How to Survive Storm Warning is a survival-action game from EKO Software and 505 Games. I say survival-action instead of the commonly used survival-horror because it’s not about careful movement and decision making that is the hallmark of a fantastic survival-horror game. How to Survive is about the humor and pure fun of killing zombies.
One of the best parts about How to Survive is all the mechanics built into the game to keep you on your toes. There are more things on the islands other than zombies trying to kill you. There are piranhas, crocodiles, fire, weird crab creatures, exploding zombies, boars, nasty monsters that come out at night…and lightning. Yes, if you’re standing nearby, you will be struck by lightning. While that is comical to watch, keeping up your health is important. Your health isn’t the only thing that you must attend to, you must be sure to eat, and drink, and sleep. These other factors essentially do everything they can to completely mess with your abilities to react, aim and run, all to make it easier for you to be zombie grub.
Layered into these survival aspects is a fantastic crafting and skill system. Okay, the crafting system is great, the skills system could have used some work. The skill system is just stuff you don’t really care a whole lot about because you’re spending all your time thinking about what you’re going to do with all the pieces in your awesome inventory. Combining random stuff you find on the ground is so satisfying. You see a truck tire on the ground. I don’t know what this does but heck yeah, I’m taking it with me. So you click on it. This shows you what you can combine it with. My machete? Umm, ok, let’s do it. I now have chopped up rubber. What does that do? Combine it with a leather strap? Sure! Oh, sweet, I now have leg protection. It’s such a little thing, but the satisfaction is off the charts when you make something cool to protect you or of use to kill zombies.
Now, the game is not without faults. It plays in an isometric view with no camera panning ability so there are times your vision is limited or impaired because of objects in your field of view. Also, due to the point of view and how far the camera is pulled back, the art is not the greatest on the PlayStation 4. It’s obviously using assets from the original game on the last-gen systems and it shows. Then again, you’re playing this for the crafting and the zombie-slaying and not the graphics.
Overall, How to Survive Storm Warning delivers on exactly what it promises: a fun game that is all about decimating zombies. The entire game is built to give you the pure joy of running around, building (sometimes) bizarre weapons and going to town on killing, decapitating and exploding as many zombies and monsters as you can. If that’s your cup of action-oriented tea, then this is the game for you.