

Pushing through a thick crowd of aggressive undead is probably going to hurt or kill at least one in your party, without a guarantee of landing you additional resources.įrom a gameplay standpoint, the trip sections are tense because they can end your game if you die or don't find the resources you need. Everything in Death Road to Canada is randomized, and you have to make smart decisions. The point is to get out alive and unhurt with as many supplies as possible. Having a high death count during your trips might give you bragging rights, but that's not the point. If you have a physical buddy near you, the looting trips can also be played cooperatively. If we're playing alone, we can set basic behavioral patterns, like how aggressively they should pursue the undead or if they should shoot or physically attack their targets. We can control one character in our group and switch between them at will. There are also guns, like pistols, rifles and shotguns, but they all require ammo, which is a rare commodity. Items like hammers, machetes and mops are available, but they're limited by our character's fitness. While on foot, we can engage in close-quarters combat with weapons that are lying around. This may make or break the game for you personally, as the game thrives on creating absurd story arcs rather than deep and fulfilling gameplay. That's what Death Road to Canada is ultimately about.

I didn't make it to the promised border that time, but it left me with an absurd and entertaining first story. He taught himself to permanently attach the chainsaw to its arm to slay zombies at a higher rate ("Evil Dead," anyone?).
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My dog eventually learned how to drive the van, and he found an abandoned hospital and a chainsaw. One event left everyone dead but our dog, which had me believe the game was over. On our very first trip in Death Road to Canada, I started with a buddy and quickly recruited another human companion and even found a loyal dog. As long as one character of your party is still alive, you can push on. If you notice that you're in over your head, you have to maneuver yourself out of harm's way, or you're done for. All decisions are final, so you can't go back and choose something else. The latter choice sends your troop to bash in some heads and see what they can find in the ruins of American civilization. It may be a simple decision, like where to spend the night, or it can be more involved, like who to send out to hack wood for a fire or choosing a location to look for more supplies. While the events are plentiful and change slightly, you'll find that some of them quickly get repetitive.Įvery so often, you'll need to take action. It may sound like a lot to track, but the updates are displayed rather quickly, so you won't get stuck tracking every single action if you don't want to. The travel episodes are fully automatic, and we're informed of any changes in fuel and food, character traits and skills, and, most importantly, morale, which may be influenced by events and discussions. Traversal is therefore not limited to four wheels. While we have a car, the vehicle may break down or run out of fuel. The actual gameplay then revolves around moving forward on the road and looting (i.e., bashing and shooting zombies in the head while collecting resources). However, we can only choose a few general traits from the get-go, such as overall attitude, and other traits are revealed during our journey. We usually start with randomly mixing our main character and an optional buddy by our side.

There are shorter and longer modes (9 and 25 days, respectively) and modes with special and known (previously created) characters. The title offers several modes or "routes" to the Canadian border, with the normal road requiring us to travel for 15 days. Death Road to Canada's gameplay loop feels novel even in later runs due to its wealth of character traits, choice, events, and hilarious moments that seem to pop up randomly. The issue is that they can easily become mindless and exhausting grindfests that have little to offer beyond their initial novelty. Indies frequently use game concepts based on roguelikes or lites to craft experiences with short and fun gameplay loops. Sounds like nonsense? It surely is, and it has finally arrived on the Nintendo Switch.ĭeath Road to Canada is a roguelike, which, like zombies, is far from a novel concept in this day and age. That's the assumption that Death Road to Canada makes when it provides you with a vehicle and sends you on the road to the Canadian border to escape the zombie plague. If you're an American, your destination would be where a zombie apocalypse is unthinkable: Canada. The entertainment industry is still going strong with its numerous depictions of the zombie apocalypse and the urgent question of how to survive.
