By Have you ever wanted to play a game that combines elements from State of Decay and Project Zomboid with comic book-style visuals?
Well, you don’t have to because Survivalist Invisible Strain is a game that fits that description perfectly.
I’ve been a long-time fan of both State of Decay and Zomboid, so this title intrigued me to check it out.
After spending a couple of hours, mostly dying over and over again to its ridiculously fast zombies, I have mixed feelings about this game.
Survivalist Invisible Strain is a decent game, however, it’s not for everyone. The game has very light survival elements but its world, visuals, and clunky gameplay are designed with a niche audience in mind.
Is Survivalist Invisible Strain worth buying? It depends on what type of gamer you are. Keep reading to find out my final verdict.
What is Survivalist Invisible Strain?
Survivalist Invisible Strain is a zombie survival game with an open-world map and a unique visual style. Simply put, it features the third-person gameplay and combat style of State of Decay while combining some of the survival elements from Project Zomboid.
Survivalist Invisible Strain has been in early access for quite some time, and it has finally left early access and version 1.0 is now available. This final version of the game includes two game modes.
The Story mode is best for beginners, as it introduces you to some of the game mechanics. And then there’s the sandbox mode, which feels a lot like Zomboid.
My experience in both game modes has been brutal. I restarted the game multiple times after dying to a bunch of zombies not far into the game. And that was on story mode.
Then I tried the sandbox mode and it was even more brutal. I will get into that later.
Comic Book-Style Visuals
What makes Survivalist Invisible Strain unique is its comic book-style visual design. Everything from its environments to the UI feels like you are playing an interactive comic book story.
This is a refreshing take on the survival game genre, and it reminded me of the first Borderlands game. However, this visual style can be a hit or miss. Some players will love it while others might find it somewhat unpleasant to look at.
In my experience, the visual style didn’t bother me. But the draw distance of the game is very small. You can’t see far into the world without moving forward. It’s like the fog of war in first-person view. This got in the way of strategically planning my moves.
Having said that, understand the creative decision behind this short draw distance. It’s designed to create suspense and make the players doubt their every move. And it works. It just hasn’t been enjoyable for me. And I’ll tell you why.
Clunky and Brutal Gameplay
The zombies in this game are brutal. They are super fast and relentless. Much like the zombies in World War Z movie. They run really fast and come after you no matter what you do to avoid them.
After dying multiple times in story mode, I started a Sandbox game in easy difficulty. That didn’t make the game any easier.
Zombies in this game have a very sharp eye. Even when I was sneaking quietly, they see me very quickly and started coming after me. Once they do, there’s no way to avoid them except for hiding inside a building and waiting for the zombies to go away, which takes a long time, by the way.
Unlike in Project Zomboid, you can’t outrun zombies in Survivalist Invisible Strain. I tried running into the forest and in-between trees, but that didn’t even slow the zombies down.
This is the number one complaint I have over this game and I hope the devs will balance the aggressiveness of the zombies in a future patch.
Additionally, the combat feels fine for the most part but some of the weapons are much harder to handle. Especially when aiming, you have to target specific parts of the body of the zombies. The movement also feels a bit clunky. This takes a bit of getting used to, especially when dealing with multiple zombies at a time.
Story Vs Sandbox Mode
After playing a bit in both Story and Sandbox modes, I prefer starting in the Sandbox mode. It feels more polished and a little bit forgiving than the story mode.
In both modes, the game does not hold your hand. You are on your own and you must figure things out by trial and error.
If you’ve played games like Project Zomboid, this won’t be an issue. In fact, you will enjoy this game more if you have prior experience in similar games.
However, for beginners, it can be daunting to figure things out on their own. Especially with the relentlessness of the zombies, the survival rate in your first few playthroughs will be very low.
But before long, you will learn to avoid zombies and deal with the NPCs more carefully.
Is It Worth Buying?
Truth be told, I didn’t get around to finishing the story mode in Survivalist Invisible Strain. I found it to be a bit dull and repetitive. I enjoyed the sandbox mode much more as it gives you the freedom to explore on your own terms. You get to survive and explore as you see fit.
As I mentioned before, this game is brutal and unforgiving. The zombies especially feel too difficult to deal with. You will die multiple times, over and over. But each time, you will learn something and make better decisions in the next session. Just like in Zomboid.
Survivalist Invisible Strain is a decent survival game. It takes a while to get used to its art style and the gameplay but you will enjoy your time, if you’re a fan of zombie survival games. This game seems more enjoyable to play with a friend rather than solo.
Survivalist Invisible Strain needs just a little bit of more work done before I can recommend it as it is. However, if you see it on sale, go ahead and grab it and try it out.
