Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days blends two games together with a seamless undead twist

Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days marks a considerable step up for New Zealand-based studio PikPok, but just from a brief demo with an early build, it’s clear these developers know exactly what they’re doing. A visually striking 2.5D sidescroller, a challenging undead threat, and an ever-growing community to keep satiated. It’s all shaping up to be a must-play title in 2024.

Other than Nintendo’s ridiculously large presence at PAX Australia 2023, perhaps the most eye-grabbing booth housed none other than the latest Into the Dead. With eerie 1980s decor scattered around and a thin black curtain blocking the public off from the mysterious project behind, its imposing presentation helped draw hundreds of attendees through over the weekend.

We at Dexerto were lucky enough to go hands-on with this standout indie title early into the convention and pick the brains of the team behind it. Even through just a brief taste of what’s essentially one-half of the full package, it left us wanting to start from scratch and play it all over.

Thanks to its challenging gameplay and harrowing permadeath feature, one wrong move can spell doom in this zombie-infested sidescroller. But permadeath means so much more than just losing your resources. It means losing a member of your community.

Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days merges two games in one

On the show floor, PikPok’s demo focused on the more intense half of the game. Stealthily plodding through various ransacked districts in Walton City for any remaining valuables, our goal was to make it through a handful of levels back to back in order to reap the rewards. A goal we ultimately failed.

Resources found along the way, such as loose materials, improvised weapons, and the like, all came in handy as we tried to stay on our own two feet against the ever-looming zombie threat. But as we quickly learned, just one undead foe is enough to ruin your day, let alone an entire horde sprinting after you. 

In this survival-oriented chunk of the experience, every step is crucial as all it takes is one wrong turn to see your character violently ripped to shreds. Here, zombies aren’t the typical brain-dead afterthought you can easily brush by. More in line with 28 Days Later, these zombies will run right at you and give you no time to breathe. Making matters worse, death can’t be undone.

Once your character is gone, they’re gone for good. All the progress you’ve made now lost, any gathered resources left on the ground next to their corpse, and any emotional attachment now hitting harder than ever. We fell to this fate twice during the brief demo, and similar to the thrill of FromSoft games, trying to retrace your steps and gather loot from a fallen character is utterly exhilarating.

Though this is only one part of the equation. See, Our Darkest Days blends its more traditional action-packed half with an entire other experience. When not out in the deadly ruins of a world undone, the title turns into a community sim-type game akin to Fallout Shelter.

While we only got hands-on time with the first chunk, it was plain to see just how these two halves overlap and form one greater whole. It makes all the sense in the world to bring these unique ideas together and it seems PikPok is well on track to pulling it off.

A community sim playing as both its inhabitants and their leader

In a traditional sim game, your task is to expand your home base. Building out new rooms, gathering more members, and supporting a thriving community over time with all the usual resources. Keeping your crowd happy, ensuring they have enough to eat, and safeguarding them from the vicious undead are all paramount, as you would expect.

Though in other similar titles, you often send your strongest community members out on missions. Whether it be to grow your influence, shut down a nearby threat, or simply gather resources, these tasks are often automated and take place offscreen. Here, picture the very same objectives though you’re in complete control of it all.

Which characters you choose to take out into the punishing world is ultimately your call. Risk losing a beloved member of the community and it could come back to haunt you. Or throw a newcomer into the fire and your longstanding companions might start looking at you a little differently. 

It’s all set to build over a lengthy and highly replayable single-player narrative, one we can’t wait to get our hands on in the first half of 2024. For now, we’ll just have to keep thinking back on our terrible decisions that left two community members dead just inches apart from one another in the cold Texan streets.

You can wishlist Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days here on Steam.