Death Road to Canada preview

PAX Prime’s Indie Megabooth sported some great indies again this year, one of which managed to become a Market Fresh Indie, Death Road to Canada.

Death Road to Canada comes off of a successful K, and describes itself as a “permadeath road trip simulator”. Believe me, if I had known the Death Road to Canada Kickstarter existed, you would of been the first to know because this game is amazing.

Although Rocketcat Games like’s to describe Death Road to Canada as a permadeath road trip simulator, after playing it a few times, I would describe it as a procedural choose-your-own-adventure. You begin with a few adventurers, eventually having up to five in your group, where you travel from Florida to Canada traveling through cities, looting buildings, and dealing with starvation and of course, zombies.

Because Death Road to Canada is also a survival game, fighting zombies drains stamina, ammo is scarce, and food is even scarcer. Since permadeath is a thing and the game is completely procedural, once your whole group is dead, your adventure starts again with a new group, and next trip will be completely different from the first.

My first trip in Death Road to Canada didn’t fair so well, I told my companion all the water was for me, she got sad, I didn’t care, so when I entered the first building I was grabbing all the loot I could…by myself. The thing with Death Road to Canada is, you can only have two weapons at a time, you don’t have some Mary Poppins infinite loot bag either, this is something I didn’t know. I was slashing away at zombies, seeing my character start to sweat and do less damage to enemies. So I moved to a shotgun with 2 shots, cleared some zombies and continued to search the building.

The buildings are also completely procedural, so you have to remember where you are and how you got there, you grab what you need and leave. I wasn’t lucky enough to make it out of the first building alive. I entered one room packed with zombies and couldn’t escape with my life, ammo depleted and my character’s will defeated I succumbed to the zombie horde.

My trip lasted a little less than 5 minutes, but Death Road to Canada left a lasting impression. It’s a survival game that combines the likes of both Binding of Isaac and the Oregon Trail without taking itself too seriously. I really enjoyed its concept and art style.

Expect to see Death Road to Canada on PC, Mac, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android hopefully this 2015 winter quarter.