Don’t Get Bit is a turn-based strategy game set in the zombie apocalypse. You play as the sarcastic 18-year-old Cassie who is armed with only her own wits and a kitchen knife as she starts her journey to reach her uncle’s farm for safety. Turn-based strategy is one of my favorite genres so I happily tried this game and am sharing my thoughts on it.
A copy of this game was provided for the purposes of this review.
As with most turn-based strategy games, you take a turn with your playable characters before your enemies take a turn. You start with only Cassie but gain other companions along the way that offer their own skills to help fight off the zombies. There are different types of zombies as well, so you have to strategize differently for them. The different types of zombies and how they are combined as a force against is where the difficult of this game comes, and it makes it very interesting to play.
Not every level requires the same end goal. No matter what you can kill all of the zombies to clear a level and sometimes that is your only option. You can also just make it to the safe point without having to kill every undead that is hunting you down. Deciding which to do is a big piece of your strategy and on one try you can attempt to do one way but the next time you have to do the other.
On some levels it almost felt like solving a puzzle to get through the situation presented. If I lost a character and would have to start the level over, I would sometimes approach it the same way and repeat steps until I could correct my downfall. It was a new way of thinking in a turn-based strategy game for me and I quite enjoyed it. I never got frustrated to the point of quitting, even if a level took me many attempts to complete. It was challenging but not frustrating, and that is a hard thing to balance and the devs did a great job with that.
An interesting part of the game is how you can complete different journeys, also known as replaying the game. After you complete your first journey, the subsequent journeys get more challenging. I found that really interesting and a nice addition to the game.
Two things I really enjoyed outside of the gameplay were the story and the art. The art for the game is perfect. It sets the tone for the game and just all around looks great. For the story, it is told to us through Cassie and at each level of the journey there are new parts of the story. It isn’t the most complex story, but I love how they had it told through the protagonist.
Overall, this game was an unexpected gem. The gameplay is a great balance of challenging without being frustrating, the artwork is so fitting, and the story is the through line that pulls it all together. If you want to try turn-based strategy for the first time or you are already a fan, play Don’t Get Bit.
What turn-based strategy games do you enjoy? Let me know with a comment below.