Survivalist: Invisible Strand [Review]
Survivalist: Invisible Strand presents a challenging open-world zombie survival experience with drop-in/drop-out co-op, reminiscent of Microsoft's State of Decay series. Invisible Strand feels like what Microsoft was trying to achieve with the State of Decay series. The initial mission tasks players with rescuing someone trapped by zombies who are seemingly unaggressive due to the scent of blood on his clothing. Notably, this difficult quest line, which consistently resulted in player death according to online discussions, appears to be optional, allowing for alternative starting points. The dynamic nature of encounters, where the same NPC could be a helpful ally or a dangerous foe in different playthroughs, significantly enhances replayability. The game is notably difficult; solo encounters with zombies frequently lead to infection. While infections can be managed depending on various factors, combat with the undead, though not resulting in fatalities for the user and their team, consistently depletes health. Similar to The Walking Dead, the game emphasizes that human interactions are the primary threat, with trust being a rare commodity. NPCs exhibit unpredictable personalities, potentially shifting from friendly to hostile between playthroughs.
I would like to explain, on top of the difficulty the game also has an intense learning curve. There’s a lot of information at once so I suggest getting the hang of every button and command. Be a little cautious though, the game has a fast forward button, and while that's extremely helpful when waiting out the night, when playing multiplayer every player can control this command. Since we were all learning the controls while playing together, we’d occasionally hit this button and would throw off the other players. The game includes an easy fix though as you can map buttons, all but one of us just decided to map the button to nothing and there were no more mistakes. After some time and perhaps a few failed attempts the game will start to make more sense and it makes you want to try again. Each time you feel as if you learn something new and that gives you a new vigor to go again with this newfound knowledge.
Survivalist features character creation, offering the ability to roll or select general stats and personality traits. Every encountered character can be recruited and controlled, provided you can gain their trust. Once recruited, these characters possess unique stats and skills. Should your initial character die, you can continue playing as another member of your party. The "constitution" stat determines how many times a character can die before permanent in-game death. Survivalist: Invisible Strand presents a fantastic Co-op experience like no other. Everything player one can do your entire Co-op party can do. D&D style, the decisions you make and your general stats change your life and outcomes in the game and with drop in/ drop out multiplayer this game is such an easy game to recommend and I believe PC and Xbox fans should not sleep on this one. Sorry Playstation fans, this one is only on Xbox. Let's hope for a Nintendo Switch 2 and Playstation 5 release some day.
