Dead in Bermuda is a game released back on August 27, 2015, developed by CCCP and published by Plug In Digital. It is classified as an action, adventure, Indie, Role Playing, Simulation, and Strategy game and when I say Strategy Game, I really mean a lot of strategy.
This is not your normal point and click game. You have been warned.
Get the free game here: https://www.origin.com/aus/en-us/store/free-games/on-the-house
The game starts off in the middle of a plane ride where the right engine suddenly explodes sending our cast into a mysterious island. Mysterious because nobody has a fudging clue where they are.
After the crash, the survivors, start to introduce themselves with some not really very open about who they are and one who thinks it is all a waste of time.
This game is unique in that you will need to know your characters in-depth with regards to their skills and relationships with each other. Trust me, knowing them deeply is a bit of a task and also remembering them along the way for more than 90 days.
By the way, the traits in this game are random which means every time you start a new game you will get random traits for each character and every time you discover another trait for that character, it also comes randomly.
Let’s get started to know our castaways. The first one we have is Alice. She is a very good hiker and can beat any man to Mount Everest. She is also Bob’s wife but she will not be defined as someone’s wife, she will be ALICE.
Skill-wise, the characters have a pre-determined strength and weaknesses. Every new game, they will have the same strengths and weaknesses but the exact number always changes.
Aside from Alice, we also have Alejandro – the manager of the holiday resort where most of the passengers just came from. This trip was going to be his first holiday in ten years but I guess he ran out of luck.
Next up is Yuri. He is Russian and does not socialize that much. He is newly married to another castaway named Julia. Julia has no care in the world about what other people think of her. She also flirts with younger men and Yuri knows it but doesn't give a fudge.
We also have smart one in the group in the name of Illyana, Yuri's daughter. She is a real nerd and one that can do all the research we need later on in the game.
Let's now go and meet Bob. Bob is your fisherman. He is also the biggest guy in the group so watch out for your food when he's nearby. Bob is also Alice's husband. They are an adorable couple. Keep that in mind when doing activities later on.
We also have a doctor in the house. Her name is Doctor Bethan Winters. She is a surgeon and she is very good at treating sickness and injuries as well.
Last but not the least on the list of castaways is Jacob. Jacob is my most hated character in this game but we can't just cast him away, he can also become useful sometimes. Jacob is just that old grumpy guy who was left alone by his wife whom we probably can't blame for leaving once you get to know Jacob. His relationship with the others suffers a lot every time he opens his mouth. I wish I could just shut him up.
The gameplay mechanics of the game are not outright explained to you. There is a tutorial and you could get by with just the tutorial but you will not finish the game right out of the get-go. You will probably reach the first couple of weeks with no hassle at all but come the third and fourth week, needs seem to become unquenchable.
I love how this game has been built to last long. You can play this game over and over again and it would still present as a challenge. There is no one-way ticket to finishing this game. You will need to use your decision-making and analytical skills to tackle all the challenges the game possess.
The value you get with this game is justifiable. It can be all you need when you're stuck waiting in line for ages. The challenge alone of surviving is enough to frustrate you but in the mean time make you come back for more because you get so frustrated you just want to beat this game not let it beat you to surrender.
The game may look really simple but if you don't dig deep into the characters, into the gameplay, into the story, then your group will die without achieving anything. You really need to work out how to survive in this game.
For example, someone who has a high harvesting skill but low agility skill will become easily fatigued when harvesting compared to someone with lower harvesting but high agility. So before you decide who to put into harvesting, you have to take their agility into consideration and the same goes with constitution for exploring, gathering, and hunting. That's not all, if you've got two people doing the same task together, you also need to make sure their relationship status is at par with each other.
This means that they must like each other for your activity to be very successful and for them not to lose any more relationship points. Their opinions about each other must also be on the positive as one person might think highly of someone but the feeling is not mutual.
For skills, there ar four main categories - Physical, Mental, Utility, and Food.
Physical skills consists of strength, agility, constitution, and fighting. All these four physical skills have a determined value and a modified value. A modified value for these skills means taking into account a character's injury and fatigue.
Utility skills have Stealth, Exploration, Crafting, and Scavenging under it. Their values can also be modified depending on a character's Hunger and Fatigue. So if you think about it, someone whom you've sent to scavenge can have his/her scavenging be as high as 90 but due to fatigue and hunger, they can be as low as 70. So always take this into consideration before sending someone to explore, craft, or scavenge. Their efficiency all depends on this two factors - hunger and fatigue.
Mental and Food can also be affected. For Mental (Intelligence, Discussion, Medicine, Knowledge) it is affected by depression and fatigue while Food (Hunting, Fishing, Cooking, Harvesting) is affected by Sickness and Fatigue.
While I am writing this review, I have only been up to day 35 but throughout the hours of gameplay, I am carefully learning the ins and outs of the game and with every playthrough, I get farther and farther into the game and I also get to know more about the mechanics of how the game works.
[UPDATE] I have finished the game at day 101.
In the beginning, you only have four activities to start with - Scavenging the wrecked plane, crafting, researching, and exploring. There are plenty more activities you can unlock through research and crafting. The game does make you feel at home with the game at first but then once you got the hang of it, the game tends to kill the fun out of it by making it more difficult for you.
Overall, the game is a fantastic way to pass time and really have your mind thinking. It is kind of realistic in the sense that a lot of factors are taken into account before you can select an action which is a good thing. This survival game is a unique one and I highly recommend it if you're looking for a challenge.
