Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days – Early Access Impressions

It’s time to survive the zombie apocalypse in Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days—or at least try to before being turned into a human shish kebab. Into the Dead is a 2.5D platformer in the style of This War of Mine where the war has been traded for an extremely hostile undead world—so good luck, meatbag! While I think the mechanics work fine, I unfortunately do think the game becomes a little boring and grindy, just like This War of Mine after a while. Let’s get into it!

It’s the 80s
Into the Dead takes place during the 80s, and while the visual representation is great, there isn’t that much to it. For example, when you start a new game, you have all these detailed survivor couples to pick from—both in background and art—but nothing really matters here beyond their initial perks. Every survivor has a specific story part that you can complete, so that’s something. But the point I’m trying to make is that the narration is minimal, and while the setting is cool, I don’t feel that it plays into much beyond being the backdrop. Nothing wrong with that, per se, though.

Regrettably, the game is also very static with the placement of things and other survivors to recruit. This means it’s going for sandbox gameplay, without the dynamism of random placement—and this on top of a lackluster story (after ten hours). This makes the experience grindy fast, without any surprises that RNG can bring.

Now, it’s not all bad, since the city is huge, and it has plenty of events to plough through. I’m just surprised how little there was to the story, while going for a Project Zomboid take on survival. PZ is another game that is technically impressive, but suffers from the same thing. Just surviving isn’t that fun. Even if it includes dangers and hardship, there must be something that pushes things forward—like in the excellent zombie RPG Dead State. At least for me.

The surviving
To be fair, there is a thing that pushes you on, and that is your goal of escaping the city, which forces you to relocate fairly often. But every location plays out the same so far except opening up for new locations to rob. What is much better than the overall story is the gameplay, as looting a bunch of canned beans can feel really intense. You can fight the zombies head-on, even with your fists through hitting and dodging. Fighting anything beyond one is incredibly dangerous, and will probably end your character in a screaming, painful death. Check out the video below of me raiding a motel, with some dangers involved.

What makes going on scavenger hunts even more of a nervous endeavor is that everyone that falls in battle against the infected dead—stays dead. Perma-death is in, and it works well, yet it also plays into what I complained about earlier. It runs the risk of becoming samey, as learning the ropes with death as punishment can hinder progression pretty hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way with this theme. However, there is no denying that the grind can set in early, depending on your tolerance levels, seeing as survivors have a tendency to get eaten or starve to death.

The nectar of life
If there is one thing to look out for—beyond the terrifying sprinting infected—it’s all forms of food. The survivors are incredibly hungry, and will starve to death in a few days, as apparently they burn energy like a nuclear reactor. I also highly recommend investing in all kinds of food stations, as just being able to grow your own food, or capture critters for meat can be a real life-saver. This should be prioritized before everything else, even weapons, which actually make scavenging doable, since a weapon allows for stealth-kills. It is that important, and it seems if you find yourself in a food spiral, it’s almost impossible to get out of it, as you will never find enough by looting alone.

A second recommendation would be to carry a pistol or any kind of firearm as backup. They are loud and dangerous to use because of that. But when in a pickle, a gun will kill zombies fast, opening up the opportunity for you to make a daring escape. I would never use a pistol to clear zombies, as it’s costly in resources, and seems to call for every undead in the area—like it’s some kind of mating call. So, unless you have a death wish, keep it holstered!

It’s a brutal world out there, with one of my first playthroughs ending in a complete Stalingrad situation with everyone dead from lack of protein. The survival aspect in general is pretty tense, like the scavenging, as you will always need something with food being the number one constant pain in the behind—occasionally literally when you lose a survivor on a food hunt to the hungry hordes.

Conclusion
Thus far, Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days is well-produced with clean and impressive visuals. It’s also intense, as dead-is-dead is standard by default, but its focus on sandbox survival in a static world drags down the experience a bit. However, this only kicks in if you restart a lot, which you probably will do, unless you are a gaming god, of course. Hopefully this is something that can be improved upon until release in March 2027 by adding some randomness to the playthroughs.

Still, I had fun with Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days, and I’m looking to dive in for more, as my current posse of survivors are doing pretty well, considering it’s the end of the world. Do I recommend it? Sure, it plays well, is pretty damn immersive at times, and does not feel buggy at all, but keep in mind that the grind will probably set in eventually! Good luck, survivors and always aim for the head.

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas