Preview: Drive 4 Survival

Drive 4 Survival is a struggle for survival mostly in the frozen wilderness, where you have to rely only on yourself and your car. The game is currently in Early Access on Steam, and for 16 Euros you can help developer M3M Games create an even better game. I an already tell you that survival game enthusiasts should get their hands on this game right away!

About the game

Not only will you need to take care of yourself, but you’ll also need to look after your car. Besides repairs, your vehicle needs fuel, a lot of fuel. If you want to get places quickly, you’ll need your ride. Go on a mission to search for the last remnants of fuel in the frozen wilderness, while also fighting for your life. Starting in your ‘safe’ zone called The Home – Outpost 103, you’ll travel to other zones, which will gradually be affected by the winter apocalypse, and various enemies.

A great start

Let me start off by immediately telling you that this is a great game already. I only tried it out for a few hours, and found myself loving it a lot, even though it’s not even finished! The gameplay itself is wonderful. It’s not just about surviving zombies, bears, and other enemies, there’s actually a focus on surviving in general. You have to keep your stats up (temperature, health, food, drink), or you’ll also die. Enemies don’t come in waves, and they’re not ‘too much’ either, it’s just perfect. And hey, if you don’t like playing with enemies, there’s always the creative mode where you can just build stuff rather than survive. I also really enjoyed the graphics; they’re not lifelike but they’re beautiful nonetheless. The controls are easy to get a hang of, so that’s a plus as well. By the way, every possible option of playing is explained: there is controls information for keyboard and mouse, gamepad, dual shock, Xbox One, Steam, and Nintendo Pro controllers. Clearly, the developers are looking after every detail here.

Some notes

Of course, there are still some things that need a little more work. I feel like the controls, even though they were easy, weren’t always working properly. I played with a controller and with a keyboard and mouse, and both had some issues. The controller just felt out of place while playing, as if it was difficult to navigate it or something. The keyboard sometimes seemed to bug, like I could go to the settings, but I could not switch between settings, which sucked because I needed to see what keys I needed to use (couldn’t get my car running for some reason). There’s also some issue with respawning. Sometimes when you get attacked and die, you respawn in a place where enemies start to attack you again right away. Like, dude, let me catch my breath first before you put another bear on my ass. I was just getting used to the game, so I died again within seconds. Not amused.

A small remark that might annoy some, is that the English grammar in this game is far from perfect. I don’t think the developers are English themselves so they might want to hire a better translator. This is just a minor note though, it quickly cancels out if you compare it to the excellent gameplay.

In short

Yes, Drive 4 Survival still needs some work, but this might be one of my favorite Early Access games that I have tested. It shows so much potential, I can’t wait to see what the developers have in store for us!