So far so typical of the genre, but Dead of Winter does add some nice mechanics to mix things up.įor one thing this is a semi cooperative game – along the lines of Archipelago – where players must work together to complete the overall objective, whilst also attempting to fulfil the conditions of their own personal secret agenda, which very often may run counter to the interests of the group (the world may have ended, but as The Walking Dead proved, the selfish machinations of humanity need not). Zombies steadily flood the locations and, as with that other undead classic City of Horror, can quickly overrun the survivors they’re if not picked off. In Dead of Winter, designed by the studio’s rising star Isaac Vega, players take control of a number of survivors in a small American town, splitting their time between their stronghold and various shops, represented by decks of cards, that can be looted for resources (cleverly the split of cards is different in each deck meaning your much more likely to find food in the grocery store, guns at the police station and tools at the hardware store).
The intention is for them to release a number of games exploring many different themes, and in many ways tackling the well trodden zombie genre makes for a good proof of concept given its populist appeal – if a new mechanic can freshen up the zombie genre, after all, then it can surely work anywhere? The game’s generous, and motley cast of characters attests to its soap opera overtures Dead of Winter is the first release in the studio’s planned ‘crossroad’ series, the name deriving from a core mechanic that provides a new twist on the medium’s storytelling potential (more on that later). We may have all had enough of Zombies, but any game by boutique American studio Plaid Hat Games (Summoner Wars, Bioshock Infinite: Siege of Columbia) deserves a backward glance even as you flee its shambling army of the undead.
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