Death Road to Canada is a roguelike game where you travel from Florida to Canada to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Story:
Death Road to Canada doesn’t really have a story. At the beginning of the game you are given a screen where it says that there’s a rumor going around that Canada is safe of the zombie apocalypse, so you pack up your stuff, get in your car and travel from Florida to Canada.
Apart from that introduction screen there isn’t much story to speak of. The characters you bring a long your journey interact with each other. They talk about the things they like, dislike and sometimes they argue about things. While I admit when they spew out references to other zombie media, I wish there was a little bit more of a story.
Graphics:
The pixel art style of Death Road to Canada is absolutely spectacular. Every environment is filled with detail, that when you encounter a new environment it’s fun to look around. Also all the characters you encounter during your journey are different and look awesome.
Even the zombies you fight throughout your journey, all have distinct looks which is pretty cool, even though they have duplicates you encounter multiple times.
Audio:
The soundtrack while decent, gets incredibly boring as most of the tracks loop multiple times while playing, so if you intend to play a lot you will get sick of it. I just recommend muting it and putting on your own music while playing.
Other sound effects like zombies dying, guns shooting and cars running are decent, but nothing special. But from what I played I really didn’t have a problem with the sound effects.
Gameplay:
The game is comprised of a few different styles. First of all are the Oregon Trail travel sections where you travel to Canada and you encounter random events, which either reward you or punish you. These sections are pretty much are all RNG and what you get is entirely up to the game, which could make it an easy experience or an incredibly difficult one.
Then there is on foot resource collection segments. When you exit a car you go around an environment and collect food, fuel, ammo or medicine. These sections are incredibly fun and are the highlight of the game. Every resource run could be different, maybe in one you will encounter less numerous but very dangerous zombies, or a swarm of zombies that are less dangerous individually.
The game is also incredibly difficult. Most of my tries to get to Canada ended in eventual demise, because I got cornered and couldn’t get out. Some of the runs I had were incredibly unforgiving and even though I loved the game and how fun everything was, the difficulty becomes somewhat of a big problem for me. The problem is what the game calls Sieges. A siege is a random event where you are put in a small area and you become swarmed with zombies who corner you and chomp on you. These sieges are too difficult to deal with and unless you were incredibly lucky with the loot you found while scavenging you won’t be able to survive.
Most characters have different skills, some can run faster, others have more strength and this is where the core replay value of the game lies. The game almost has a lot of replay value so if you want a game that will take you some time to see everything this is the game for you.
Verdict:
Death Road to Canada is incredibly fun game, even though it’s kind of too hard for it’s own good. I still had an incredibly fun time playing this game and it’s definitely worth picking up at full price.
This game was reviewed with a code provided by the publisher/developer.
