Shattered Haven Review

Isn’t it ironic that zombie titles have seemed to take over the gaming industry in the past decade? Zombies have always been with us, of course, so it’s hard to pinpoint any trendsetter, but it sure feels as if there’s been a lot more shambling going on. Not that this is a bad thing (unless the games start to mimic their fictional counterparts by being reduced to mindless clones). Zombies make great gaming fodder: they give you hordes of slow-moving enemies to gun down and might just make things easier for the poor AI coder.

Thankfully, Shattered Haven proves that there’s still plenty of room for original thought and development. The game takes the zombie apocalypse into the 2D action-puzzler realm, and once you fiddle with the game for a bit, you’ll wonder why nobody hasn’t thought of this before. After all: the basic attack pattern for zombies (called ‘grays’ in-game) is to slowly follow the player and hope to box them in. Hasn’t this tactic been the used by an enemy in just about every top-down scroller ever? It’s a perfect fit! Never fear, though: the game will throw a nice variety of zombie movement patterns at you, so you never quite get bored of the action.

Picking up at that special sweet-spot in modern zombie plotlines — the point after the zombie apocalypse is completed, but before any answers to the whole boondoggle have been figured out — Shattered Haven follows a patchwork pseudo-family of survivors whose main home has been overrun, and who must now travel separate paths through the local zombie infested territory in their effort to regroup.

The storytelling in Shattered Haven is a little wobbly. It seems to start off on the right foot: following a mysterious young boy who gets taken in by a patchwork family of survivors, and then introducing some peculiar supernatural elements. After all, if zombies are fun, then surely zombies and demons would be even more fun, right? Sadly, this potential doesn’t feel well developed, mainly in that the tone of the story simply doesn’t feel quite settled: the aged graphics give a nostalgic homespun feel to the game, and the basic zombie-killing action is treated in a fun cartoony-style, but the occasional voice-overs are played straight for drama and horror, and Pablo Vega’s music reinforces this atmosphere. It doesn’t help that none of the characters are given any development, or that the storyline is explicitly tailored to fit the gameplay – a mysterious supernatural demon/monster is forcing the main character to complete each level before allowing him to move to a new area of the world. None of these aspects are bad on their own, but taken together, it leaves you wondering exactly whether the game is meant to be a comedy, a farce, a supernatural adventure romp, or a horror title.

Unlike most games that mimic the classic 16-bit visual style these days, Shattered Haven actually does a good job of bringing back the classic 16-bit gameplay as well. You travel a large ‘overworld’ which has a few basic gameplay challenges like avoiding easy enemies or picking the right path, but the real meat of the game comes in the smaller puzzle levels that dot the world map. Via some handy plot points players must complete every puzzle in a region before being allowed to progress to the next area.

These individual puzzle-levels are where the game is at its strongest, subtly blending the action and puzzle genres. Most levels involve killing your zombie foes in one way or another, but you always start with only your feet to save you. A typical scenario might put you on an island with a canoe, with weapons and powerups scattered at different locations on riverbanks, and a set number of zombies trying to catch up with you. Your gathered weapons also need to be used tactfully: maybe they only have a certain number of shots, maybe they need to be thrown and retrieved, or maybe they’re just traps that you need to skillfully place in order to kill off your enemies. As if that weren’t tricky enough, levels usually have a few keys and fenced-in areas for you to work your way through.

The result is a very smooth learning curve, which Arcen Games is to be congratulated on. Most levels will take you three tries: on the first try, you’ll realize the challenge involved (something along the lines of “Oh… I need to unlock the zombie pen in order to get to the other side of the lake”). On the second try, you’ll be able to finish, but probably with some bruises to show for it. Your third try will be your push to get the ‘bonus achievements’: every level has a gold standard, awarding extra points if you manage to complete every goal in the level. These goals range from taking no damage to gathering all powerups, but the best goals are tricky limitations on what weapons you’re allowed to use, or precisely which enemies you’re allowed to kill. Completing all goals awards you extra points for use in the overworld, but the real benefit they provide is an automatic difficulty manager, where the player can decide for themselves how much of a completionist they want to be.

Another particularly nice addition to Shattered Haven is the fact that it includes a very basic co-op option, and puzzles tend to be just as fun playing with two players as with one. Still, it’s not designed for co-op play, and you’re never actually dependent on another player’s actions. Undoubtedly the strongest aspect of the smaller levels in Shattered Haven is the raw variety involved: every single level brings a unique experience: if you’re not setting traps for slow zombies in the dark swamps, you’re running for the matches to set the haystacks on fire.

All puzzles start the player out empty-handed, but in the overworld you can pick up a few tools here and there to help you cut your way through the shrubbery or take down the occasional enemy. However, when it really gets down to it, this experience is something of a disappointment, with little to do in it except move from one point to another along carefully forced paths. Classic games that use this format are known for coloring the journey with interesting NPCs, mini-games, side-quests, or at least some well-crafted and beautiful set pieces, but Shattered Haven for the most part doesn’t show any potential in this area, and there’s a sad lack of any reward for exploration. Thankfully, the game makes up for this in its individual puzzle levels, which have a wild variety of setting, mechanics, and challenges. This is a real strength of the game: although some puzzles may share a very basic theme, for the most part every puzzle you try is going to be a complete break from the last. Unique settings ranging from deserts to ice caves, from swamplands to castles. It’s no mistake either that Shattered Haven shines so brightly in this respect, and the game capitalizes on this by including a level editor, so its purchasers can build their own individual puzzles.

The gameplay in Shattered Haven is fairly original and varied, something of a mix between timed trials and ‘fiddle puzzles’. The basic action has some fun ideas, but without a strong story or visual setting to back it up, there’s not much to recommend it. The game might be best considered as a showcase for the level editor: if some creatively oriented team got the impulse to spend their weekends building up their own campaign, they might just come up with a brilliant add-on that will catch on with people. As it is, though, the game can only be recommended to those who like zombies, puzzles, and want to see these two genres go on a date together.