Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut for Mac

An atmospheric game for horror fans

Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut is an independent survival horror game developed by Jasper Byrne and published by Superflat Games. As with any survival horror game, the player’s objective is to defend yourself from the forces of evil and darkness that are plaguing your city. In order to survive, the player must find ways to make sure they don’t starve or die by exhaustion. However, be careful not to lose your empathy and morality as you try to survive, lest you become the very monster you’re trying to save yourself from.

Highly Atmospheric 

Probably the best thing about this game is its atmosphere. The game is in the horror genre so you can expect that the aesthetic leans toward dark and creepy. It does get a little bit too dark making the setting difficult to make out. However, it’s nothing so extreme that the game becomes unplayable. It might be recommended to increase your PC’s brightness when playing this game, but it would defeat the purpose of the game which is to be as creepy as possible.

The biggest contributor to the creep factor is the music. It’s very appropriate to the setting and aesthetic. Some tracks are even catchy and nice to listen to on their own. The sound effects also get distorted and weird when you encounter something scary lurking in the dark. Thankfully, this game doesn’t try to cheapen the experience by littering the gameplay with jump scares. Instead, they try to increase the suspense by making the ambiance as chilling as possible and they do that through the music and sound effects really well.

Gameplay and Mechanics

The gameplay of Lone Survivor is pretty standard. It’s a 2D side scroller where you have to interact with elements on the screen and look for clues and resources throughout the game. Lone Survivor has multiple endings and your choices in the game affect the outcome of your playthrough. Factors such as how much you eat and sleep, to your propensity for violence throughout the game all contribute to what kind ending you’re going to get.

The controls are intuitive since you’ll just need the buttons for moving and interacting. It is quite annoying that you can’t customize the control keys to suit your needs and preferences, but since the controls are so simple, it’s easy to get used to the default ones. All in all, the controls and mechanics are smooth and fluid. Even casual gamers won’t have any difficulty playing it.

Pixel-version Silent Hill

If you’re a fan of the creepy mood and atmosphere of the Silent Hill games but for some reason can’t play them, Lone Survivor is a pretty good alternative. Don’t let the retro pixel graphics fool you into thinking that this is a childish game. Lone Survivor can get scary and psychological when it wants to. The creepy music and sound effects add to the dark ambiance that will send chills down your spine as you play the game. Definitely worth a shot for any fan of horror games.