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It sucked me in right from the beginning and I really enjoyed the forest and prologue campaign, and I really enjoyed the first town too. But then the map opened up, resources became pinpointed, and the Zombies would never stay gone! What I'm trying to say is that it is a good game with a great start that gives you immersion from the very get go, but that doesn't last the whole experience and before you've reached the middle of the game you realize it's just that, a game. Zombies are everywhere and they never go away. You can't really clear an area, they will just re-spawn (and I don't mean wanders, but specific re-spawn points). Hordes are way too common and where it is SO much fun to annihilate a horde in one sweep of a car, but cars are stupidly fragile (to make them a scarcer resource) so you can't rely on that tactic forever. There are a lot of cars though, at least at first until you burn through them if you're not careful.
Story: It's fine for a zombie survival game and offers some downright HARD missions that are a nice challenge to overcome and leave you feeling victorious but vulnerable. And that's the best thing about this game, it makes you feel vulnerable. You resources are constantly a concern. Your guns, ammo, and even melee weapons are finite don't last long. You're people are vulnerable and need you, and you all need resources from around the zombie infested towns. Up until you get into the military zone where there are guns and ammo EVERYWHERE (late game), you DON'T use your guns unless it's an emergency, you save your favourite (most powerful/effective) weapon for dire situations, and you are grateful when you find that box of resource you were so desperately low on.
Combat is good, with the problems of physical combat that all third person sandbox games (like GTA) have but there is a light "homing" system added to physical combat that helps compensate for realism in a game. Smart levelling also allows for great advantages in combat.
This brings me to the RPG elements of this game, levelling and relations. Levelling works well, you gain experience in stats through different actions. On top of basic stats, each character has a list of traits that offer strengths and weaknesses. Traits go from natural talents to previous jobs and hobbies, and they all affect the character in some way. This makes each character be unique in some way or another, but in the end you'll end up prioritizing the combat and leadership specialists because the "skill tree" of these characters offer special moves that are incredibly effective.
Regarding the base, the developers did it right and created a number of potential bases for you to choose from, varying in size, location, and overall difficulty to manage. The base is where you do your maintenance and resource/relationship management. The character relationships and interaction is the RPG element I believe they fell short on. This game has what seems like a wide variety of conversation and interaction, but after the world opens up after the first town you quickly realize that this is not the case. Constant errands and characters have the same issues that have the same solutions with the same awkward and un-fluid dialog. Characters lack personality and as a result seem underdeveloped, breaking the immersion. All of a sudden they are no longer a person in your camp, but instead just another resource to be managed.
There is also a base development mechanic which I like, but don't love. There's a decent variety of options for structures each with their own upgrades through the use of resources you've collected. The flaw is that even in the biggest base, you still have very little space to work with. I understand not being able to build every structure in order to retain difficulty and keep the pressure, but when there is plenty of space left between structures it’s frustrating to know you could fit more but you’re not allowed to.
The game also keeps track of your real time and so every real day it consumes resources, giving the player a feeling of pressure and urgency in real life as well as the game.
VI: It's OK. Not terrible, but definitely not great. Issues with pathing and just poor decisions in aggro and combat. They're not too present, but they are still there. There are a few issues with the VI of the zombies as well, but I actually think that's a good thing because zombies are supposed to have flawed behaviour and dulled senses, so the issues can be attributed to zombie traits through immersion.
Exploration in this game is fun. There are plenty of nice areas to discover and explore. Fuel may not be a very stressed issue in this game, but night time is still stressful to traverse and scavenge in.
Also, they have “freak zombies” which take away from the realism that the zombie apocalypse naturally has.
I don't mean to say that this is a bad game. In fact, it's good. I played it, and enjoyed it, but expect a zombie survival GAME.
75/100… Expand
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