Lone Survivor Reviews
A smart, unembellished survival horror adventure which rewards patience and inspires introspection.
Lone Survivor's indie survival horror tale finds its most powerful expression on Sony's handheld.
A gripping narrative and an irresistible atmosphere of spine-tingling dread make Lone Survivor a compelling horror experience.
With its 2D visuals and seemingly flat environments, Lone Survivor might seem like a simplistic take on the horror genre. Ultimately however, it's under the limitations of this simplicity that the game really shines, leaving just enough to the imagination without seeming too bare. Through the blurred lens of it's admittedly tired pixelated graphics, environments drip with atmosphere, creatures shamble along menacingly, and the search for answers is always compelling. Though it takes some getting used to, partly due to a baffling map system, the psychological horror of Lone Survivor can extend far beyond the confines of the television screen.
More importantly, the game’s best narrative trick — again borrowed from Silent Hill — is its mystery, leaving itself open to interpretation and examination. Who was the Man Who Wears A Box? The Seated Figure? The White-faced Man? Who was the brown-haired girl I held hands with in my dreams? The answers aren’t overtly clear, but I can’t wait to play again to find out.
There's no doubt that, in a time where horror fans are crying out for titles that resemble a more considered and spooky approach, Lone Survivor sits near the top, along with the plethora of games of this ilk from the past 18 months. Curve Studios have helped adapt Jasper Byrne's effort perfectly for both PS3 and Vita, giving console gamers a chance to witness one of the creepier and more unsettling examples of the genre in quite some time. Map issues notwithstanding, Lone Survivor continues Sony's desire to make the PlayStation brand synonymous with indie games.
Lone Survivor deserves to be massive, because it might just be the most interesting thing I've played all year.
Lone Survivor is easily among the best survival horror games that I’ve ever played, a feat that’s truly remarkable when one considers the 2D perspective and visual limitations. Demonstrating that a commitment to ambience and art direction trumps technical superiority, this guaranteed indie classic manages to provoke — and sometimes even frighten — as much as the genre’s most lauded entries. Its depressing premise, eccentric characters, and engrossing narrative bolster the solid survival gameplay to create a journey that’s sure to stick with players for a very long time.
Still one of the best survival horror games of the generation and one whose thick atmosphere and surreal sojourns work surprisingly well on the PS Vita.
It is survival horror right down to the limited effectiveness of your pistol and the scarcity of resources and manages to be thoroughly unnerving despite its low pixel density. The storyline has you questioning everything – even your own character – throughout and is the thing that will keep you coming back if you can bear the incredible tension the game’s atmosphere creates.
For those yet to experience this brilliant 2D horror title, we can’t recommend it enough – but there’s absolutely no reason to double dip if you’ve already got it on the PS3 or Vita. It’s still a remarkably well produced experience, but if you’ve already played it, spend your money on one of the myriad other horror titles on the PS4 instead.
Lone Survivor is a game that deserves attention and that does everything so that the player invests in it with the desire to discover all the secrets.
Review in French | Read full review
Lone Survivor is fully part of that line of productions that has resurrected video game horror in style. Together with Amnesia and Outlast, Jasper Byrne's survival game graces and rediscovers the classic rules of the genre, focusing everything on the unsound, on insecurity, on the mephitic doubt that the horror that surrounds us is only the deformed birth of a sick mind.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Lone Survivor bears doubtless resemblance to that classic survivor horror franchise, Silent Hill. After all, Lone Survivor has creepy monsters, a mostly-empty city, a basement you don’t want to be in but must be, fleshy red membranes, and a psychological bent. I like to think of Lone Survivor not as a tawdry imitator, but as an intelligent and surreal homage to a once-powerful series, and even perhaps a comment on the genre itself. This isn’t just about surviving and getting to the end alive, it’s about how you choose to get there. Lone Survivor asks you to think in the midst of madness and horror. And if you don’t, who knows where you might end up?
I’d argue, though, that we need more games like this. I don’t think Lone Survivor can possibly be taken seriously on the levels of the works I’ve mentioned in this review. However, the fact that every design choice in the game aims at putting the player in the head of the protagonist as much as a side scrolling horror game can, sometimes at the expense of something that might have made the game more “fun,” is deserving of praise. At the very least, it is deserving of examination. And I absolutely think it is deserving of at least an evening or two of your time.
A more than good conversion of an excellent title can only give life to another excellent title: simple equation for one of the best realized works of the recent independent rebirth that even the console world, albeit with culpable delay, seems to have noticed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
A deep, atmospheric game, with a great audio compartment and a story to discover: Lone Survivor is simply a great title, which manages to propose an experience to remember for a long time.
Review in Italian | Read full review
'Tis the season for horror games, and it is nice to see some games still understand that the true roots of horror are sown in the mind. Too many franchises (I am looking at you Resident Evil and Dead Space) gave up chilling atmospheres to placate the high action crowd. While there is some action to be had here, do not play Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut looking to score perfect headshots or cheap scares. The pace is slower and as a result the sense of horror is more palpable, memorable experience.
Sometimes a game can just tell a story, be an experience. Lone Survivor gets bogged down trying to add complexity where none is necessary, and it greatly detracts from the experience of playing the game. The story becomes a sub-point to the gameplay, rather than standing on its own.
The fact that a game with this style of presentation works so well to make you feel uncomfortable and creep you out is a testament to how well written and designed it is. It would have been easy to put too much of one thing or another in it so that the subtle balance of it all would be lost and this adventure feel like a complete mess, but that's not the case. It's a truly disturbing story that demands using your imagination to perceive this as more than a bunch of huge pixels on a screen, and this involvement is part of what makes the cake lift at the end of the day, and that is a genuine tour de force. That's not to say that it's perfect, as some things are not always executed brilliantly, and yet, in the end, the atmosphere and immersion are not spoiled by such little shortcomings, and the experience ultimately still comes highly recommended.