Rogue-likes are once again becoming one of my favourite go-to genres. It doesn’t take much for me to get hooked. As long as there’s clear progression with achievable gains, as seen in Zombies Overloaded, then Deadly Days: Roadtrip looks like it could be another no-brainer and played on rotation.
Then again, it is a demo, and the pace at which you progress isn’t exactly, ‘Hey, come in. Make yourself at home. You’re welcome to wear those spare slippers. Have you met my wife? Would you like to see her naked?’ No, Pixelsplit wants you to invest. Sometimes the higher the risks, the better the rewards. About your wife…
As we all know, an apocalypse of some sort is just around the corner, and seeing as zombies are the default aftermath instead of an abundance of cockroaches, that’s where the story will take us. In the Deadly Days: Roadtrip demo, you’re a lone survivor and will be stopping off at numerous towns and villages to stock up on fuel for your bus. The objective is incredibly simple: raid a locale, get the quota of fuel and then move on to the next place.
The cities aren’t randomised, and you can choose your starting point. For each area cleared, you select the next place, bearing in mind that some paths are locked based on your decision. As a reference, think of OutRun (ask your grandparents) and how selecting a route will take you through new scenery. Deadly Days: Roadtrip is like that, only instead of surplus palm trees, you’ll be trying to survive hordes of the undead.
Deadly Days: Roadtrip is a twin-stick shooter but also features automatic targeting. Ammo is infinite, though it requires reloads, and the weapon you use affects that, as do your upgradeable stats. It’s encouraged to get in and get out, using the mini map to locate loot in the hope that it’ll reveal some fuel. Once you have enough, you return to the bus, fill up and drive out. Exploration is a decision you can make, so you can collect as much loot as possible and/or pick off the zombies.
Crates and swag bags are everywhere and will reveal power-ups, health, duct tape (a currency), as well as weapons. Killing enemies drops coins/XP that level you up, and drops a special crate where you can choose one item. Interestingly, Deadly Days: Roadtrip uses an inventory system similar to Dredge, where you have to manage the placement of items. In cases where you can’t carry anything else, you stash it until the end of the run and either sell, repair and/or equip it.
The aforementioned duct tape is used to repair items, or is awarded for each sale, and pending you can survive all the way through, you can use the duct tape at your base to invest in support. Nevertheless, if you die, which you will, all duct tape is lost, and considering you have to survive eight days, including ‘boss battles’, it’s nigh on possible to advance at a reasonable speed. At least for a demo.
Dependent on the number of days survived and the volume of enemies slain, you receive tomatoes that can be used to increase your stats, such as speed, health, firerate, and, like Zombies Overloaded, the range in which you will automatically collect loot. Alas, you have to complete 2-3 runs at a time to boost a stat, and even then, it’s so minor, you hardly see the difference.
Deadly Days: Roadtrip certainly has potential, and while I’m concluding a write-up for this preview build, I will be frequenting it in the hope that I can steadily improve and, if I get access to the full game, I’ll have a hardy enough warrior to survive the apocalypse. Since writing all of the above, I did manage to ‘master’ the inventory system, allowing my hero to max out their arsenal early on and earn more tomatoes (still no duct tape for the camp, though).
Until the full game is released/quality of life updates are released for folks without duct tape, there’s a lot of time to invest. Fortunately, the demo, while massively repetitive, is quite a bit of fun and warrants repeat plays. You could say I’m relatively hooked, but it would be nice for the devs to show some compassion to their fellow living pals and slightly adjust the levelling-up system. Just a bit. Please?
