The Walking Dead: Road to Survival

The Walking Dead: Road to Survival is free-to-play game based on The Walking Dead comics books and not the the contemporary AMC TV series. It starts at the moment Phillip Blake reaches Woodbury, before he becomes the Governor. The game has a progressive story with many iconic characters that runs parallel to the main events of the books and during the campaign there are often references to the main events of the book. It combines base building to manage a group of survivors, combined with story elements where important choices lead to different paths, and turn-based combat for encounters with walkers.

The player manages a base where buildings and services can be constructed and upgraded at fixed locations. There are different types of currencies to manage with waiting times or in-app purchases to receive more, next to loot from missions. Buildings such as workshops, storage and training grounds require regular materials. Farms provide food (another currency) to sustain the number of people living in the settlement. There are also two types of fuel/gas that serve an energy/stamina system for the main single-player campaign and multiplayer raids. The amount decreases when starting missions and need some time to refill. Premium coins are used to skip waiting times.

When venturing outside encounters are played out with turn-based combat. Players can manage a team of five characters, from a large pool, combined with a sixth, temporary member for specific situations or as a borrowed fighter from social activities. The player earns experience through missions, but each character also has its own experience system to level up. The overall character level is represented through stars and the main statistics are health, accuracy and defense. Characters can be leveled up and upgraded and they wield specific types of weapons. One character can be assigned as the leader, providing a personal leader skill and another that affects all team members.

During combat the characters are in the middle of the screen while walkers or other survivors approach from the sides, taking turns. Combat efficiency is based on four traits that affect both player characters and enemies. The four traits are Alert, Fast, Strong and Tough. Each trait does extra damage to another, specific trait. Other combat elements are buffs, area damage, chokepoints, effects that influence control, dividers, focused damage, healing and large mobs. Encounters usually consist of multiple waves. By fighting, characters earn adrenaline points fill up a meter to use a personal skill called adrenaline rush. After combat loot, items and materials are earned and sometimes survivors join. Next to finding new characters, powerful ones can be bought with premium character tokens. Redundant characters can be absorbed for additional experience. Through the workshop new battle items can be researched and crafted when the needed materials are available. It is also possible to create, upgrade and equip new types of weapons.

Multiplayer is done through raids on other players with a reputation system. It is not done in real-time with both players present, but based on the statistics of another player. Ceasefires can be used or bought to temporarily protect against rides and it is possible to joins factions.