When looking for a game that could be used as an example of what I would say is a nice easy introduction to a survival game I never had one that would come to mind until now. Far lands is that game it is a nice easy to play game that anyone new or old to the survival genre can pick up and play. Far Lands was created by Axyos Games Entertainment LLC. They first rereleased Far Lands on Steam on the 19th of January 2024, the version that I will be discussing in this review is the version that was released on the PS5 on the 29th of June 2026. This game does also fall into the action, adventure, and horror genres. Yet from my experience of this game the horror was not that scary when compared to other games within the horror genre.
Far lands is in short, an open world zombie survival game in which you will build a base, craft items, and fight to survive the horrors on the island. Before you start the game, you are met with a wall of text that gives you some background information on what has happened here on the island before your arrival, while the block of text at the start of the game was good as it meant that you knew some of the history of the island before going into the game I do wish that there could have been information scattered around the island to find. During my time and exploration of the game I did not find any. That is not to say there is not any just that I did not find any. The game gives you options to either play in a single player world or in a multiplayer world, I played alone so this review will be from a single player point of view.
One man vs one island.
The gameplay is quite simple you start off with your trusty rock, that you will use to break things down to get the materials that you need to then craft important items, such as an axe, pickaxe, or a wooden workbench. Getting supplies is incredibly easy and it will not take long for you to have a basic base built. You are limited to what weapons you have, and it would be smart to craft one sooner rather than later, I learnt that lesson the hard way. The reason I say this is that you not only will be faced with zombies, but you will meet other people on the island. These people will shoot you when they see you. This can be an issue as the most effective weapon that you have until you find a firearm is a wooden spear. While it is not the worst weapon that you could have as it knocks the enemy back for a few seconds, which prevents them from attacking you meaning you can hit them repeatedly. Once you have a weapon and ammo then the enemies become trivial to deal with, so long as you move to dodge their attacks and remember to reload the weapon.
Like most games like Far Lands, you are given objectives to progress such as chop down a tree, craft a workbench, or build a base. These objectives are easy to complete and if at any point you do not know what materials that you need to build the next item then you will just need to check the workbench and find the item in question. When you click on it then you will be shown a list of items and the quantity that you need to be able to craft it. This makes it much easier to be able to remember what you need to collect.
It’s quiet……too quiet.
In Far Lands, there isn’t a soundtrack for background music, instead you have the sounds of nature, the waves hitting the shore and the sound of your feet hitting the floor as you run. The lack of music in this game is an excellent choice as it helps build up an atmosphere. The sound of birds tweeting in the trees and the calm sounds juxtapose the horror and fright that the zombies bring. To me it feels like the calm before a storm, as I did not encounter any zombies until my second day in the game. As a quick note that was the only time the game made me jump as the zombie in question came out of nowhere and I had just walked into an empty building.
If this game had a soundtrack with music that changed depending on what was going on, such as happy and calm music during the day but suspenseful during the night I feel that it wouldn’t be as good as what they chose to do. This is because for me when a game plays suspenseful music, I prepare myself for either a jump scare or to fight an enemy. Whereas with the sounds or nature you don’t expect to see anything until you hear it behind you or see it emerge from behind the trees.
How does the game look?
The only game I feel I can compare this to with graphics was the game from my last review, which was Viking Frontiers, when I compare the two side by side, that Far Lands looks better graphically. The scenery is beautiful and crisp; at one point I found myself just looking at the water graphics. The lighting of the environment was also exactly right, even during the night I never felt that it was too dark as I was still able to make out my surroundings.
The only issue I would say I had with the graphics is that the character models of the zombies felt the same, the only variation that I found were the bigger ones that carried a weapon but even then, they looked the same. While I understand that designing lots of distinctive character models can take time if they just had a few with different patterns on their skin it would have been nice. If they did have different models, then it invalidates my point, but from what I saw there was not much change.
Final Thoughts.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game, it was easy to pick up and enjoyable from when I started to when I finished. Like every game this one will not be for everyone and that is fine. Do I think it should be checked out if you like the survival genre, yes especially if you want an easy game to get you into the genre.
