I don't really get the trend of pixelated games so to speak and I tend to think games lose a lot when so much focus is spent on the stylistic aspect of the game rather than the storyline, game play, etc. I might have to reconsider that though because Lone Survivor is just fantastic in every way.

Now I will be the first to admit that post apocolyptic stories have been over done a lot recently. Every other horror game seems to focus on similar "monsters", similar situations, and really they're almost carbon copies of each other. And while Lone Survivor is not something I've never seen before (I found the storyline pretty straight forward even with the deeper issues that were supposed to be in play) I believe it's a fresh enough take to elevate it above most of the other games.

One of the main reasons I really liked it is that you actually have to focus on taking care of your character. You need to feed him or he won't feel well (and boy will he let you know that) and you need to sleep, especially since that's how you save the game. To get a relatively good ending, by all accounts he has to have relatively good mental health. You're given more than one way to do things and jumping in with guns blazing is generally not the right way. Running away, hiding, distracting, and even scaring are all options and sometimes they're clearly the better ones.

Of course because it's not really a game focused on fighting monsters, the gun controls are a little awkward and I can't say I'm fond of them. Your character moves really slowly when the gun is drawn and can only move backwards and forward facing the same direction so if something comes up behind you, you're screwed. And admittedly sometimes, you do just want to kill the monsters because constantly having to sneak past them gets annoying. So while I get the point of hiding and sneaking rather than shooting, it can get a little trying.

That being said it's clear that the developer wanted this to be an experience that you remembered based on its merits alone not for being needlessly frustrating. You never really have to spend a lot of time needlessly backtracking. As you progress through the building and city you unlock shortcuts that make it easy to resume in the same general area you need to be in once you've slept. If you run out of ammo or food or batteries and can't manage to find any while you're exploring, you are able to get it in a couple different ways (even if it's not always recommended). And because of these little details, you're able to focus on actually playing the game itself.