DISTRUST Review for PC

Based on the John Carpenter film The Thing, Distrust is an Arctic survival game with a twist. A rescue helicopter mysteriously goes down after a strange bright light fills the interior. After the crash, only two rescuers have made it out alive and the Arctic base they were sent to rescue is abandoned. The rescuers must find their way through six zones while fighting the elements and their increasing sleep deprivation. It’s not finding a bed that is the problem but the anomalies that track the brain waves of deep sleep. As our rescuers try to catch a quick doze these alien spheres start to drain their life force. How long can they hold off sleep without gaining symptoms of insanity? And what are these black orbs that have caused so much death?

As I dived into this exciting survival game, the first thing I noticed was the music. The loading screen depicts the Arctic based deep in snow and accompanied is a beautiful but eerie piano. As the opening animation tells us the beginning of our rescuers’ tale I was fascinated by the unique art style and even more so when I got to the menu screen. We have a lamp swinging in the Arctic wind as an aesthetic foreshadowing to information we will soon find out. This game is filled with amazing style choices and is very clean for a demo. As your characters begin to lose warmth frost starts to creep up around the sides of your screen and the sounds continue to impress me as I played further. Another awesome is that the screen changes depending on the character selected. If one is bleeding out then the screen becomes red to indicate dying while if you select the other character the screen is normal. Audio cues also happen to depend on insanity symptoms.

There are two modes to choose from:

1. An adventure which is suggested for beginners and has limitations on which characters and achievements you can unlock.
2. The trial is for the more experienced and takes away many of the helpful bumpers that were placed in Adventure mode.

After picking your mode you will have three characters to choose from. You will only be able to choose two and make sure to choose wisely because all three come with their own perks. The first character is Olaf Heraldson. He’s the head of housekeeping and knows all the machines. He also comes already equipped with a gas can. Next, we have Irma Dillinger. She’s our biologist who is very fit. She likes to eat light so she doesn’t get hungry as fast as the other characters. Finally, we have James Abrams. James is our explorer who is not easily affected by harsh climates and can withstand the cold a lot longer than the other two. Though you only start with two characters, in the beginning, you can pick up characters along the way.

Each character can only do one task at a time which leads to a lot of waiting. A rim around the task will show how complete the task is. Characters can not eat or heal while doing other tasks. You must find a bed or sofa for a character to sleep. I died my first time playing because this was not mentioned in the tutorial and I had not yet found a bed.

You must switch between the characters to assign them tasks. This can be buggy and cause you to stop the other character’s task. This becomes increasingly a problem in the Trial mode as you need to be as diligent with your time as possible. If you like survival games I suggest checking out Distrust on Steam.

7/10

Watch the Distrust Trailer:

Distrust is available for PC on the Steam.

Harleigh McGowan

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I'm a postgraduate Information and Library Studies student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm originally from Texas and have a BFA in Creative Writing from SFASU. I grew up playing video games and now enjoy watching other people play as well. I love anything with a good story!

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