I catch up with a lot of different games in Early Access, some are good, some are bad and some are not even worth talking about. For the first of (probably one) these How’s it Going reviews, we look at the progress made on 10 Miles to Safety.
This is a game I first came across at EGX 2019 in London. I was impressed with the direction of the game and thought that it would be something to diversify my strategy and simulation collection. Back then, when I bought the game, it was not great. It felt repetitive and basic compared to what I was playing at the ExCeL centre.
The thing is, as the game has progressed – and we are now on build 1.14 – things are looking much better.
So the idea is quite simple. I bet you have guessed already that you need to get 10 miles to safety. You are under attack from the impending zombie apocalypse and you need to get to the safe harbor of an army, based at the mythical 10 mile marker. This top-down shooter game comes as a single player, “friends multiplayer” and full open multiplayer modes.
Single Player Mayhem
Getting 10 miles to safety sounds pretty easy, but I am currently struggling even on Normal level. Across the games day, you have to loot, brute and shoot your way through a range of environments. Along the way random challenges will pop up, providing you a chance to either defend or massacre to a prize against daytime zombies.
At the end of each night though you have to barricade your way to protection before the night zombies, far more lethal and roaming like a crazed pack of human hyenas.
As you craft your way through the night, you are also building up your arsenal of every more powerful weapons, taking on even bigger hoards, of even more dangerous zombies. You have the opportunity – or rather you are forced into the opportunity – to complete sub-missions along the way, although you are likely to end up getting your trousers handed to you if you plan to head into those solo!
The Multiplayer Massacre
Now apparently, there is a multiplayer which you can join from the main menu with one of your existing characters. I have not been able to find a game yet to join, so it might not be something that is popular, but equally I might just be logging in at the wrong times to join a game.
The Problem with 10 Miles to Safety is….
The repetition.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not expect to see every encounter to be uniquely different, but the problem in the first 2 miles of the game is that you are looting houses, protecting the medics, saving the woman under the car, then saving yourself overnight.
Most of the houses have one of a handful of layouts, most of the docks areas have identical stacks of shipping containers in the same layout and every few minutes to come to identically laid out warehouses with the same boat.
There are some nice rest-bites though when you come to the Must Succeed elements of the game:
…. but even then, if you fail, you are pointed north or south until you come to an identical scenario with an identical layout and have the same conversation with the same police captain. There is no actual decisive dialogue to make a difference to your game.
… but it’s NOT all bad
The graphics are actually quite good, the building variation is just about enough that I am not thinking that it is all about the same boring routine. I know, I said it’s repetitive and then I said it isn’t. The buildings would fit in nicely in a suburb of Cities:Skylines.
The audio is good as well, the music is enough to offer that feeling of dread as night falls, and the zombies don’t sound so fearing that you will be hiding under the duvet tonight. The balance is just right for me.
Lastly, the lack of building variation is made up by the fact that every game is unique and the game is procedural generated. Even after a death, location and contents of crates, types of house layouts, even the actual mini-missions will change. Even when you later continue the same game, even the direction of safety can change.
10 Miles to Safety will have me coming back
Yes, the repetition of shooting fighting and dying is a bit boring after the 12th or 13th night time massacre. Yes, the fact you will move forward less than a mile a day seems odd. The thing is that multiple restarts because I can not quite aim that sniper rifle right is not quite ready for me to call it quits yet.
I hope that Trickjump Games have more up their sleeves through Early Access. The game is less than £10 though, there is certainly enough there to keep me entertained for a tenner.
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