Now, back in April 2019, TrickJump Games had this great little game called 10 Miles to Safety at EGX Rezzed. It was the last Rezzed I have been to because this years was obviously cancelled by the COVID. Fast forward though, and a game that I was really worried would be a flop has now hit Version 1.
Back when I first paid out my £10 for the Early Access, I was a little let down by the initial content. Lot’s of repetitiveness, it did not feel like it grabbed my attention much and I… was not convinced. Something did stop me from asking Steam for a refund though – something was right!
I have previously posted about 10 Miles to Safety, so let’s see how it has changed.
10 Miles to Safety – The Basics
10 Miles to Safety is a single-view, crafting and blasting zombie-fest. It has you evacuating the 10 miles, that you need to escape the crazy pandemic world and get to the safety of a military base. You have to loot, build and survive. Various character players and various weapons are obviously available, including shotguns, SMG’s and flamethrowers.
Your game can work in one of three modes. Firstly the solo mode, you can play offline and independent and have to take account for every little bit yourself. Then you have the Friend’s Co-op, which is… where you can invite friends to co-op with you. There is then the “Open Invite” mode where you can join, or be joined, at any time, by anyone.
Certainly there is not a lot of call for open co-op, looking at the games I have played. I think in the last 10 hours of gameplay, which was only because of the Version 1 release, I had an open invite get a new joiner for 10 minutes. That person simply ran around for a few minutes, did not appear to know what they were doing, and quickly died. I have since joined a small number of other peoples co-op games though, and I am getting warm to the idea.
Crafting and Building
What you have to being with is very basic. You know how to make a bandage, helpful for healing after an attack, and you know how to make a rudimentary firebomb. It is a little strange that – like every apocalyptic zombie eats your brains shooting game – you already know how to make a small bomb. If only everyone had their hands on an Anarchist’s Cookbook, we might not have so many zombie attacks in PC games.
(Editors Note: Do NOT Google the Anarchist’s Cookbook – you WILL get put on a ‘list’.)
In terms of building, 10 Miles to Safety includes a nightly trial by fire. You have to build a defence and prepare to repel the onslaught of faster, and stronger zombies that only seem to want to come out at night.
In the very early days, you will only be able to build simple wooden barriers. These give you enough time to blast the brains out of those coming to eat you. You do get the chance to learn how to build more detailed, more deadly and stronger defences. These are essential as you progress.
You will quickly learn how to – and where to – spend your nights between your quest to get 10 miles to safety.
Variety is the Spice of Life
You find yourself as a survivor in a largely American-style suburbia. Big detached houses with garages, docks with American-esque police officers, barges with abandoned cars. As you push through the 10 Miles and the increasingly difficult zombies, the landscape dow not really offer much variety.
It’s also the case that various assets used to build the world are slightly off. Using wooden crates to build a ramp, but then destroying other wooden crates nearby does not necessarily mean you can build the ramp.
This is one of the first things that I do not particularly enjoy about 10 Miles to Safety but at the same time I can understand that the game is only £10. Once you get set in your ways over the initial waves of similarity though, there is a little more variety to make the game more challenging. Different types of zombies, with different strengths and weaknesses will make you think about what you are doing or building.
10 Miles to Communication
What I do like about the multi-player co-op though is that the communications between players are limited, to a small number of pre-configured calls.
Unless you are calling for help, or waving, there is not much to do. I think that this could do with a little more work. I would like to be able to shout out weapons I find in crates, rather than just shout “Come Here!” in Comic Sans Bold.
It doesn’t allow typed or voice communications that I have found. That does not mean it is there, or planned.
Hardware
So some of you will know that I have a range of computers at my disposal as well. Streaming and recording on my Ryzen 7 1700 (yes, I still rock on the first gen Ryzen I got at release) is fine.
Great news as well if you have a lower spec computer! I can also run 10 Miles to Safety on “ChildPsycho”‘s computer. That rocks an original AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition and a 750Ti Graphics Card. The GPU is under spec, but it works okay!
Overall….
I actually like what TrickJump Games are doing with this game. From the price point, I think it is aimed at the budget market and with that in mind I would say buy it.
Yes, there are some annoyances. Yes, there are some things I would change. And – Yes, I still enjoyed frying zombies with a flamethrower.
I like 10 Miles to Safety. I am glad that I did not refund 18 months ago, and I am glad that I found it in the Indie section of EGX Rezzed.
You can buy 10 Miles to Safety right now on Steam – it is not the most expensive game in the world. You can also follow TrickJump Games on both Twitter and Facebook!