NMRIH 2: Contact imminent, out.

As much as I didn't want to admit that I saw this coming, I always did. NMRIH is still, bar none, one of the best zombie games ever put on the Steam platform. Sure, that's my nostalgia glasses being spot welded to my face, but there's still people willing to defend it even to this day and I am one of them. And even I'm not a diehard for a F2P HL2 mod. There's issues that, still in my opinion, necessitated a new game. The shoddy hit detection of weapons, the variations of oddball glitches courtesy of running on the Source 1 engine, there's only so much you can do on a 20 year old foundation. And so the trailers dropped, and a vague feeling of hype built up.

And then I played it and spent the first hour enjoying a complete rubberbanding netcode that had me dead in five minutes.

Torn Banner, you scoundrels, you did it again!

NMRIH 2 is infuriating in a way I haven't felt in a while, because it's a game that at its roots, works. And I know it's sacrilege to say so, given how different this game feels at first to the original. But the core of this game works. The improved combat is much more solid than the previous game, and especially now that all melee weapons are more effective so you're not spending 3 minutes pummeling a zombie to death with a pipe. The weapons are punchy but still feel as ploddingly slow as the original. The inventory system is an improvement, versus just accidentally making yourself overweight and getting mauled to death. And I dare say I do like the one map, and the overall idea of the game. Playing as a bunch of survivors trying to operate "behind the lines" and prevent complete collapses of the power grid in the wonderful world of Berks County, Pennsylvania. It all works well, and heresy as it may be, I think it makes it a worthy successor to the original game on actual improvements.

There are just two MASSIVE issues that kneecap any and all fun.

For one, this game runs like hot burning garbage. My computer isn't exactly the springiest of chickens, but this game struggles to eke above 20 FPS and that's after a lot of updates. On launch, this game ran like a dumpster fire. Skill issue? Hey maybe, but it was shared by my friends at the same time. The optimization for this game is absolutely wack, and it makes all of those flowery copes about the gameplay pretty hollow. Sure the melee is improved, but unfortunately someone blew up a pipebomb and my frames just dropped to 5 so I'm dead either way. To say nothing of the actual server netcode that runs at the pace of a steamroller, with a match taking anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to connect only to DC. Again, skill issue? Hardware problem? Possibly, still ♥♥♥♥ either way.

Second issue, and this is a hypothetical on my part, but the level itself. While the original NMRIH can be argued to be an extraction shooter, the level lengths for something like Toxteth, Broadway or so on is a LOT longer than the current one. This, in my eyes, helped make the levels actually more fun, the long haul marches for survival and giving you more of a chance to ♥♥♥♥ up or eke out a win against the odds. The new map can be completed in half an hour, if that, and the roadbumps in your way feel a lot cheaper in comparison. True, it's the first level ever made, and true, that might change with the to-be-released Pottstown level, but that doesn't really solve the root issues here. The loop for the game is too quick to allow the kind of fun you'd want from a NMRIH game, and just makes it feel more generic. Even with the improvements, it holds it back by that proxy.

NMRIH 2 is a game that feels chained up, just short of being what it wants to be by nothing else but the development cycle. The actual gameplay improvements are exactly what you'd want from an improved NMRIH, held back entirely by a constantly rubberbanding netcode that makes your one hit kills miss anyway. The map and graphic improvements are leagues beyond flat Source engine lighting and are making the computer catch fire as a result. And while the extraction shooter gameplay isn't all that different from the original's extraction missions, the constant failures to connect and a shorter level layout make it feel cheaper as a result. This isn't some cheap cash grab on a beloved indie IP, there's the framework of an actually great sequel here. The issue is that Torn Banner's sent the game a lil' too raw out of the oven, for a reason I cannot fathom, but some datamining on the company emails will provide.

What worries me is that this is Torn Banner. They've already allowed one game to rot to pick up the pieces of NMRIH 2 and kick it out of the door, and now they have two games barreling towards full on abandonment, due to nothing but their own genius move to try and keep two early access games going at one time, versus finishing one and THEN the other. The potential for this game to die isn't entirely high, but it's there. In the same equal measure of TB getting their ♥♥♥♥ together, fixing the netcode, making the game better optimized and putting in the right level of improvements and new maps to make the gameplay loop feel better. And hell, maybe do the needful and ADDING A SERVER BROWSER INSTEAD OF A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ QUICK MATCH SYSTEM. That'd SOLVE THE MATCHMAKING PROBLEM WOULDNT IT.

Rant aside, there's a potential for this game to turn around and be fantastic. It wouldn't be the Steam early access world without that potential being present. But for every The Forest, we've had a 7 Days to Die. We've already seen PAYDAY 3 go down in flames, why not get a two for one combo. This game is now on the timer to see if it's able to actually salvage itself, or be the Blood 2 to the Blood 1 that was the original mod. I have my hopes, but I also have my humility.

This game is actually quite good, much better than the reviews would have you think. It absolutely has some jank to it, but nothing out of the ordinary for early access. It seems like it was much worse at launch, but they are steadily updating this game, and I really hope they continue to because it is a lot of fun!

My biggest concern going into it was hit detection, but it is actually quite good now. I'm rooting for this game to succeed because I think it has a lot of potential. It has that indescribable X factor that makes a great game, it just needs to get into a better technical state and add more content, which they are actively doing.

I wanted to post this because I think a lot of people might pass this up after seeing the current reviews, but I want to make it known that this game is absolutely playable in its current state, and I think you should pick it up if you're interested. I think the review scores don't paint the full picture in this case. There are absolutely valid criticisms to made, but I also think it's amplified by fans of the original down voting it (which isn't completely unfair, but I also don't think it's entirely justified).

Best of luck to the dev team!

Tried over a few days to start it but Easy Anti Cheat always says game security violation detected. Thank God that there are refunds...