There’s no end for our love for zombies. In reality, we wouldn’t exactly want to encounter one—though some might be delighted to be in the haunting presence of the undead. It’s a morbid fascination, but great zombie content triggers curiosity and gets our adrenaline going.
One that recently caught our attention is Last Day on Earth: Survival (LDE:S). This mobile game, currently in beta mode, is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth. In 2027, it is said that a zombie pandemic spread and wiped majority of the world’s population. With resources getting scarce, survivors are forced to come out of hiding and gather resources, thus turning most of the sane into the undead. You play as one of the lucky people to endure this mass destruction; in this game a single rule runs: you must survive.
Gameplay
You control an unclad avatar spawned in an unassuming field peppered with trees, limestone, and cherry bushes. This area is now your home base. Roaming around will get you to an abandoned pickup truck, which you can salvage by pressing the ‘grab’ icon on the lower right of your display. Doing this will show you a few items stowed in the truck, such as iron scraps, ropes, an old jacket, and a cleaver. Taking these items into your inventory—initially pockets—will give you a headstart in the game.
Equip yourself with the jacket and the cleaver as you’ll find them useful for fending off zombies on the lot you’re on.After clearing zombies within the area, you are now to build a fortress from the ground up. This is what the trees, scattered stones, and logs in your lot are for. For starters, the basic flooring will cost you a log, same goes with walls, doors, and windows—all of which you can upgrade using sturdier materials as you level up in-game.
Once your base runs out of logs and stones to acquire, craft a hatchet and pickaxe which you can learn to make through your initial crafting points. Secure the needed amount of resources to make these items. With these tools on your person, you can now begin logging and mining. Apart from killing zombies and land creatures, logging and mining gives you XP to level up. Know that gears in this game deteriorate with use, so craft and stow away.
I’ve consumed all the available resources in my base, what do I do now? This is the part where you explore this post-apocalyptic world.
Exploring
Before heading to uncharted territories, equip yourself with a weapon and berries; the latter will restore your health for when zombies and other creatures charge at you. Also, you can temporarily store collected and crafted items in the truck as all the items in your inventory will disappear if your HP gets completely depleted.
I suggest going to ‘green’ areas such as Pine Bushes and Limestone Ridge first, since danger in these spots are at a minimal. You can ‘walk’ to these areas, which might take a few minutes to hours depending on its proximity from your base. A faster action is to ‘run,’ taking you to your destination within seconds. This will, however, cost you energy points depending on the distance. Energy points are replenished every three minutes. If you want to fill it to the hilt without waiting, coins are the answer. You purchase coins with real money, of course.
Military crates are also occasionally dropped, but are usually gone after a few minutes. Crates usually carry electronics, water, food, guns, and sometimes clothing items. Do know that military crate locations are perilous. Wolves and higher level zombies are present to pester you. Since the game is currently in beta mode, there are instances where you are bound to encounter AI players. If you aren’t armed with high-damage weaponry and fully-clad, it’s best to just run away otherwise be killed. Currently, other locations you can visit include abandoned military bunkers, watchtowers, pump jacks, oakwood bushes, among others which you gain access to as you level up and learn to craft items such as vehicles.
LDE:S is a PvP type of game, meaning you can raid other players’ bases, and vice versa. You are also able to join clans to gain alliance and protection from raiders. However, according to some players of LDE:S, other players and bases you’ll encounter in the game are, as of now, AI controlled. These features might be available as the app develops.
User Experience
For a mobile game, LDE:S offers a rich gameplay sure to hook players. Apart from the impressive graphics and easy controls, there are a lot of in-game elements to keep you busy rather than just keeping the undead at bay. In this game, you even have to monitor your stats, hunt, plant, harvest, and cook to stave off hunger, as well as loot and craft mechanisms to maintain hydrated while in a hostile environment.
There’s a constant challenge throughout the game. You must explore locations with varying risks to gather materials for upgrading your base; this is so zombie hoardes couldn’t do your home much damage when they attack every after 24 hours. If this doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat, I don’t know what will.
The fact that this is just a beta version is exciting: will the familiar elements remain when the final version rolls out or are we about to see significant changes and interesting additions to the game? All these are just tip of the iceberg. It is a game with lots of potential, and we’ll have to wait and see how it pans out.
Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE July 2017 Issue
Words by Mia Carisse Barrientos
Developer: Kefir! | Platform(s): Android