Post by Donald (Panda) Spix on Mar 30, 2018 22:31:04 GMT
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Last Day on Earth: Survival is a brutal postapocalyptic zombie survival game with "no place left for friendship, love or compassion." This is how it's described in the app store, and the description goes on to say, "you can trust only yourself and your gun." Players must kill animals, zombies, and other players to survive, with guns, axes, hammers, and other weapons, and with lots of blood shown and items stolen from defeated opponents. Beer is among the items players scavenge and drink. Players also have the option to wait until a timer finishes to play more, or they can pay to bypass such roadblocks. There's an in-app chat and built-in livestream functionality.
What's it about?
LAST DAY ON EARTH: SURVIVAL lets players test their mettle in a world devastated by a global pandemic. Starting with nothing but a pair of red boxers, you're tasked with collecting everything you need to survive in a zombie-infested world -- shelter, food, clothing, weaponry -- while defending yourself from zombies, animals, and other survivors. Success depends on visiting other sites and gathering resources, then bringing them back to your home base and crafting them into useful items. The stronger and more complete your base, the likelier you are to fend off roaming zombies and ruthless human scavengers.
Is it any good?
This would be a fully entertaining survival game were it not for the overzealous use of timers to restrict your play and game is much harder to play on your tablet of phone. Like many other free-to-play games, its strategy for making money relies on giving players a limited energy pool, and the result is a serious fun-reduction. Things start well: Last Day on Earth: Survival has no story preamble to speak of, but it does a fair job of walking you through the basics. To start, there's lots of repetitive gathering, but the auto-play button minimizes some of this. The good thing about auto-play is you can't totally take your eyes off things. Roaming zombies and wolves can attack at any time, and you can run into not-so-friendly players who'll kill you for your items. It's gratifying to watch your base take shape, and it's fun crafting things and growing your own food. Random supply notifications give you reason to travel around the map, but then you're hobbled by a limited inventory and limited energy supply. You need energy to travel, and what little you get is gone in a flash. Once it is, you either wait through a minutes-long countdown or spend money for more energy. This money-hungry system's designed to blow through your wallet faster than a rabid zombie through a trough full of brains. Still, if you're patient enough to wait or have big bucks for micro-transactions, there's a good deal of survivalist fun to be had.
I’ll give the show a Three out of Five Sci Fi Planets.
Reviewed by: Donald (Panda) Spix