The Dutch developers Square Glade Games decided to mix the Wild West, zombie apocalypse, and survival style into one, and the result is Above Snakes.
The town of Corpse Creek, late evening. Suddenly, a green meteor strikes the ground with a flash and a strong tremor. When the dust settled, most of the inhabitants were dead. Or at least that was the belief. Zombie hordes attack the town, killing everything in their path.
You take on the role of a girl named Aiyana, who wakes up in a cabin just outside the town. Aiyana's mother was last seen in Corpse Creek just before the meteor strike, and you want to go find her. You step outside the cabin and meet Jo Ann, who explains the basic controls and actions.
Your goal is to gather food, building materials, craft tools and weapons, fish, chop down trees, build shelters, and create protective clothing that will help you survive in this post-apocalyptic world.
You will meet many survivors who will send you on various missions, from classic material gathering to searching for other camps, delivering packages, and rescuing someone from their family.
The game is designed as a sandbox, but exploring the environment is done in a way that you choose where and what type of surface you want to place - the so-called World piece - a square piece of terrain that you add to the existing one, like in some tabletop dungeon crawler.
Each of your actions fills the "world piece bar," which, when full, allows you to add another block to your grid. This means that even by picking blueberries, breaking rocks, or chopping trees, you can unlock spots for new blocks.
You have a certain freedom and can be quite creative in designing your grids, but it is important to note that you cannot place every block wherever you want; it must be appropriately connected to the rest of the grid, e.g., you cannot place a meadow in the middle of a forest, a prairie must be next to another block of the same type of surface, a lake must have a specific shoreline, which makes sense.
At the workbench, you will craft walls for your shelters and various other essential workbenches, at the cartography table you will unlock new types of territories, at the skin drying rack you will craft clothing and footwear, etc.
Each territory has different vegetation, animals, and often locations crucial for progressing through the game. You won't throw anything away (although you can sell it) because everything has its usefulness. You can cook plants on your own or combine them with game meat to prepare delicious dishes - at the beginning, you'll try out many combinations, but every recipe you discover is saved in your cookbook, making it quickly accessible. The bones you collect when killing skeletons can be used to craft axes and other tools, while zombie teeth can be used to make necklaces, etc.
The day/night cycle changes quite quickly, and Aiyana will remind you when she's hungry, thirsty, and tired, so it's good to carry some food with you, especially if you plan to venture far from your home. I would also recommend building a small base every time you discover a new territory - a hut with a bed, a workbench, and a small chest will be enough (just think of Minecraft). There is a Fast travel option to previously discovered key locations, but you need to have a horse and a carrot :)
As for combat, it's pretty straightforward. Enemies just walk around and won't pay much attention to you and your bases and buildings, so the game doesn't give a Base defense feel. Additionally, enemies are quite slow and easy to avoid, so it mostly comes down to a few swings of an axe or a couple of shots with a bow or gun from a distance.
The controls are simple and responsive, the music is light and calm, but it lacks a tempo boost or battle music to let you know when you are actually being attacked. The camera lacks a zoom option, and you can't rotate it as you wish; every button movement rotates the camera by 90 degrees. I often found myself wanting to see who was attacking me from behind a tree or house, and then I started automatically and uncontrollably rotating the camera and ended up dying.
In the end, I have to mention that the game has an interesting idea, but the execution is mediocre. Most blocks are empty, except for a few plants or stones that will bore you over time. The missions given by NPCs are simple and finish quickly since there is no time limit, and the main story where Aiyana is searching for her mother doesn't really feel like the main story. It simply lacks that something to make you rush to find her. The fights are simple and don't provide much of a challenge, and there's no multiplayer; even couch co-op would be welcome.
The game is currently discounted to €5.99, and if you have nothing to play while waiting for another big release, it will keep you occupied for a while.
A copy of the game for review purposes was provided by the publisher REDDEER.GAMES
