Considering my time spent on the Internet, with YouTube and other gaming sites galore, I've had my fair share of experience of games that I've taken quite the liking to watching over the many years, of which those resting firmly within the well-renowned 'horror' genre has to be a favourite of mines.

Though many of these are ones I would just watch a good old-fashioned YouTuber have a go at it, enjoy my share of the viewing experience and then move on, a few of those have stuck with me and left something of an impression (a rarity these days!) as such gems like Eversion, World of Horror and Project Zomboid (if you consider it primarily a horror game due to it's realism and hardcore-focused gameplay) among other indies of it's time.

Lone Survivor is, indeed, one of these very few horror games that I fancied giving a shot myself although, being a console gamer on the PlayStation side of things primarily at the time, I was never actually able to try it out myself and, as such, it found it's way into the depths of my mind way at the back end, not to be seen again until a recent Steam search for older horror games happened to stumble upon this game once more, hence a quick purchase on my end to finally give it a second shot now that the memories of the Let's Play I had once watched were all but vague, only retaining that it was something special to be experienced.

So why am I saying all of this then, despite giving this unique and beloved horror game a negative review? Since I do acknowledge that it still holds up somewhat well, even if having a few technical hiccups and the gameplay being a tad outdated, but I'm getting ahead of myself here as I'll address those issues later on in this review.

To start off though, Lone Survivor is a 2D survival horror game set in what appears to be a recent post-apocalyptic scenario involving a deadly infectious disease that has spread rapidly and overtaken society as a whole, where we take control of an unnamed 'lone survivor' who has largely lasted this long on account of holding out in his apartment for so many days and making the most of what supplies were there at the time of the outbreak although, with said supplies dwindling fast and with no hope of being rescued, one must become resourceful and cunning as you are tasked with escaping out of the apartment complex you've been hiding out in and, ultimately, find your way of the infested city for the countryside in greener pastures.

Since I did briefly talk about my own views on the gameplay, let's touch into that more as the survival aspect is obvious enough, given the need to converse resources as far as defensive purposes goes, (with limited ammo for your handgun to shoot the flesh monsters, usually taking around 4 to 6 bullets to put one down, whilst flares are an alternative means of stunning the monsters briefly in a large radius which, although not killing or harming them, will be more useful for areas you plan to go in and out of just once or for corridors with a group of them) but also to gather food and refreshments for your character to not die of starvation alongside pills to keep your character's sanity in check as forgoing sleep and enduring too many horrors at once will see an early end without so much as a physical scratch if you don't look after him!

Speaking of the many horrors that await in a now hellish apartment complex, rife with infestations of the virus outbreak, the chilling and unsettling atmosphere that Lone Survivor creates is quite convincing when you immerse yourself into the survival experience for the first time as this also ties into the gameplay in a rather surprising way as far as the overwhelming darkness that surrounds many parts of the apartment complex itself goes, given that you also get a flashlight very early on into the game that doubles as a way of finding your way around unfamiliar areas better alongside being able to acquire items or examine various things that your character would otherwise be unable to tell or make out in the darkness, although it's not always consistent as there are some 'edge cases' where a faintly-lit item on the ground or something easy to discern it's purpose can still be utilized but the game will explicitly tell you when the lack of light is posing a problem as the flashlight needs it's own batteries to keep it working so careful use of it is key to successfully getting around the building! (Also beware that turning the light on when those monsters are nearby is a key way to signal your position to them and they will hone in onto you quickly!)

Alongside having not just more than a few endings for you to acquire throughout multiple playthroughs, it should be noted that this is the 'Director's Cut' edition that was released in October of 2013 originally for the PS3 and PS Vita, meaning it's essentially more or less the same game but has some extra little additions thrown in that the first version from back in 2012.

So, despite all of this that, honestly, could easily warrant a positive review of the game, why is it I have chosen to give this a negative review in the end, given that it is still a good horror game that is effective at what it does and is also potentially enjoyable for a second repeat playthrough for a different ending then?

Naturally I have my own personal critiques on the game itself, mainly that the gameplay cycle isn't all that involved once you have it figured out, as the 2D aspect of Lone Survivor limits the variety of what you can do with said horror here in a video game setting, albeit I suppose it's also the constant scavenging for supplies which, whilst not so bad once you have things figured out, is a touch tedious for first-timers who waste valuable resources trying to work out where to go, inevitably putting them in a worse place later on in the game that could possibly soft-lock them into being unable to progress with either no food/pills to feed or keep themselves sane or enough ammo/flares to fend off the flesh monsters which, from what I have seen, do take on more dangerous forms though I only ever got to the bottom of the basement floor, never having reached outside into the bigger city itself.

Alongside other issues relating to gameplay, such as having no other means of evading monsters than through specific spots in a few walls that you can hide inside (sometimes you'll need to lure them with a rotting meat to get them away from where you need to pass) which becomes all the more problematic as it seems like they become less common on the ground floor and basement and only helps to exacerbate the issue at hand, there is some technical difficulties when getting this game to run ideally.

I'll post down the solution for this in the comments section below for anyone interested although, truth be told, there is a better solution towards this and it is why I turned this from a hesitant positive review into, ultimately, a reluctant negative one.

Since I had gotten stuck at the basement part of this game, several hours in, I finally decided to start looking up some sort of guidance on where to go next and, as luck would have it, this led me to a thread which I had perceived at the time to be hinting at an upcoming sequel but, upon further discovery, has not just been released as a full-on remaster that adds even more than the Director's Cut here but is actually quite compatible with modern systems and far easier to set up as a whole!

Known as 'Super Lone Survivor', this is the game I really ought to have bought since it looks very much to be the fully-realized version of this horror classic and, although not having really enjoyed trying to get this running and feeling mixed about the gameplay side of things, I am more than willing to give the remaster a shot and intend on buying it as soon as the next Steam sale comes along.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1907440/Super_Lone_Survivor/

I advise you to do the same.