The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival is the latest attempt at adapting the TV show into video game form. Only this time around, the gameplay is going for a Final Fight or Streets of Rage approach, with the player facing both human and undead opponents. Sadly, much like the retro brawlers of the '90s, Streets of Survival doesn't have what it takes to keep up in the modern era.
A franchise focused on humans surviving the zombie apocalypse seems like it's tailor-made for video game adaptations, which is why there have been so many titles based on The Walking Dead. All the new adaptations have to live in the shadow of Telltale's excellent story-based adaptation of The Walking Dead, which has led to numerous action-focused games, so it's no surprise that Streets of Survival has gone the brawler route, and only uses the show as an outline for its levels.
The Walking Dead: Streets Of Survival Features Rick, Daryl & Michonne Vs. The Saviors
Streets of Survival has three playable characters: Rick, Daryl, and Michonne, with a fourth unlocked after completing the story for the first time. The game is broken into missions, with different characters taking the lead at various points, some of which can be played out of order, following a loose adaptation of the storyline that began in Season 6 of The Walking Dead TV show.
In Streets of Survival, the three heroes are facing off against Negan and his massive gang, the Saviors, with both groups under threat from the Walkers, the zombified population of the United States of America, which moves around unchecked. The two sides vie for power, while trying to survive the seemingly endless hordes of the undead.
The visuals in Streets of Survival have some gorgeous retro-pixel sprites for the main characters, along with some garbled voice clips from the show that perfectly emulate the feeling of old arcade games. While the world of The Walking Dead is a drab grey mess at the best of times, Streets of Survival does a great job of making it interesting to explore, at least on a visual level, with stages that often have branching paths and extra rooms to explore.
The heroes in Streets of Survival have minor variations in their play styles. Rick comes packing his Magnum, which is an incredibly powerful pistol that deals a ton of damage, while Daryl has his crossbow, which is weaker, but has a wider AoE and can strike groups of enemies. Michonne comes with her powerful katana as a default weapon, which is fast and has a wide range, but she is unable to pick up any secondary melee weapons, like the sledgehammer, which are powerful in their own right, but can only be used by the guys.
The Heroes Of Streets Of Survival Are Far Too Similar
Functionally, the characters are extremely similar, especially as there are tons of firearms strewn around the stages that are used to augment each hero's arsenal. There's also a skill point system, where characters can spend experience points earned in the levels to unlock new abilities, expand the item carry limit, or improve stats.
In terms of the actual gameplay, the combat in Streets of Survival will be extremely familiar to fans of old '90s arcade brawlers. Each hero has light and heavy attacks, the latter of which has a cooldown timer, and they can be combo'd together. There's also a roll with invincibility frames that can be used to dodge damage, which is vital when surrounded by enemies.
One major flaw with the combat system in Streets of Survival is that the player commits to a direction when pressing the attack button, meaning they can't switch either left or right after throwing the first punch. This leads to situations where the hero can get locked into a combo, only for an enemy to move out of the way at the last second, leaving them wide open for a counter.
The second major flaw is an inability to change attack targets with ranged weapons. If the player whips out a gun or a crossbow, then the game seemingly randomly determines which enemy they'll aim at. This leads to frustrating situations when trying to aim at an assault rifle-wielding foe who is a genuine threat, but instead focusing on a melee enemy who is miles away, leaving the player to be shot.
Guns & Bosses Drag The Pace Of The Walking Dead: Streets Of Survival Down
The use of guns in a genre that's mostly focused on melee combat is a bold one, and unfortunately, it doesn't work in Streets of Survival's favor. This is due to how many Saviors use firearms against the player, where the only hope of survival is using the dodge roll to get enough i-frames to survive.
Unfortunately, the Saviors are smarter than they look, and they know how to shoot one after the other, meaning the bullets will hit the player as soon as they come out of the roll animation, pushing them back and dealing a ton of damage, putting them in near-impossible-to-escape situations. It's really easy to get mown down by groups of enemies, even when dashing to trying to stealth into position.
The Saviors can also shoot the player from off-screen if they're loaded in while exploring, leading to even more frustrating deaths, especially as running away to more advantageous positions is one of the smarter tactics, as being surrounded is usually a game over waiting to happen.
The Walkers rely more on group tactics, with individual foes not presenting much of a challenge, but large groups can quickly overwhelm the player. Easily the most effective strategy is the old "Ginsu Corridor of Death", where the player bottlenecks enemies in a doorway, and slays them as they come through. The hard part is actually getting into a safe position to perform the technique.
One of the best aspects of Streets of Survival is that the Walkers don't distinguish between targets, meaning they'll also hunt the Saviors, leading to some exciting three-way battles, where the player can carefully whittle down the numbers, balancing out both sides until they're ready to make their move. There's also levels where the player can purposly unleash the Walkers by completing objectives, thinning out the numbers of both sides.
Sadly, the boss fights are uniformly terrible, being far more frustrating than fun, with extremely basic mechanics that often involve playing the defensive for way too long. These larger foes quickly wear out their welcome, and players will be begging to go back to the Saviors. This isn't helped by the brief dialogue cutscenes between fights being unskippable, and checkpoints sometimes requiring the player to complete sections of a level before they can take on the boss again.
The Walking Dead: Streets Of Survival Wraps Up In A Few Hours
The individual levels in Streets of Survival sometimes have optional objectives that can be completed for extra resources, but even completing these and suffering through the pace-killing bosses won't inflate the runtime too much. Like the arcade brawlers of old, Streets of Survival can be completed in a few hours, and while there's an extra character, harder difficulties, and a skill tree to finish, it's still playing the same mediocre content over again.
There's a reason the brawler genre died out, or at least pivoted to appeal to a more niche fanbase, as the gameplay just doesn't maintain interest for long, even when played with friends. This worked in short bursts in the arcade, but wears out its welcome on home systems.
Streets of Survival does add a few wrinkles to the mix, such as the gunplay and skill system, but what's in the final product quickly wears out its welcome, with an experience that has some extremely frustrating moments, and is over quickly. Huge fans of The Walking Dead and old brawlers might get a few hours of enjoyment out of Streets of Survival, but those people should probably wait for a sale before taking the plunge.
For future The Walking Dead games, what kind of experience would you most want to see next?
- A narrative-driven adventure with big choices and consequences
- A modern co-op brawler/beat ’em up refined for today’s gameplay standards
- An open-world survival game focused on scavenging and base-building
- A replayable roguelike or horde mode centered on combat and progression
- I’m not very interested in future The Walking Dead games
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