2URVIVE Review

The folks at 2Bad Games have zombies (and Smash TV) on the brain with their top-down shooter 2URVIVE. Should you fight against the Infected, or is this title downright rotten?

2URVIVE Review

2URVIVE contains a number of elements you’ve no doubt seen before. The twin-stick shooter setup is not unlike the one found in Hotline Miami, while the copious amount of zombies and undead you fight has been a staple in gaming since the dawn of time. It’s nothing new, far from it, but it’s a setting that works.

2URVIVE lives up to its title, as the main game has you shooting your way through the enemy to survive. It’s more or less a Horde mode, where you take on waves of enemies and recover between each onslaught. After taking down the enemy, players are given 30 seconds to set up turrets, buy medkits, or upgrade their weaponry. All of this is done with money earned on the battlefield, and everything but your basic assault rifle and melee attack has limited ammo.

The resource management here is a novel concept, but the general strategy boils down to buying the turrets and using the heavy assault rifle. Some weapons, like the sniper rifle, make absolutely no sense when waves of Infected swarm upon you. It’s kind of a shame that most of the weapons are duds, but the ones that do work work like a charm.

2URVIVE could also use some work with its balancing. The game is either too easy to too hard, depending on which wave you are on. Almost all enemies just swarm on you, meaning that the challenge largely depends on how many enemies are on the screen. When there are around five Infected to dispose of, it’s a piece of cake, but when 20 come at you from all sides, it can feel cheap and unfair. Players can set up the aforementioned turrets or bring a friend along, as this is one game that leaves solo players at a distinct disadvantage.

The main story mode of the game is spread across 10 Episodes (and a hidden 11th one), and tells the tale of a band of survivors. Players must take down zombies, destroy generators, look for supplies, and do other tasks. The story is told with brief talking heads, and while you’ve seen it play out countless times before, it is zombie comfort food whose diet consist of The Walking Dead and George Romero movies. Despite lasting only an hour, it can get kind of repetitive, as each level more or less plays out the same. There are some brief driving missions, but these are over far too quickly.

Outside of the main mode is an unlockable Mission Mode, which has you fighting your way through 10 waves of the Infected. It’s nothing too drastically different, but it is still welcome. There is nothing else here, not even an online multiplayer mode, so the game is somewhat limited in that regard.

2URVIVE’s horde-like structure brings nothing new to the table, but that does not mean it is a bad game. Those who can overcome its unfair nature might enjoy turning their brain off and blasting away the undead, but don’t expect anything too revolutionary here.