall Remain’s story is emotional and interesting and one of the better aspects of the game.
I Shall Remain offers various types of enemies which keep you on your toes. There’re the regular, quite slow zombies, then you’ll see crawling ones charging at you or meet a beefy undead fellow around the corner. Soon you’ll realize that running off guns blazing isn’t the best approach in most circumstances. You’ll have to be careful, be stealthy and watch your ammo if you do use guns as it’ll run out a lot faster than you think. A lot of times, it felt like my weapons didn’t really ‘hit’ the opponents. This was most noticeable while fighting the Hulk version of a zombie and when taking it up against a large group of enemies. Even though my strikes were pretty much spot on, no damage was dealt. Maybe something worth looking at.
While playing and mauling down zombies, your character will earn experience. If you reach a higher level, you can invest research points in doctrines which enhance attributes and skills. In total, there’re 10 different skills, ranging from unarmed/melee combat to survival and leadership. Like this, players can shape their character exactly the way they want whether they like melee combat a lot or they prefer to use heavy weapons.
There are still some bugs lingering about in the game. Sometimes an enemy got stuck in between objects on the map. The animations could’ve been a bit more polished up but remember that this is still an Early Access title. Enough room for improvement and tweaks but the base game is quite solid and good working. The only real annoyance I noticed while playing through this preview build is that stamina depletes way too fast. As the game let’s you walk and run a lot between places, it’s quite irritating to see that yet again, the stamina bar is empty so you’d have to continue at a very slow pace (which means pretty much you’re zombie bait). Luckily, by unlocking some particular doctrines, you can bypass this issue by enhancing stamina depletion.
A really big plus for this title is the overall atmosphere. Music wise, I Shall Remain offers a great track list and sound effects like rain and thunder are really convincing. Often, a terrifying wail of a zombie gave me a mini heart attack so the game really keeps you on your toes. Graphically, expect to see a lot of grey, brown and black on your screen. I Shall Remain is a dark game and you can take this quite literally. Although it’s understandable that the developers chose to use darker tints, after a while, it tends to get monotonous. To give an example: even the grass looks like it’s infected and zombified, that’s how dead it looks on screen. A bit more lively colors for things like that would be welcome. In the end, however, I found out about the ‘Aging filter’ slider in the options menu. Moving the bar to the left gives the game a lot more vivid look, which is worth checking out if you too get a bit bored of the brownish coloring.
Conclusion
For a top down zombie survival game, I Shall Remain shows great potential. The story is enjoyable, enemies are varied and require a different approach and the music is just great. However, there’s still quite some work to be done. Animations are clunky, bugs like enemies that are stuck on the map need to be looked at and graphic wise, the game could use an upgrade. My advice: keep your eyes peeled for updates before jumping in just yet.
I Shall Remain - Preview,
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