Polish video game creators Game Island created Serum, which they classify as a survival adventure game. Polish game developers are kind. They often produce high-quality games with a semi-indie vibe and realistic production standards. However, it seems like a new survival game is published every other week or so. It is becoming more and more difficult for us players to get enthusiastic about new survival games.

The world as we know it is ending.

The Blight, a toxic epidemic brought on by pollution, wreaked devastation over the planet. A company by the name of E.V.A.S. seemed to have developed a serum as a treatment for it. Regretfully, the serum is causing mutations in its users, and you're at the company's lab attempting to figure out how to combat the Blight and the mutant infection.

Like in the Justin Timberlake film "In Time," everyone is carrying a timer that indicates how long they will be shielded from the Blight's effects. The phrase "Bye, bye cruel world" will play when the countdown hits zero. The timer is extended when you take the serum, and it only stops when you're in your base. That's where your journey begins and where you'll perform the most of your preliminary study, making, and upgrading.

Managing Corporate Repercussions

You must go to several biomes inside the business research center you are in in order to discover the cure for the virus. Each time you go to a different biome in an attempt to obtain study on the blight and serum mutations, you'll uncover fresh areas of interest and learn a little bit more before having to sprint back home for more supplies.

Refill refers to the fact that the serum first shields you for a mere five minutes. There is no way to take too many serums since each one raises your degree of mutation. You will eventually need to return to home base and use the absorber to rid your system of the mutation.

Being time-limited and wanting to explore various biomes as deeply as possible creates a lot of strain. Initially, you will be exploring the biomes for 15 minutes at a time, collecting resources to enhance your base and serums along the way. Eventually, you will be able to create items that will allow you to remain outdoors longer and take on more formidable mutant opponents.

Sticks in the Atomic Era

While we're talking about combat, let's start with a machete battle against mutant rats, wolves, bugs, and other animals. The fighting motions are awkward, and even though the game has a block and dash-dodge feature, it still seems a little janky.

There's also a certain element of thrill since combat becomes difficult due to this clumsiness and there is a genuine risk of death. You lose all of the stuff you collected throughout that run when you die and resurrect at the base. You definitely want to avoid dying as much as possible since you'll have to sprint back to your body to gather everything back up in order to reclaim it. To the best of my knowledge, the game's backstory doesn't explain why you automatically resurrect on life.

The Excitement of Running

At first, I was annoyed by how little time I spent exploring and how difficult the battles seemed. Every excursion was a nervous dash to see how far I could go and find a fresh nugget of knowledge to advance the several tasks you encounter along the route. But after a time, I began to find the sensation of urgency and fear in everything I did to be very thrilling, and soon I became addicted.

I was able to modify the blight protection serum to last me longer and allow me to ingest additional serums as I advanced and somewhat updated my base. That made exploring simpler, but it balanced out since I had to go to new locations that were far from my home base. Additionally, you may mix newly unlocked serums to create multipurpose enhancements, giving gamers an inventive method to try out various fighting techniques. In the end, you should be able to take in so many serums that you'll have superhuman abilities like sprinting, leaping, and smashing, but it also means you'll likely be up against opponents with superhuman strength.

Because Unreal Engine 5 was used to create the game, the swamp biome's brown tones and the forest biome's dominating ill green colors might make the lushness of the surroundings difficult to see. Though they're not really bad, the graphics aren't particularly noteworthy either. On the highest graphical settings, I only saw some stuttering, but overall, the performance was decent, and UE5 should work well with a range of setups.

Concluding Remarks

Serum is all about exploring and finding out where the narrative is leading you. Unlike many survival games, you won't have to spend hours hacking at mining nodes and gathering sticks to create a meaningless nice house. You will use every resource you get to fund advancements that will let you advance. Serum is a very engaging game to play because of this interplay between the plot and the game mechanics.

I've been working with the Serum early access press preview build for roughly fifteen hours. All of the most fundamental features are available in early access, and there aren't many significant flaws. I believe there is at least another fifteen hours of information, if not more. If something noteworthy occurs, I will update this preview.

They will be working on a roadmap of features and enhancements, including cooperative gaming, before the game is fully released. It simply begs for some upgrades to the Quality of Life, so I'm just hoping they'll focus on the fundamental UI features first.

Serum has been fun to play so far, and I will definitely complete it—something I can't say about most survival games I've played this year. You can download the game on Steam if you're searching for your own post-apocalyptic fix. If the developers can keep all the promises made in the roadmap and set a fair pricing, we could be dealing with a really good game. On May 23, 2024, early access will be available.