Down To One (PC) - Preview

Down to One is built up of two main ideas: survival and skill. Your player starts just like everyone else, dressed in basic overalls, with nothing in your hands or backpack. (Apart from a pair of gloves!) Looking out you see a vast open world, and you have one objective, survive until the end as you all battle, drink, and eat “Down to One”.

Starting off in a pen, like a pack of raging bulls, you face off at your enemies, no one can hurt you, nor can you hurt them, only count them and think “I have to beat all of you”.

You run out and find yourself looking into this open area, thinking, “do I hide, run, walk, or just let everyone else fight?”

 “Should I go left, right, up or down?”

I decided to start my first ever attempt at this game heading for the tower to the left of the screen, thinking that I may get a head start by going wide.

This plan failed miserably as others had the same idea, needless to say they were more strongly equipped and adapted than I, and started stabbing me to death. I finished 7th out of 9th that round, with the other guy falling off a cliff, - I wasn't too impressed. I did not get much of a chance to get used to the controls and movement style of the game, which did seem very robotic.

Before my next attempt - I came to the conclusion that I had missed an important element of the game - you have to physically survive as well - as shown through your food and drink levels in the top right. So this is now more of a scavenger mission!

 

 

 

“Its not just about staying alive, its about staying alive!”

So I rethought my strategy, taking a more Resident Evil approach of, run whilst you can, ask questions later, I made it to a further tower and equipped myself.

With this thought process I fuelled up with what looked like energy drinks, bandages and sandwiches, which I found throughout the starting fort and tried again, heading east to a disused bungalow.

I was in luck and found a Makarov Pistol, now to start a solo Russian Revolution, oh wait I’m thirsty, better have a drink, then bang, I’m dead from a stab wound to the chest, what a waste of drink!

Right, here goes my third attempt, I will get supplies, weapons, and always drink in the safety of a secret hiding place...

That's more like it - equipped for the long run, pistol in pocket

Well I was impressed, I did last a little longer, even when the game area closed in on us and forced all of us closer together, I managed to survive. Pat on the back for me!

Everything was fine  until I went outside, and tried to track down the opposition...

“At least I got a bronze medal!”

This lead to me receiving 3 bullets in the head from a long distance sniper. I’d not even had a chance to explore the map enough to find there was even a sniper rifle  in the game. But hey, at least I got a bronze medal.

Summing up, Down To One seems to be a good idea for a game, with the developers trying to combine the elements of an FPS with Minecraft. If this open world multiplayer game wants to make it commercially its going to need some beefing up. Having server waits of 15 minutes and pings of over 100ms, the fact I was performing the moonwalk for a few seconds at one point in the game, just reminded me it is not fully built yet.

An initial concern I had after playing the game for a good few hours is that my gaming laptop could only render the game on “Low Detail”. I am hoping this was a development bug as the graphics were set at low quality and I know my laptop can perform better as it runs Diablo 3 on Ultra Graphics.

So if Minecraft is getting too boring for you, but Resident Evil is a bit too hardcore, come along and give Down To One a blast, just remember that there are no friendlies or NPCs!