When you think of a game based on The Walking Dead, you’ll almost certainly be thinking of story-led games such as Telltale Games’s series. The Walking Dead: Road to Survival isn’t like that. It’s part settlement building, part simple RPG, with a hint of card collecting in there. Does it succeed? Kind of, but it feels more like a time waster than something gripping.
You’re attempting to establish a secure base from zombies and general bad guys. This involves accruing resources and using them to build. Timers play a role here with you waiting it out for each building to complete, before you can use them as storage or to train your existing characters. While you’re waiting, you can partake in battles, often tied into a loose storyline.
These battles mostly have you tapping on your character then tapping on the enemy you want to attack. You can use special attacks too which look suitably gory and flashy. They’re a little shallow on the whole though as action is fairly hands off. After each battle, there’s a chance of collecting a new character too, kind of like collecting new cards.
That’s the overall issue with The Walking Dead: Road to Survival. It feels a lot like busywork, and not the kind that lures you into wanting to keep on playing. It looks suitably moody and the storyline might entice fans looking for more, but the game itself is lacking the all important ‘wow’ factor.