Death Road to Canada is most easily described as The Oregon
Trail with zombies, but it’s much more than that. Hitting the road to Canada in
any ol’ jalopy you can find, picking up survivors along the way, mourning said
survivors when the inevitably die, stopping for supplies, and smashing through
thousands of zombies along the way is an absolute treat here. Since it is
procedurally generated it’s different every time, too, with unique events and
level layouts and even unique survivors, Death Road to Canada is extremely fun
and addictive and will keep you playing for a long, long time in solo and local
co-op play. Death Road to Canada is awesome.
Game Details
- Publisher: Ukiyo Publishing
- Developer: Rocketcat Games
- ESRB Rating: “T for Teen
- Genre: Roguelike
- Pros: Sense of humor; great presentation; replay value; co-op; rare characters
- Cons: Brutal difficulty
- MSRP: $15
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The gameplay is split between a couple of sequences –
driving (or walking if you car breaks down), and exploring and fighting
zombies. The driving sections happen automatically and feature conversations
between characters as well as moments where you have to make decisions about
stuff. Decisions include whether to stop at a trading camp, who should stand
guard at night, whether to pick up a survivor or not, where to go next, and
many other things.
The action sequences play like an oldschool three-quarter
perspective beat-em-up where you pick up guns and melee weapons and smash and
shoot your way through hordes of zombies while looking for new supplies. You
always, always, always need more food, better weapons, gas, and medical
supplies, so exploring every nook and cranny of each level is vital. It is
incredibly thrilling to find a big stash of supplies or some cool new weapon
and the carrot of new loot can really get you hooked.
What makes Death Road to Canada so interesting is that in
addition to the world and loot distribution being totally random, the
characters you meet are randomized as well based on a huge number of perks and
personality traits and varying ability levels (not to mention their looks).
Because your party will always be made up of different mixes of character
traits, every playthrough plays out differently even if the same scenarios
start to repeat. Seeing how differently things can be based on just a few
slightly different variables is another thing that makes Death Road to Canada
so addictive and fun. You can make your own custom characters if you’d like,
but I kind of like just letting random chance take over most of the time.
Something else I have really enjoyed is the possibility of
meeting unique characters based on real world characters or archetypes. Along
my travels I’ve met a girl in a Godzilla costume, Garfield the cat, creepy
clowns, macho body builders, an anime magical girl, an alien, an armored
knight, and many more. Normally your chances of meeting these unique characters
is fairly low, but you can also play on a special mode that makes them more
prevalent (and can potentially make the game easier), which is awesome.
With all of that said, however, one thing needs to be made
clear – Everyone is definitely going to die so getting too attached to the
characters isn’t a good idea. The game is brutally hard to the point that it
seems unfair sometimes. Just when you have a ton of food, great weapons,
everyone at full health, and on day 13 with just a few hours left and you think
you’re going to survive, the game will throw an extra long siege sequence
(where you have to fight zombies for a long time and can’t escape) at you and
everyone dies. Confession time – even after playing dozens of rounds I’ve never
actually made it to Canada. A full 14-day playthrough can take roughly 35-minutes or so (just estimating based on how close I've come), so constantly dying and re-trying does eat up some time, but you won't mind if the game gets its hooks into you.
One final important note is that your party constantly
changes over the course of a playthrough. You can have a maximum of 4
characters at a time, which means sometimes you might have to kick someone out
to make room for a newcomer, but more likely someone will die to make an
opening. There is so much death and character swapping in the game, in fact,
that the chances of you making it to Canada with the character you started with
are extremely low. Some people may find this frustrating and disappointing that
you can’t really make connections to your characters, but that just isn’t the
type of game this is. I think it’s fine.
Presentation-wise, Death Road to Canada is pretty incredible
all around. It looks like a blocky (however many “bits” it is) oldschool
beat-em-up with great character sprites and solid environments. There can be
dozens of zombies onscreen and the game never skips a beat, though it can
sometimes get so hectic that it is hard to tell what is going on. The sound is
also great with an awesome and very catchy soundtrack.
All in all, Death Road to Canada is awesome. It’s
difficult and occasionally seems unfair in how brutal it can become at the drop
of a hat, but that is the nature of roguelikes. What is more important is that
it does a ton of clever things to keep you coming back and the lure of
interesting new characters, fun new weapons, and constantly changing scenarios
make it incredibly addictive even if you never actually make it to Canada. Toss
in a solid local co-op mode and you have a real winner here. And for just $15
it is kind of a no-brainer anyway. Death Road to Canada is highly recommended
for a purchase.
Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher
