Undying – Review
Our Score: 7/10
Infected by a zombie bite, Anling’s days are numbered. She must now fight to survive, not for herself but for her young son, Cody. Ensure Cody’s survival in this zombie-infested world of Undying by protecting him, searching for safety, and teaching him valuable skills, at any cost.
What is Undying
“A new survival game where players take control of Anling, a mother whose goal is to find somewhere safe for her son Cody, to live on before she is turned by a zombie infection. Limited resources must be managed in order to slow down Anling’s infection while also making sure both Anling and Cody don’t starve from hunger or thirst.
In order to be more efficient and to help Cody in the future, players can pass on skills that Anling has learned over to Cody. These skills can be in combat as well as general survival skill such as cooking and crafting. A perfect balance of managing your days looking for resources and increasing Cody’s skill set will be needed in order to survive the long journey.”
The day-by-day survival sequences involve looting, crafting, making use of the tools, and also fending off zombies. Anling also needs to remember that Cody is just a young child who is not mentally, physically, or emotionally ready for survival on his own. Everything Anling does, Cody can learn and extract some experience. And in turn, eventually, do it by himself as well.
There are a few major resources that you need to gather to keep yourselves alive. These are wood, scrap metal, cloth, food, water, medicines, and gasoline. There are a few areas where you can get some items in higher yields. Furthermore, the relative safety of each location differs; and most of your time spent playing this game will involve getting the resources necessary.
Look and Feel
The visuals of Undying use a low-poly art style. Along with a top-down isometric-esque perspective, the game looks great. Even though the characters don’t have faces, the animations do an incredible job of portraying emotions.
The day-night cycle is also a very welcome inclusion that makes the game much more dynamic. Not to mention, it looks great at every time of day.
The interactions that occur between Anling and Cody are also heartfelt and can be bittersweet. Knowing that this is a mother trying to do everything for her son and enjoying her last moments with him is just so gut-wrenching. And this is conveyed well with the little cutscenes.
Final Verdict
Undying is a game that will tug on all your heartstrings, especially if you have kids. It’s an incredible premise that has you race against time. Since the game is still in Early Access, the game is only half complete. A cutscene plays when you reach 30 days which is where the Early Access ends. So you can only experience 30 days instead of the final version’s 60. Hopefully, the devs continue the good work and do justice to what has been set up so far because there’s a lot of great stuff here.