Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Codes
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • Community guidelines
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
Prologue: Go Wayback! forest screenshots
Survival & Crafting 'We're trying to use early access in the way it was meant to be': PUBG creator Brendan Greene wants his new survival game to be built 'with the community, rather than for them'
Undeads promo image of mohawk zombie with combat shotgun
Battle Royale Take the post-apocalypse by storm in this zombie battle-royale survival bonanza
A player lines up a headshot in Escape from Tarkov.
FPS Escape from Tarkov review: Singularly unforgiving, dizzyingly complex, and like no other FPS out there
Arc Raiders: Key art featuring two raiders holding weapons and standing in the middle of the road, turning to run away from a large Queen spider-like robot on the buildings in the background.
Third Person Shooter The fact Arc Raiders players are griping about its thin endgame—despite the fact only 5% of players have reached it—is proof you can min-max the fun out of anything
Survivors with guns and armor
Survival & Crafting The best survival games on PC
Magic user casting fire spell at monster
Survival & Crafting Attention survival game sickos: you can be among the first to playtest the sequel to one of my favorite survival RPGs
Arc Raiders extraction shooter
Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders guide: Quests, loot locations, and tips on the best gear
FPS view with the rifle off to the side and an enemy in a yellow hazmat suit shooting back
Events & Conferences Rogue Point looks like the Rainbow Six Vegas successor I've been waiting for, from the studio that made Black Mesa
escape from tarkov hardcore wipe
FPS Escape from Tarkov director says the launch week's wobbles were 'actual stress testing not only of our servers but also our mind and nerves'
An FOS view of someone walking between two long-necked dinosaurs
Events & Conferences Ferocious blends Far Cry chaos with Ark's dino-taming, and it's available on Steam right now
a zed with a visor screaming
Events & Conferences Killing Floor 3 just got a major update with Season 2: Operation Breakout, reintroducing the Stalker we've all been waiting for
A woman with a huge melee weapon charges it up to attack a monster
Events & Conferences Let it Die: Inferno inverts the roguelite action, sending you down into the Hell Gate instead of up into the Tower of Barbs
This giant robot from Hello Sunshine is shaped like a friend
Events & Conferences Witness gargantuan mech fights in this desert survival game that's giving The Electric State meets Death Stranding
A player shoots cyborg enemies in Luna Abyss
Events & Conferences Luna Abyss really puts the 'hell' in bullet hell with a nightmarish new trailer
Vampiric looking gothic characters stand in front of a red moon
Events & Conferences Survivorlike shooter Night Swarm just launched on Steam
Popular
  • PC Gaming Show
  • Best PC gear
  • All the deals
  • Arc Raiders
  • Quizzes
  1. Games
  2. Action

Surviving the post-apocalypse now in Survival: Postapocalypse Now

Features
By Christopher Livingston published 22 April 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Welcome to the time after the apocalypse

Welcome to the time after the apocalypse

Survival: Postapocalypse Now is not messing around. It's crammed as many important words into its title as it can, not even stopping long enough to use a hyphen. If it included "Early Access" and "Probably Has Crafting" in the title too, you probably wouldn't have to even play it!

Actually, you don't have to play it. I did, though, because it's only five dollars! I just can't resist the temptation of inexpensive unfinished survival games. Here's how I spent my first hour.

Page 1 of 13
Page 1 of 13
Don't cry, wolf

Don't cry, wolf

I begin my post-apocalypse shirtless, with a baseball bat, standing on a road in a wooded area. A wolf that barks like a small-to-midsize lapdog charges me from the bushes. He's very cute, but clearly angry, so I whomp him a few times with my bat. He gets in one good bite, and my character screams ear-splittingly. I win, though, and the wolf-dog lies in a weird jiggly pile. I eat part of him.

Page 2 of 13
Page 2 of 13
I'll trade you that shirt for a bag of advice

I'll trade you that shirt for a bag of advice

I find a downed chopper with some food, supplies, and a revolver. While trying to figure out how to load it, I examine my inventory, which is now filled with ammo clips and... advice? Maybe advice is the currency here in the post-apocalypse. My advice: bring a shirt.

Page 3 of 13
Page 3 of 13
A friend indeed

A friend indeed

While looting an apartment block, I encounter another player. "Hello!" he says. "I'm friendly. Do you have a mic?" I do, but I don't know what key activates it and I can't access the options menu while playing. I hop up and down and crouch, hoping my body language will signify I'm also friendly. He seems to understand. We start looting together.

Page 4 of 13
Page 4 of 13
The protector

The protector

My new friend grows very protective of me. When we hear gunshots outside, he suggests I wait while he goes to check it out. "Don't worry... I have a gun," he says dramatically. I do to, though I haven't shown it to him, because I don't want to appear threatening, and also because I'm thinking about maybe shooting him at some point. He has a cool coat.

Page 5 of 13
Page 5 of 13
Spectator: Postapocalypse Now

Spectator: Postapocalypse Now

Eventually I become stuck in a doorway, and after several minutes of trying to free myself, I click the helpful "suicide" button on the menu. While dead, there's a 60 second respawn timer, and I discover I can cycle through the other players, which is fun. I watch a tattooed player rifle through some drawers in his drawers.

Page 6 of 13
Page 6 of 13
Sliding drawers

Sliding drawers

Speaking of drawers, all the individual drawers in the game can be open and closed when you're looting. I find this more fun than DayZ, where stuff is just sitting on surfaces, and H1Z1 where you're simply shown a timer while searching cabinets. It's the little things that make the post-apocalypse worth surviving.

Page 7 of 13
Page 7 of 13
Bat man

Bat man

While in a house, I hear footsteps outside. Still unsure of how to communicate, I decide to let my bat do the talking. We trade blows, both of us comically shrieking when we get hit. I win and he flops weirdly to the ground. I encounter another guy outside and beat him to death too. I think I'm winning, a rarity in any game.

Page 8 of 13
Page 8 of 13
Slaking my thrist

Slaking my thrist

I find some food and drink, which is good because my status was "LowHungry" and "LowThristy," a dangerous state (I think?) for any half-naked man in the post-apocalypse. I also realize I have no actual evidence that this really is the post-apocalypse. As far as I can tell, we're just a group of assholes running around murdering each other.

Page 9 of 13
Page 9 of 13
Backshot

Backshot

Opening and closing drawers has led me to a shotgun and some shells. I come across a man who's killed a wolf-dog, and blast him in the back. I eat the dead dog and scour another building, finding a revolver and a few rounds. I'm definitely winning.

Page 10 of 13
Page 10 of 13
Unstoppable

Unstoppable

Another survivor invades the building I'm looting, and I pump a few rounds into him. My last few rounds, as it turns out. I fumble around with my inventory, trying to unload clips and find bullets for my guns. No luck. I'm back to bats.

Page 11 of 13
Page 11 of 13
Stoppable

Stoppable

Finally, I run into a more skilled batsman, and I die. While I wait to respawn I stare down at my precious collection of ammo, weapons, and advice scattered near my twisted body. No one loots it, but when I respawn I'm nowhere near my corpse. It's really not a lie when I say I've done better at this game than pretty much any other survival game, ever.

Page 12 of 13
Page 12 of 13
The end times

The end times

Well, Survival: Postapocalypse Now obviously isn't much to look at, even with the settings turned up to "Fantastic." It's a bit buggy, being Early Access and all, but it runs really well, it's a definite bargain at $5, and I had a good time being the biggest survival jerk I've ever been.

Page 13 of 13
Page 13 of 13
Christopher Livingston
Christopher Livingston
Social Links Navigation
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
A player points a Mosin rifle at a bandit emerging from a house in Road to Vostok.
Road to Vostok finally has a playable demo on Steam and it's the most terrified I've ever been of getting shot at in a videogame
 
 
Undeads promo image of mohawk zombie with combat shotgun
Take the post-apocalypse by storm in this zombie battle-royale survival bonanza
 
 
A hand holding a compass in the woods
Brendan Greene's open-world survival roguelike hikes into early access later this month, and it'll actually let you save your run through its brutal wilderness
 
 
Players defend a house from zombies in Vein.
The creators of zombie survival hit Vein say its launch was 'much larger than expected' and there will be 'a bit of a transition period' as it looks toward future updates
 
 
A reaper next to text that reads: "Gods, Death & Reapers"
The Gods are dead and Death is your only master in Gods, Death & Reapers, a chaotic hack-n-slash extraction looter now accepting alpha playtesters
 
 
Vampiric looking gothic characters stand in front of a red moon
Survivorlike shooter Night Swarm just launched on Steam
 
 
Latest in Action
Michael sunbathing in GTA V
Rockstar co-founder finally settles ancient debate: GTA is NOT as good as Charles Dickens
 
 
Phoenix blasting enemies with fire in Marvel Cosmic Invasion.
Marvel Cosmic Invasion review: This old school beat-'em up boasts perhaps the best roster of playable characters the genre has ever seen—there's just not enough for them to do
 
 
Majima in a pirate outfit with a shark in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.
Like a Dragon creators won't buckle to mainstream western tastes: 'people start making strange things when they misunderstand what their business is supposed to be'
 
 
Agent 47 the clown
IO Interactive says that, once Bond is out of the way, hell yeah we're getting back to the good stuff: 'Of course there's going to be a next Hitman'
 
 
The Helldivers 2 spokesperson wears a cheesy grin, about to be wiped off his face when a Terminid invades but - hey, can't win 'em all.
Helldivers 2 cuts its install size from '~154GB to ~23GB' in a beta you can opt into now, defeating liberty-hating storage reqs with 'no functional differences' between versions
 
 
MIO Memories in orbit screenshots
Enchanting metroidvania MIO: Memories in Orbit has revealed a January release date alongside a mesmerising new trailer
 
 
Latest in Features
The Game Awards 2023 art - trophy image with no logo
What to expect from The Game Awards 2025: What's rumored to be there, what's already confirmed, and what we think is taking home GOTY
 
 
An edited image of Ibelin, from Netflix's The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, sat in a tavern roleplaying with his friends.
I've been roleplaying in MMORPGs like WoW for 16 years, it's the reason I'm here writing this headline—and there's never been a better time to try it out yourself
 
 
Neo Scavenger inventory
PC gaming's best inventory system is hidden in this obscure post-apocalyptic roguelike from the dawn of the survival craze
 
 
Total War: Warhammer 3
The 25-year history of Total War, from an experimental side project made between PS1 sports games to Medieval 3: 'Now more than ever, we are focusing our technology on the future of Total War'
 
 
Google search with a kaomoji offering a friendly gesture
Google is desperate for us to forget the simple joy of the original internet: Links
 
 
Arc Raiders: Key art featuring two raiders holding weapons and standing in the middle of the road, turning to run away from a large Queen spider-like robot on the buildings in the background.
The fact Arc Raiders players are griping about its thin endgame—despite the fact only 5% of players have reached it—is proof you can min-max the fun out of anything
 
 
  1. MSI and Asus gaming monitors on a green background with the PC Gamer recommended logo in the top right
    1
    Best gaming monitors in 2025: the pixel-perfect panels I'd buy myself
  2. 2
    The best fish tank PC case in 2025: I've tested heaps of stylish chassis but only a few have earned my recommendation
  3. 3
    Best gaming laptop 2025: I've tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend
  4. 4
    Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming
  5. 5
    Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
  1. A WD Blue SN5100 ready to be installed inside a gaming PC.
    1
    Sandisk WD Blue SN5100 NVMe SSD review
  2. 2
    Kingston Fury Renegade G5 8 TB NVMe SSD review
  3. 3
    Lexar NQ780 4 TB NVMe SSD review
  4. 4
    Glorious GMBK 75% review
  5. 5
    Corsair Vanguard Pro 96 review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...