For folks who’ve played Telltale’s gorgeously stylized Walking Dead adventure — or have gamed on any current-gen console, really — Survival Instinct makes a scary first impression. And not in a good way. Terminal Reality’s new zombie game boasts humble graphics that’d look more at home on an original Xbox, with character animations and movement that emit a distinctly low-budget vibe. Truth be told, we’re still eager to play it, though — and not just because it’s set in the same post-apocalyptic, ghoul-riddled world as AMC’s hit TV show.

After our recent demo of the game, what’s got us enthusiastic? For one thing, there’s the premise: as Daryl Dixon, the series’ crossbow-toting, redneck antihero, you’re crossing Georgia en route to Atlanta, just before the character met up with Rick Grimes and company in the show’s first episode. By your side is your brother, Merle, another aggressive ass-kicker (who, unfortunately, won’t be playable cooperatively). It’s a story we haven’t seen, and guiding these hardened siblings through a newly zombified land should be interesting.

Some cars, you’ll be able to drive off in, says Gamble — if you can find the keys.

Much of their trek will involve something Telltale’s saga didn’t emphasize: the shooting, stabbing, and general slaying of walkers. As Glenn Gamble, Terminal Reality’s principal effects artist/system designer, describes it: “[Our game is] a survival FPS. We want to convey that there are no safe places in this world.” Toward that end, the undead are as lethal as they are on the show, and fighting more than one or two at a time will probably prove fatal. Downing them one-on-one will be no problem, however: in our demo, Gamble shotgunned one zombie in the head (which exploded in a crimson splash), stabbed another in the face with a knife, and decapitated others with an axe.

Whatever weapon you use, blood and gore abound, and whether you’re in a campground, hospital, or urban environment, there’s no shortage of undead targets. (Thankfully, your weapons don’t degrade the way they did in zombie shooter Dead Island.) Nevertheless, as we saw in our demo, stealth is often the best course of action. Faced with a herd of 10 to 20 zombies, Gamble picked up a bottle and, from a safe spot where the monsters couldn’t detect him, threw it over their heads to the other side of the plaza, luring them away with the sound of shattering glass.

Viewers of the Walking Dead show have seen Daryl evolve from an angry racist — which presumably is how he’ll be in the game — to a more team-oriented, loyal companion. Whether his brother, Merle (shown above), shares the same potential for goodness is less certain, though. Early in the series, he (SPOILER ALERT!) had to be handcuffed to a pipe after beating up a fellow survivor. Two seasons later, he’s back — minus his handcuffed hand, which he’d had to cut off to escape walkers — as a lieutenant of the ruthless Governor. Gamble hinted at Merle “causing problems” in the game; we’re eager to see his amoral nature at work.