Publisher: 10tons Ltd
Developer: 10tons Ltd
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, XS, Switch
Genre: Survival RPG

Not many survival apocalypse games these days are rather played in isometric view, not that they've never been but everything's a little more handsy thanks to how close the experience is. This game mostly relies on the substantial part of its gameplay without any of the cinematic trite that comes with AAA games these days(looking at you TLOU2).

Dysmantle is a weird pun but sort of eponymous for what it means, basically everything in this game can be dismantled whether its a china set, cardboard boxes, a truck or well, a freaking wall. It's silly and rudimentary in a way since all you need to do is progress through the game and upgrade your items in order to break everything down and gather for resources. I felt like I was recycling in a way, unintentionally seeming.

This is an early-access release, the game isn't perfect, yet. Heck, the first time I've started, the story images are replaced with placeholder signs, meaning nothing's been set yet. Other issues I've basically had more to do with the enemy A.I, some animation quirks, few bad gameplay design and the ridiculous assertion that you can break cargo containers down with a crowbar just by increasing its damage statistics

< Premise >

You play as this no-name, lame, one man army guy who's just set out to follow a bunch of instructions set by the game without any sense of awareness of where its task are taking him. As he explores from one area to another, clearing out gates, trying to find survivors as he stumbles onto one different zombie after the other. The setting looks pretty 1980's with everything from the lack of Smartphones to people still using radio towers.

Also, weird immersion setup by having most of the cast be British but the playable one American. Like, I don't know how that factors in and the game pretty much gave up trying to make sense of its setting. Bigger reasons to play just left afterwards the initial playstage. Though the theme of loneliness do set in real fast because as far as I've went into the game, there are no NPCs left at all.

So again, this is Early-Access but the setting and premise feels vague and kind of empty at times, it's hard to convince yourself that any of this is worth going through somehow. Also, not a fan of the whole emoji uses. They're only good for comedic settings and doesn't work well for games like this. I get that it has this minimal presence that gives it some tinge of humor but either you try to knock up some good jokes or just try not to use em much at all. I play games to escape my social life, not tag along with it.

< Gameplay >

Now imagine playing a survival game, of course without much of the horror aspect just breaking everything down, then using them for small stuff like machetes, crowbars, knives, mallets, sleeping bags, etc. Without much of a visual change on them. Yep, that's this game. It functions on a perfunctory basis pretty well but also tells you that you have to get used to what you have.

Suicide by pill

Speaking of getting used to, maybe you should keep your expectations down for a game that leaves more to be desired for keeping you really invested. But this is an interestingly fun game once you get going. The gameplay works, the loop is basically killing>dismantling>gathering>hunting>upgrading. So yeah, you do a lot of this. But if you're ok with this setup, this game do keep it interesting.

Combat is easy, just hit the targeted enemies with left click, hold for more damage. You can do more from sneak attacks as well. You can place other items from your inventory as secondary item usage by pressing the right button. There's also a hotbar for other items but that you'll have to unlock that later in the game. Upgrade your weapons for more damage or create new ones like machetes to easily cleave enemies out. You will need to do this as there are so many different kind of enemies, including ones that are really terrifying. Thankfully, there's the dodge button which allows you to dodge even dogs chasing even if they're slightly faster.

Hunting for animals become a chore, don't get me started on the A.I. It's just stupid hunting them while attracting the Zs, even then, you're just running with the deers amok. It feels like a bad design that was supposed to be there but at the same time, could have been better implemented somehow. While there are other wildlifes like beers or mutated dogs to spice things up, most of the time you're just looking for food that's stupid but good stupid to cause distractions for zombies. Speaking of, there were times I was in Z's sight and they stopped chasing me abruptly as if I've disappeared.

There are no guns, this game is all about making things like bows and swords or axes just to even the playing field of zombies that mostly attack in melees. Some of course will throw radiated slugs at you, which you'll survive from. So there's a large level curve to cover which requires several dozens of hours of play to unlock most of them.

This game also has a large map to span. Of course, after seeing this, I kind of vamoosed a little. But came back and realized that patience was a virtue and that playing it got more interesting as it opened up more things to unlock. But that's about it, story has little presence here and it's all about just getting to the top of that lonely ladder just to be the greatest survivor in this here plot of island.

< Production Value >

Visually speaking, this game looks ass. This game has this cell-shaded look to it that even doesn't need a GTX 1050 to run it well. It's very PC friendly but also just ok-ish appeal in terms of aesthetics.

Sound design is so 2009, even low-fi games at that time had more interesting sound design and music than this game does. I can understand that this is purely a mobile game but it doesn't really have much that should stand out. Then again, I was able to tolerate all of this, not be infuriated. That's ok in my book.

The asset designs and such look uninspiring, pretty dull. Just not something this game is trying to set up properly and maybe it doesn't have to. But this felt so rudimentary to play, it doesn't offer much in visual style either to make up for.

< Verdict >

It's an interesting game, I'll give it that. But for a mobile game, this mostly works. I feel like for major platform releases which this game is aiming for. It's gonna need more room for improvements. Also, please, the thumbnail. It's too cliche.

The gameplay is fine, cerainly needs a few fixes here and there, but I actually did enjoy playing it and was looking forward to what else came next after I've moved to the next level. There are some interesting boss fights besides the first one which I've easily killed, but this game again will test your mantle and your patience.

Also, no score. This is an early-access game, I don't do game scores for these type of games and I won't in the future from now.