Dead State

 PC
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 95 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 95
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 95
  3. Negative: 23 out of 95

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  1. lifemare
    Dec 13, 2014
    4
    As of version 1.0 this game is barely playable.
    It's riddled with bugs:
    ► Worst pathfinding i've seen in a game: - Characters randomly teleporting to stairways (means sometimes you'll be engaged in a fight with one of your characters stuck on the opposite side of the map). - Blocked items (important ones for quests, like laptop data, or entire racks of medicine). - Characters often    As of version 1.0 this game is barely playable.
    It's riddled with bugs:

    ► Worst pathfinding i've seen in a game:
    - Characters randomly teleporting to stairways (means sometimes you'll be engaged in a fight with one of your characters stuck on the opposite side of the map).
    - Blocked items (important ones for quests, like laptop data, or entire racks of medicine).
    - Characters often hovering above ground or sliding instead of walking (breaking whatever semblance of immersion DS has to offer).
    - Characters constantly unable to move to an object unless you move other characters away. - Unresolved pathfinding actually crashing the game.
    - Enemies inside walls.
    - Bodies piling on top of one another (unable to loot them).
    - Etc.

    ► Very predictable enemy behaviours, only made unpredictable by bugs and poorly implemented combat mechanics:
    - Cameras staying fixed on the last character that played instead of following enemy action (wow!), means when that character happens to be on a different floor you won't be able to see the combat.
    - If you have a character with high enough APs to wield a Sledgehammer and high melee skill, all you have to do to clear the map of zombies is approach them from behind (or the sides) and one-shot them one at a time... This makes zombies little more than scarecrows, offering no real menace, unless they're compacted into huge groups (which i've seen happen like once).
    - Enemies spawning out of nowhere (thankfully rarely).
    - Getting stuck in turn-based combat for infinite turns with no visible enemies around.

    ► And the final blows that made me end my own misery and stop playing:
    - Broken quests (plural).
    - Unrepairable upgrades plummeting base morale.
    - And finally the car magically disappearing from the shelter.

    But i can forgive all the bugs on a rushed kickstarter release, when the team behind the game has worked so hard to keep all their promises and continues to devote their time to patching it up (though you shouldn't make paying customers beta-test your game, and i'm afraid putting such an unpolished product for sale in an effort to catch that little xmas boost will mean disaster for future sales).
    What i can't really forgive is the lack of attention and creativity that pervades the entire game:

    ► Horrible, awkward, amateurish inventory system:
    - Very unresponsive drag&drop often forces you to keep trying the same item over and over.
    - No way to dump your entire inventory into a container without painstakingly shift-selecting one by one (often accidentally dragging instead of clicking to make things even worse, or misclicking somewhere and losing the entire selection), when it would be so damn simple to just use the shift to instantly transfer items.
    - No way to distribute loot from containers to all characters, having to waste awful amounts of time depositing and withrawing stuff to maximize your carry capacity.
    - No game pausing when using inventory leaves you open to ambush while you're merrily arranging items.
    - Guns only unloadable in characters' individual inventory (not on inventory transfers between base/characters/containers).
    - Annoying pop-ups (with no shortcut key to dismiss) warning you of exceeded weight (when it would be so, so simple to just auto fill and leave the excess in the container).
    - No info on character max carry capacity in item transfer windows (only in individual inventory), makes you keep guessing... Add that to the fact there's multiple units of weight in use (imperial system, really?! Why?!) and prepare to spend yet more time guessing!
    - Can't stress enough how much longer you'll spend organizing inventories, instead of actually playing the game!

    ► Crappy interaction between characters:
    - You pretty much only have four questions for everyone for the entire game! That's it! No more dialog, except:
    - You get cut-scenes in the morning: one after the other, completely disconnected, and often asking you to do things you've already done.
    - Characters just stick to the walls of your base, more lifeless than zombies, instead of moving around, or (dare i ask) manning the posts you assign them on the job's board (which, by the way, is a whole other can of worms).

    ► You have a huge base, but only ever use 10% of it (4 rooms), the rest is desolate deserted space you explore once at the beggining and never visit again.

    ► Practically zero ambient sound and music coupled with very basic graphics leaves you with a game completely destitute of atmosphere.

    And i could go on and on, but i doubt a lot of people will have the patience to read this already endless wall of text. And there's always the (very incomplete) official List of Known Issues on Steam (if anyone cares to delve further into this mess).

    TL;DR: Needs another year of development! If you don't mind playing a survival game filled with bugs and awkward interactions, go play Project Zomboid. At least that has good music (and a lot more fun)!    … Expand
  2. ithinki1
    Dec 21, 2014
    0
    Wanted to start off by saying I was a huge supporter of this game pre EA and during early access. I enjoyed beta testing the game for DoubleBear and helping them to use the EA process to better the game.

    I think the game is a blast even in its frustrating buggy state. Now onto the reason why I think people should not buy this game or support the company DoubleBear for any future    Wanted to start off by saying I was a huge supporter of this game pre EA and during early access. I enjoyed beta testing the game for DoubleBear and helping them to use the EA process to better the game.

    I think the game is a blast even in its frustrating buggy state.

    Now onto the reason why I think people should not buy this game or support the company DoubleBear for any future games until the Give a public apology.

    I don't know about all of you but I found Kickstarter and Steam Early Access to be a wonderful breath of fresh air. I was sick of big AAA and medium sized AA Developers and Publishers pushing out 3/4 made buggy games that after I paid full price for had to wait months before it was patched up and enjoyable. This was the norm and I was sick of it.

    So I started supporting only EA and Kickstarter games, more than I could afford at times. Dead State is one of those games and I was very happy to support Doublebear.

    Sadly DoubleBear betrayed its fans and sought to deceive new buyers into believing that Dead State was a finished product in order to take full advantage of the Holiday shopping season. Brian and the Dead State team had pages of known bugs and some of them were game and story breaking.

    Ask yourself what reason would a Developer move a product that is known to be a buggy mess from Early Access to calling the game fully released. We the gamers are there Publisher and we were not on their backs pushing them to release the game in a unfinished state in order to reap the profit from the Holiday season.

    My over all point is that when small gamer funded games pull the same fast one as big AAA developers something has to be done about it. This type of behavior and not be rewarded.

    These type of actions corrupt the new system from within. If this is allowed to happen then we get get a bunch of small studios acting just like the AAA ones because they can.

    I and many others went onto Dead States forums to ask for an appology and get an answer why they felt the need to move a unfinished game from EA to fully released. We all found ourselves pounced on ,forum post locked and in several cases found ourselves banned. These type of actions are those of people wanting to hide what they did not ones wanting to correct the mistake that was made.

    I don't know DoubleBears reasons to fall to to such a low level. If they had funding problems there are so many other more honest options. We gamers have shown ourselves to be very giving.

    I ask people to avoid this game until the game is finished and DoubleBear publicly apologies for its mistakes.    … Expand
  3. metacriticfasch
    Dec 12, 2014
    0
    Pathetic little game. Full of bugs, puzzling design choices, repetitive game play. It is a budget game and it shows. Stay clear until you can get for pennies on the dollar, and many, many patched have been applied.
  4. LosingStreak
    Dec 25, 2014
    1
    Bad optimization, very buggy and got released out of Steam Early Access in a bad state. This game should have stayed in Early Access until they fleshed out the bugs.

    Could have been a good game if it didn't crash all the time and if quests actually worked.

    Extra negative score for releasing out of Early Access in such a messy state.
  5. vomov
    Nov 17, 2015
    1
    As of now, the game is officially 'feature complete'. What they don't say, is that there are very very few actual features.

    Visually, it's not great, but a good game can allow itself some leeway in the graphics department. It looks like Fallout 2, and plays somewhat similarly to Fallout Tactics. The basis of the game is simple; zombie apocalypse, gather survivors, build shelter,    As of now, the game is officially 'feature complete'. What they don't say, is that there are very very few actual features.

    Visually, it's not great, but a good game can allow itself some leeway in the graphics department. It looks like Fallout 2, and plays somewhat similarly to Fallout Tactics.

    The basis of the game is simple; zombie apocalypse, gather survivors, build shelter, survive. Zombie apocalypse means there are zombies and looters. A very basic AI means very easy gameplay after a while. There are a lot of items, but all characters gravitate towards the same overpowered build, with the same weapons. Character backstories, or any story for that matter, is wafer-thin, and even feels inconsistent from time to time. Building the shelter is nothing more than a set of pre-defined upgrades, that change values in a spreadsheet (not kidding). Surviving entails gathering resources, which starts to feel repetitive after the first hour. The maps are indeed different, but there's nothing that feels new; walk up to zombie/looter in a group, hit it until it stops moving, loot stuff, repeat.

    In short; boring, very sparse featureset, and a lot of time-consuming activities.    … Expand
  6. Type4101
    Dec 25, 2014
    4
    A heartbreaking game....Dead State could have been amazing, and has the fundamentals to be an excellent RPG/survival sim. The ideas are there...base building, character interaction, an actual plot with an actual ending (rare in games these days). Also, there are no micro-transactions, which is great. This was meant to be real game, reminiscent of Fallout. But for some reason, theA heartbreaking game....Dead State could have been amazing, and has the fundamentals to be an excellent RPG/survival sim. The ideas are there...base building, character interaction, an actual plot with an actual ending (rare in games these days). Also, there are no micro-transactions, which is great. This was meant to be real game, reminiscent of Fallout. But for some reason, the developers appear to have quit development early and released an incomplete game as if it were a complete product. Many features are buggy or missing, and the whole thing feels like a late alpha-stage game, maybe an early beta. Everything is limited, scaled down, dumbed down, or broken. The timing of the release--just before the holiday binge--makes one wonder about the motivations of the developers in releasing an incomplete game. I so badly wanted to experience a game like the old Fallout games, but this sure isn't it! Another eight months of development, and believe this game could be good. Perhaps the developers will take the money they got from the broken release and invest it in finishing the game (rather than sticking it in their pockets and laughing at their customers). If the game improves I will update this review (assuming I am still interested in revisiting it in a year or so). Dead State is in an incomplete state, and needs more time in the oven.… Expand
  7. Clovius
    Dec 21, 2014
    0
    The game is not playable in its current state.
    To many bugs (more than a few game breaking ones).
    Have followed Dead State since before it came to early access as the concept of a turn based zombie survival game was and is still very compelling to me. The game was released in this embarrassing state just ahead of the Steam Winter sale. Questions about this and request for an    The game is not playable in its current state.
    To many bugs (more than a few game breaking ones).

    Have followed Dead State since before it came to early access as the concept of a turn based zombie survival game was and is still very compelling to me.

    The game was released in this embarrassing state just ahead of the Steam Winter sale.
    Questions about this and request for an explanation from the devs were first ignored and now threads are removed and users banned.    … Expand
  8. Wizzleteats
    Mar 6, 2015
    0
    The controls cannot be re-mapped. The game is not playable for left-handers. Customizable keyboard controls used to be the norm. This is just lazy and inept game design.
  9. blade01
    Mar 5, 2015
    3
    I dont know, i had fun with the game, for a while.The longer the game was running the more bugs i had and the more the broken mechanics made me suffer.In detail:

    -Bugs:Encountered many bugs with the newest patch.Skills that arent working at all or they work just wrong.Some of the mechanics seems broken too and this influenced my experience!Minus -2 for that in the end! -Visuals:Ugly    I dont know, i had fun with the game, for a while.The longer the game was running the more bugs i had and the more the broken mechanics made me suffer.In detail:

    -Bugs:Encountered many bugs with the newest patch.Skills that arent working at all or they work just wrong.Some of the mechanics seems broken too and this influenced my experience!Minus -2 for that in the end!

    -Visuals:Ugly as hell, sorry.

    -Sound:Some of the worst sounds if ever heard.A character is injured?The sound they play to "simulate" that is hilarious.First i thought a porn is running somewhere.Turn out this is to "simulate" the heavy breathing caused by the injury.WTF??Music is not good too.

    Gameplay:Bare minimum.Some active skills, some passive ones and some perks.Nothing fancy, its ok to keep you going.Problem is, some of them will not work or will not work how they should be!Movement is a pain, no real sneaking.

    Conclusion:While the things i said sounds all terrible i had great 4 days with the game.Unitl i reached a point where i die for no reason!!!Just like that, someone stabbed me to death in the shelter without a major incident and many of the residents liked me.No warning, nothing.Food for weeks, gas for weeks, everything was fine.Suddenly Davis says "people are dying because of you".What?Not ONE in the game is dead!I think something in the mechanics isnt working like it should but im really pissed at this game.
    I dragged myself through this awfull game because of the story.The story is great, there is everything.Tension, passion, you like and/or hate the people you lead.But when bugs like that happen and you waste your time its the worst.

    The game is for me without the bugs a solid 5 bwcause i had fun despite the poor sound and the poor graphik.With the sheer amount of bugs(quests that wont end properly for example) its just a 3, im sorry.
    This game had potential.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. CD-Action
    Mar 17, 2015
    50
    It’s a game that does some things really well and other really badly. If you’re willing to endure the latter and you’ve already finished Wastelands 2, you can give Dead State a chance. [03/2014, p.78]
  2. Everyeye.it
    Feb 9, 2015
    65
    It's a sometimes interesting starting point, but to compete with the many zombie games out there, it still lacks content.
    Read full review
  3. Games.cz
    Jan 28, 2015
    70
    Dead State game offers a great experience that combines the struggle for survival, the party and shelter management, entertaining RPG part and a tactical combat. The game grabs and holds you for dozens of hours, so you are willing to forgive it its obsolete visuals. We’d like to see bugs disappear a bit faster though.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »