Apocalypse Series #19: Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut

With the current COVID-19 pandemic occurring at the time of this writing, it seemed appropriate to take a look at some games that prominently feature the end of the world as we know it, or at least the post-apocalyptic landscape of the time after. This time I'll be looking at the single-player survival horror computer game Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut released by Superflat Games in 2012.

In Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut, hereafter just Lone Survivor, you take on the role of a face-mask-wearing man who may be the last survivor of a mysterious plague that has enveloped the city, and possibly the world. Fairly topical for a game release almost a decade ago! The rest of the population are not all dead, but have been turned into some kind of savage mutant creatures.

The mutant is the one on the right.

Running low on food and sanity, you decide that you need to search for other survivors and try to escape the city. Initially, you start off exploring your apartment building, which is full of mutants and in disrepair. You quickly end up geared with a pocket flashlight and handgun, as well as supplied with various food items and random pills that you find lying around the place.

Sleeping saves the game and may help restore a certain amount of sanity.

The game has you questioning what is real as you seem to flip between the crumbling city and weird nightmarish landscapes. Lone Survivor seems a bit similar to the Silent Hill series in that respect. You also have limited resources to deal with, as the flashlight runs off batteries and you only have so much ammo.

The inventory is broken down to drugs and food, other items, and notes.

I don't want to get into what happens in the game, since the exploring and experiencing it is kind of the point of playing it. I will say it certainly is an odd title, and by no means appropriate for younger gamers. The retro art style and mostly 2D gameplay is also a bit of a throwback to the Sierra adventure games of the late 1980's.

Lone Survivor is literally a fairly dark game.

As noted, the art is done in a retro style, though it works well for the horror atmosphere. The music and sound effects are also well done, adding to the horror vibe. The game is relatively short, and can be completed in under 10 hours. However, there are multiple endings giving it some replay value.

Overall, I would give Lone Survivor a "B+", or 7.5/10 stars. If you enjoy atmospheric horror games and want to support indie developers, then you might want to consider trying out this title. It is a little pricey for the length, but worth picking up during a Steam sale.

If you want to check out Lone Survivor , you can find it on Steam here. At the time of this writing, it currently has a Very Positive rating on that platform. It was also released for the Playstation 3 & 4 in 2013 and 2014 respectively, as well as the Wii U in 2016.