In Last Day on Earth: Survival you control a character seemingly having just crashed his car in an apocalyptic scenario. Around you, in a gray square that the game warns you it’d be unwise to leave without first building a house, are supplies, trees and rocks. Through intuition and exploration of the UI, you can build elaborate structures and defenses, then leave your initial area and go raiding.
In a similar manner to the ever-present tribal games like Trivian for browser, Last Day on Earth is entirely based around raiding other bases and going on journeys to other areas. Your initial area is used only for your house; after that, you’ve got to go further afield to find more goods.
Across the world map are respawning loot areas, usually geographical locations such as Small Town or Creepy Forest. Inside will be wandering zombies, supplies and natural resources for you to harvest. The core gameplay is balancing your energy in attempting to gather supplies and fend off monsters from your base.
However, that simple description belies the most interesting part of Last Day on Earth: Survival; you are not alone. The game is entirely populated by other players, all doing the exact same thing you are. They’re building their bases, raiding infrequently for resources and even, the most interesting of all, interacting with you.[sc name=”quote” text=”They’re building their bases, raiding infrequently for resources and even, the most interesting of all, interacting with you.”]
There is an active chat feature, as well as persistent maps. This means that it is entirely possible to go into a raidable area and suddenly realize there’s another player present. You can happily galavant over to him and exchange pleasantries, or do what everyone else is going to do and immediately murder him for his baked beans.
This player-versus-player addition turns what would have been a simple resource gathering, base building game into an active PvP struggle that has real potential to engage the player.
When going visiting round other players’ bases (that is, attempting to steal anything not nailed to the floor) it is incredible to see the types and variety of construction completed by the playerbase. There is clearly an active community interested in creating lively, active combat and conflict.[sc name=”quote” text=”There is clearly an active community interested in creating lively, active combat and conflict.”]
Last Day on Earth: Survival is clearly trying something new – Rust, DayZ and H1Z1 all have managed to corner the market for survival /player versus player simulation games for the PC. They have no real rivals in that market. In Last Day on Earth, the developers are clearly trying to bring this active and engaging gameplay to the mobile scene, without the stigma of a high price point.
The only significant downside of Last Day on Earth: Survival is the clear presence of pay to win possibilities. As in any free game, Last Day on Earth presents the option to buy upgrades and equipment. There is a worry that this could skew the balance of the game, but it seems incredibly rare to find someone who has used it to get an unfair advantage.
Last Day on Earth: Survival manages to do something brilliant in a sea of similar, boring titles – they are changing the rules and bringing a popular genre to an entirely different medium, and they’re making it smooth and seamless.
Even if the genre isn’t your preferred gameplay, Last Day on Earth: Survival is worth checking out for the novelty alone.
Last Day on Earth: Survival is available on iPhone and Android.
