Die Young’s intro reminds me of a mix between Far Cry 3 and Lost, mixed in with a little of the debauchery of high-class society like The Great Gatsby, though set in the modern day. Your unnamed in her 20s protagonist is a textbook example of an adrenaline junkie. Extreme sports, drugs, partying, etc. just are never enough for her. In her own words, she’s not an addict to any one thing, she’s just looking for the next big boost to get her body going. This finally bites back at her when, on a island vacation with her friends, things take a turn for the worse, and she finds herself alone, barefoot and climbing out of a hole in the ground with nary but a compass, a hand drawn map and her will to live to guide her to her friends and safely off the island. Nature is not the only enemy you’ll find along the way though, as foul play has occurred in this once seemingly fun land…
If open world action-adventure games mixed with survival, mystery and horror sound interesting to you, Die Young by developer IndieGala will scratch that long-winded itch for you! The gameplay is a cool mix of classic survival habits gamers all know and love. Aiding you in avoiding enemies and killing as needed to survive is a radar-esque instinct button you can activate while standing still to tell who or what is around you, and a health and stamina system, including hydration. The sun is hot, and you are not! Better drink all the water you can! You will gather supplies, cook food and save game at a campfire, while collecting and creating weapons to fend off the wildlife and the “wild” and “life-filled” denizens of the island. Take my friend below for example, he has a nice, big old scythe, and he would very much like to take my head off as he did those other poor bystanders. All is well though, because I have the mighty stick that I found on the ground – legendary imaginary sword of kids worldwide and bane of that snake that tried to bite me while I was whimpering in the sunflowers! Good luck until you find some bigger hardware, and good luck in general as well, as Die Young will also appeal to gamers of ye olde challenging games – die at any point and you will go back to your last campfire save. Stock up, prepare and save your game often, because you will not be forgiven kindly for your mistakes!
As I felled some giant rats in my path due to being a Vermintide veteran (death to those filthy rats!), I took in how gorgeous the game looked. This is what games in this genre are meant to be – gorgeous to look at, especially when they hide a thin veneer of sinister plot actions and vicious and sadistic enemies. The game never really holds your hand and allows you to explore at your own pace – although this is the point, as it wants YOU to explore and figure things out for yourself – a lot of times as you would in real life, by scanning the horizon and checking your compass and map to see which direction you should possibly maybe be heading in! The game will spell it out for you in its Steam page that this is not a classic survival game where you stay around forever, as realistically, the protagonist wants to get the hell out of dodge as fast as possible – explore, but explore precipitously!
My only concern, and I believe it is more of a personal problem, is that the game ran a bit choppy at points, slowing me down significantly. Granted, it is a large game, is soon to leave early access and my graphics card is more than a few years old, but just be warned that you may need some powerful hardware to run Die Young at a steady frame rate. Trust me, the landscapes fully realized will make it worth it alone, and I intend to go back to the game after I make an upgrade to my GPU in the near future.
A lot of the little things count for people in games like these (and in general), and I am no exception – so I wanted to point out a personal favorite part of the stamina system that surprised me and I think will surprise gamers if they don’t notice it as first. As you climb up rock cliffs and the like, jumping from one rock to another like in Uncharted, Batman: Arkham, and God of War, the game takes a more realistic turn. Despite the main character being an adrenaline junkie, she cannot hold on forever and will tire and fall off a cliff if she hangs too long, something I avoided only because I was near the end of my climb, and only noticed as she started breathing more heavily and I noticed that my nice full stamina bar was now…not so full anymore. A very nice touch by the developers as IndieGala!
Overall, Die Young is a fresh take on the often copied and pasted open world survival genre. I think it will hook enticed players from the get go and provide enough fun gameplay, mystery and beautiful, if foreboding landscapes to keep them entertained. Live long enough o play Die Young!
Graphics – 10
Audio – 9
Gameplay – 9
Story – 8.5
Overall: 9.1
Check Out the Die Young Trailer:
Die Young fully launches for PC via Steam today.
Steam Review
Your local neighborhood nutjob, gamer, and teacher! I'm an avid fan of many genres such as platformers, shooters, horror, etc. I am also an avid tabletop gamer - hugely into the worlds of Warhammer and all of their spinoffs. I'm a big believer in being objective - even if something is not my cup of tea, I want to talk about it on the objective level - is it well made, crafted with love, and with care for the fans? If so, that's a good game in my book for someone and well worth their hard earned dollarydoos!
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