Surv1v3 Review

Let’s get started on this Surv1v3 review (or maybe if you are coming from google – Survive VR Review)

What is Surv1v3?

Surv1v3 is an extremely realistic 4 person co-op zombie survival FPS. The game focuses heavily on realism and immersion to make you truly see how you would handle being in a zombie apocalypse.

Fire, run, hide, lockpick, pretend to be a zombie, be smart, plan your moves and coordinate with your teammates!

Who Makes Surv1v3?

Surv1v3 is created by developers Candymakers. They are a small 2-man indie game developer from Milian, Italy. Surv1v3 is their flagship product.

Which VR Headsets is Surv1v3 On?

Surv1v3 is available on Steam VR, Viveport, and Oculus Rift. Playstation VR is coming soon.

Surv1v3 Gameplay Review

The V1V3 virus has spread throughout the world. Many people are dead.  Although the zombie and horror concepts are cliche,  SURV1V3 is anything but.

There is a lot to go over in this Survive VR review so let’s get to it.

3 Game Modes To Play

There are 3 game modes in Surv1v3. Story, Trial, and Survival. There is also a detailed tutorial that is longer than some entire other VR games. You select your game mode from the menu by shooting the hanging zombies.

• Story – A roughly 20-hour campaign mode to play through solo or with your friends.
• Trial – 3 additional side missions that are like typical Horde modes in games.
• Survival – An open-world RPG like Fallout. Each player gets a house and needs – Eat, drink, outside, and connection. Crafting and small missions.

Tutorial

You start Surv1v3 with a very in-depth tutorial. The first few screens go through basic VR setup options. There are many different options and these can be changed later.

After the initial setup, you start learning how to play.

Surv1v3 is not like any other Zombie VR or FPS I have played. The developers spent a lot of time trying to make things realistic and immersive.

This means when you pick up ammo you have to actually go through all the parts of reloading the gun. Open the action, remove the old bullets, grab the bullets from your belt, put new ones in, close action, cycle the action.

You have to do all these steps after every magazine. There is no counter telling you how many bullets you shot floating magically on the gun. You need to count them. Just like you would in real life.

Did I mention there are a ton of zombies coming after you while you are doing this? And you are also now out of bullets? The zombies are still coming. It gets pretty intense.

Not like Most FPS – Focus on Realism

As mentioned this game is not like your typical FPS button mush and kill things. There are quite a few more realistic components here.

There is no Heads Up Display. What you see in front of you, is what you would see if this is really happening to you. It definitely makes everything feel more ‘real’. Everything that would normally be handled by an in-game menu is done on your tablet that is stored in your backpack.

The zombies have a very real sense of you. When you are moving around, making noise, shooting things, the zombies will notice you when they should.

As you get attacked, your entire screen goes red. Sometimes to the point of being almost unplayable because you can’t really see. This is indeed how it would be in real life if swarms of zombies were attacking you but it makes for some pretty frustrating gameplay.

You quickly learn that rushing ahead is not the way to play this game or you will easily be overwhelmed.

At the start, you only get to carry 3 items in your backpack at any given time. As you go over the various huge open-world maps you are looking for guns, ammo, healing sprays, and door openers.

Many doors you come across will be locked and you will need to use a drill to unlock them.  Creating noise causes the nearby zombies to attack. No open doors everywhere you look like pretty much every video game ever. Not here.

You grab items off your body to use them. Ammunition magazines will be on your belt. Most items in your backpack that you need to actually reach over your shoulder and go through and select them. Healing items will need to be pulled from your backpack. There is no fast instant heal button push. You get the idea.

Types of Weapons in Surv1v3

There are many different weapons you can use to survive. Rifles, machine guns, snipers, shotguns, handguns, bows. Each of these weapons has a realistic reload as I mentioned. They also have different realistic recoil and bloom options.

This game is for serious hardcore FPS fans.

Bloom is where the bullets are likely to land in the area you are shooting. There is a certain amount of inaccuracy in firing that FPS games add to certain weapons to make them less “overpowered”.  Surv1v3 tries to use realistic effects here.

Recoil is the backward momentum that happens when you shoot a gun. This can cause you to miss your target after the first shot. Different guns will have different amounts of recoil and you will need to learn them and compensate for the recoil to maintain active hits.

You also have the option of using a melee weapon like an ax to attack zombies. I usually use the melee option in games, and with all that reloading this seemed like a good option here.

Unfortunately,  VR melee has its issues. Some melee items don’t do any damage as you slash away at the zombies. It is like they just miss. Some break after a few hits.

I have been playing this for several months and although they have made some improvements in this area, the melee still needs some work.

Types Of Zombies

Like most Zombie games, there are many different types of zombies. Each of these zombies has an ability that you can most likely figure out. They also all have a weakness that you will learn as you play through the game.

You will come across such vile characters as:

1. Walkers
2. Runners
3. Radioactives
4. Pukers
5. Tanks
6. Bosses

Survival Mode

This mode is a little bit different than the storyline mode. It is a sandbox version of story mode basically. You are trying to accumulate points so you can gain experience and then ultimately craft better and better stuff.

You have a meter on your arm that tells you how hungry and thirsty you are. If this goes down too much you will lose your score multiplier. It takes 3 food and 3 water to max your multiplier.

There will be various side missions for you to go on and lots of zombies to kill.  Items that you unlock in story mode will be in survival mode.

PVP is a thing. In all modes actually, but in my hours of gameplay, I mostly found the community to be very nice and to help people learn.

I think there is a lot here in survival mode to make an entire game in itself and it is quite fun to explore.

Some Issues

Surv1v3 definitely has some issues.

The controls are very complicated and can be very confusing. There are commands like push the right joystick in and hold to have something happen. There are MANY things to learn, memorize, and master. You will need to grab from all parts of your body and use every button.

There is no ramp-up either – Right from the tutorial you will be forced to do all parts of reloading and weapons. If you’ve played other realistic FPS games you will feel at home, if you are new to the genre this game will be tough. I recommend taking some time in the gun range which is behind you in the main menu to practice reloading and using various weapons.

As previously mentioned I feel the melee needs some work. For example, if I hit a zombie with just my gun I can hit him forever. He will never ever die from gun hits. I find this equally unrealistic. Maybe it should take a while so people don’t go around hitting with unloaded guns all the time, but eventually, the zombie should fall.

The grunts and groans the zombies make are pretty repetitive. “OWWW” almost becomes quite comical because you hear it so often.

When you walk into walls your gun will make a ‘clink’ noise and your arm will bend in weird angles. It is not very realistic and could be improved some.

Who Will Enjoy Playing Surv1v3?

SURV1V3 is rated M for Mature. There is frequent violence a, gore and overall general mature content.

This game is NOT going to be for everyone. The controls focus on pure realism and a high level of FPS gameplay. Many will find it frustrating and not make it past the tutorial because of this. If you are looking for a serious challenge in VR FPS gameplay then you will enjoy SURVIVE VR.

What Games are similar to Surv1v3?

Surv1v3 takes many themes from typical zombie games like Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood. But it seriously kicks it up a notch in VR and realism.

Similar VR Games would be Walking Dead Sinners and Saints, Arizona Sunshine, and Pavlov VR.

 

How long is Surv1v3?

This is perhaps the longest VR game I have seen. There are at least 18 hours in the main campaign as well as 114 achievements to try for.

There is also Survival and Trial mode as well as helping other players with their leveling in the main campaign.

You have MANY hours of replayability here.

Can you play Surv1v3 Sitting Down?

Yes! SURV1V3 can be played sitting down. You might have some issues grabbing items around your waist belt.

Does Surv1v3 cause motion sickness?

Surv1v3 does have in-game motion.

There are extremely advanced controls to help you adjust every single part of the game controls. There is also a fair amount of movement option choices.

SURV1V3 should not cause motion sickness if you use the many different in-game settings.

Final Thoughts On Surv1v3 Review. Is SURV1V3 Worth It?