Drive To Survive

Summary

If the name Drive To Survive has you expecting a peek behind the curtain of Formula 1 drama… not quite. Well, unless the entire grid has somehow turned into zombies and nobody told us!

What you’re actually getting is a browser game that lets you re-enact a typical street takeover in a parking lot (some of you might already know our thoughts on that!). Except instead of *ahem* kids “accidentally” getting whacked cars for clout, the lot is full of zombies in this one, and you’re rewarded for sending them flying into the air. Your car auto-accelerates with no brake (or e-brake), and your drifting skills are your only weapon.

It sounds ridiculous, and that’s exactly why you’re gonna love it. Once you begin sliding your way through the massive zombie crowds and watching the combo multiplier climb while purple guts splatter across the screen, you’ll soon get why it works. It’s quite possibly the most satisfying drifting game (and certainly the most unique) at Drifted, and we’ve got quite a few!

Features

• Release date – March 22, 2025
• Difficulty – Beginner
• Levels – Parking-lot stages (2 levels per stage)
• Number of vehicles – 8
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – No
• Multiplayer – No
• Mobile – Yes
• Developer – GamePush

Physics

The cars are super slidey and easy to get the hang of. Hold an arrow (while ensuring you have enough space), and you’ll go around in a perfect circle.

Sure, it’s arcadey, flat and unrealistic, but the weight transfer on transitions feels smooth, and you’re basically juggling donuts, figure-eights and manjis the whole time. You can tell the car is clearly rear-wheel drive (even the hatchbacks), and the grip picks up nicely when you transition.

One limitation is that you’re not able to pull massive backward-style angles to scrub off speed. So, if you don’t plan your lines, you’ll run out of room and plant yourself straight into a barrier.

It’s similar to Drift Arena‘s auto-accelerate, no-brake, left-right gameplay, which also puts you in a top-down parking lot arena. However, that adds multiplayer ghost battles (single player only here) where you get to wager your coins against other players to see who can get the best score. If you’ve enjoyed this but fancy something with a bit more depth (and less killing zombies), it’s the perfect step up.

Graphics

The visuals are basic and large-pixel, but they suit the fun, zombie-killing theme. The parking lot is filled with used tires, crates, bins, and boxes, all of which go flying when you smash into them, further adding to the chaos.

However, crash into a solid barrier (metal or concrete), and you’ll likely end up with your engine amusingly flying out of your car to signify game over.

The crash effects are more comedy than carnage, but if watching vehicles take punishment is your thing, there are plenty of other alternatives in our stunts and crash games section.

Controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• Left/Right arrow – Steer left/right

Mobile/tablet (iOS/Android)

• Tap the left or right side of the screen to steer

The controls are about as simple as it gets. If you’ve enjoyed this simpler approach to drifting, Drift Boss strips it down even further to a single button where you just need to press to drift and release to transition, with 31 cars to unlock along the way.

We’ve also got loads of other mobile-friendly games if you’re playing on your phone or tablet.

How to Play Drive To Survive

Initial Setup

The main menu has just two buttons: ‘Garage’ and ‘Tap To Play’.

In the garage, you’ll get a teaser glimpse of the car roster. The Fiesta-esque starter car is free, and the rest are shown as silhouetted shadows until you unlock them.

Prices range from 350 to 3,000 skulls (the in-game currency that’s a fitting replacement for coins), and every zombie you take out earns you one more, with combo multipliers escalating depending on how many you hit in one sweep. You can also get 100 skulls for watching an ad, but we recommend just playing the game – it’s a lot more fun!

Getting Started

Each stage has two levels. Complete both, and you get to progress to the next. If you fail on the second level (by crashing into the hard stuff), you’ll be back to the first when you hit restart, so it pays to be consistent.

The parking lot is the same on each stage, but solid barriers start appearing in increasingly inconvenient spots as you progress. Anything concrete or metal is a game-ender, as you’ll soon find out!

You can easily spot the zombies you need to take out since they glow red, and off-screen arrows point you toward any stragglers that are left behind. Loose objects like tires, boxes, and bins are totally safe, and they’ll go flying along with them.

However, slam (or just do a simple wallrun) into a barrier and you get a ‘Wasted’ screen. At this point, you can restart (back to the start of the first level), watch an ad to repair, or pay 25 skulls to continue.

An early crash isn’t worth wasting skulls on, since you can just hit restart. But when you’re a couple of zombies away from clearing the area, you might wanna consider using the 25-skull repair.

If you like the smashing-things-with-vehicles concept, but want guns, nitrous, ramps, and a VW Beetle, look no further than that popular classic, Death Chase.

Car List

There are eight cars ranging from 350 to 3,000 skulls, but good luck identifying most of them based on the silhouette before you’ve unlocked them. Rather than trying to be licensed real-world models, they’re armored, zombie-ready interpretations that are often fitted with some armor or reinforcements.

The free starter car looks like someone welded the rear end of a Ford Fiesta onto the front of a Fiat Punto. It’s a quirky mashup that sets the tone nicely for the whole game.

Once you start unlocking new rides, you’ll find cop cruisers with a front-mounted ram bar, trucks with enough surface area to take out a huge cluster in a single slide, and semis that make the starter car feel like a shopping cart by comparison.

The more expensive the unlock, the better the default combo multiplier, so you’ll be able to earn skulls much quicker.

It’s worth unlocking the earlier rides and collecting the whole garage. While they don’t drive massively differently, even cheaper options like the police cruiser is a big five-door thing in comparison to the smaller hatchbacks, and feel like you’re drifting a JZX100. You know what they say… More doors, more… zombies?

If you enjoy the zombie-killing aspect, Scrap Car Merge is from the same team but swaps the drifting for straight-line driving with a roof-mounted turret gun and rockets in the rear, with a merge-upgrade system that turns a scrap truck into a fully weaponized armored survival machine.

Tuning & Customization

Upgrades only come in the form of new cars rather than the usual parts or tuning sliders you might be hoping to see. Our ever-growing car games collection has plenty of games with heaps of tuning, customization, and upgrades, though. Two of the most popular among Drifted fans are Drift Hunters MAX and Force Drift Racing: Aussie Burnout.

If you want to stick with the zombie-driving aspect but with upgradeable vehicles, Earn to Die 2012 – Part 2 is the obvious follow-up. Each run earns cash that you can put towards improving your engine, transmission, tires, boost, armor, and weapons, and you’ll watch your vehicle go from a stock fire truck to a spiked, boosted zombie-slaying machine.

Advanced Tips & Tricks

Be patient and let the zombies group together

Combos kick in at three or more kills in (very) quick succession, and two doesn’t count. Rather than chasing individuals, hang back and let them wander in the direction of your car, since they all follow a similar pattern.

Once a group clusters together, give them a surprise by sliding through them all in a single sweep. That’s where you’ll earn massive payouts, and it’s way more satisfying than picking them off one by one.

Slow yourself down by throwing down bigger angles

Since your car never stops accelerating, the only way to scrub speed is by pulling off bigger angle, or even doing a 180. If you’re heading toward a barrier too fast, commit to the slide rather than trying to straighten out.

Figure-eight drifting is often the quickest way to change direction and come back for the next group of zombies.

Just keep the walls in mind and don’t let the rear of your car even slightly tap the barrier, as you’ll need a fairly big turning circle. If you want to sharpen up your skills, our guide to drifting with free YouTube tutorials lets the pros show you how it’s done.

Sometimes it’s better to just restart rather than repair

If you crash soon after you begin the level, don’t bother watching an ad or spending skulls on getting another chance – just hit restart.

Save the repairs for when you’re close to clearing the level and the 25-skull cost is cheaper than replaying from scratch, and the ad only takes a few seconds.

Drive To Survive FAQ