Recent reviews by ZF911

This is the best Dead Island game. I mean that completely sincerely. When I saw this game, my first instinct was that it should not exist, and it is clearly the result of a franchise trying to milk every penny it can out of itself.

But it does exist. And it is fantastic.

I don't play beat em ups very often, so I don't know if this compares at all, or if some of the mechanics here are unique. Getting perfect hits and executing combos makes this feel almost like a rhythm game. Using the right combo on an enemy can send a projectile forward and cause a chain reaction killing multiple enemies. The gameplay is challenging, thoughtful, and insanely satisfying.

The entire story of this game is contained within 4 cutscenes that are each 30 seconds long. Those 4 cutscenes are more entertaining and engaging than anything you will find in the other Dead Island games. None of the terribly written and awfully acted scenes that you are used to from this franchise make an appearance. This is also the least buggy and most polished game of the entire franchise.

Fun between crashes.

Changing this review from positive to negative. Leaving the original unedited review below, as it is accurate to how I felt during the first few weeks of the game. The devs halted releasing new content such as maps, operators, vehicles, weapons, and the battle pass. They halted this in order to address complaints such as a lack of scoreboard and VOIP. My problem with this is the people who swayed development by complaining so loud, have already long since refunded or given up on the game, and they are not coming back no matter how far DICE bends over backwards for them. So those who actually were playing and enjoying the game now have no content to keep us coming back. Player numbers are dwindling by the day, and the devs decided to drop everything and sprint in a completely backwards direction. They followed the bad press and noise, leaving the people actually playing in the dust. If they had just committed to releasing new content, maybe experimenting with a F2P model or free weekends as well, this game would have a steady community. But the toxic doomsayers on Reddit have these devs spinning in circles to "fix" the game for people who will never reinstall.

Original unedited review:

Ignore the review bombing. Does this game need some polishing? Yes. Is it actually one of the 10 worst games on Steam? Absolutely not. When review bombers manipulate the charts so much, it just makes it harder for the devs to identify and address legitimate issues.

Every time a new Battlefield comes out, the same people whine about how the previous title was so much better. Then when the next game comes out, the game they hated on is now the one they idolize. I saw this happen with the launches of BF3, BF4, BF1, BFV, and now, 2042.

Anyways, onto the game itself. 2042 runs better both performance wise and network wise compared to BFV on launch. If you were interested in this game but had performance issues in the Beta(like I did), update your drivers and try it now. It's a night and day difference, and everything runs so much better.

The game has 3 modes to jump into from the main menu. 2042, Hazard Zone, and Portal.

Hazard Zone is a PvPvE mode. Squads start at different points on the map, go grab intel guarded by AI soldiers, and escape when a helicopter arrives, fighting off any other players that may be around. No respawns outside of your squad finding or purchasing a revive power-up. You earn credits that can be spent before each game to start with better weapons or items. I haven't had great luck with this mode so far, I'm not sure if it will remain active long-term or not. I plan to focus on the core game and learn the guns and maps before going back.

2042 is the standard mode. You have Conquest and Breakthrough as the two objective modes. This mode includes the new maps, weapons, vehicles, and specialists. The specialist system has been demonized by the gaming community in the biggest overreaction I've ever seen. Instead of choosing your standard classes such as Assault or Recon, you can mix and match your loadout however you like. You do choose a specialist which has unique perks or weapons, similar to Rainbow Six Siege. These abilities and items include things like a wingsuit, recon drone, grappling hook, and the ability to revive teammates outside of your squad. As far as I'm concerned, this feature adds a lot to the game. The only negative thing about it is having to hear some cringe voice lines at the end of a game from the MVP players' specialists, which is really not a big deal whatsoever.

People have been saying that vehicles are too abundant and difficult to kill. One some level I agree, but 90% of the player base is not a high enough level to have anti tank mines. Once they are, I believe the pendulum will swing the other way. People will start saying vehicles are too easy to kill. I think instead of starting with a vehicle nerf, DICE should have lowered the unlock level for the mines. Only time will tell if the meta changes on that front.

And lastly there is Portal. This mode was such a pleasant surprise. I knew going into it that Portal offered maps and weapons from previous games, and the ability to make custom modes and servers. So for example, you can use 1942 weapons in BF3 vehicles on a 2042 map. What I did not know, was that in addition to the custom modes and servers, there are official retro playlists. If you just want to play 1942 maps with 1942 weapons and 1942 vehicles, you can do that. Same with BF3 and BC2. I go back and forth on whether I want to play a modern shooter or a WW2 shooter. It is incredible to have both at my fingertips in the same game.

My overall opinion is that this game is a natural step forward for the franchise, and gets much more right than it gets wrong. If you want to at least try it for a few hours in the refund window, I recommend trying both 2042 and Portal.

You are in the Downside. Your sins in life have led you to this realm of punishment. Not quite hell, but certainly not heaven. You do not even remember what your crimes are, but you do know that there is no way to escape the Downside, at least that's what they say. Alone and exhausted, you are found by a traveling group of interesting characters. They bring companionship, stories, and burdens of their own. But most importantly, they bring hope. They have learned of a sacred ritual, one that leads to freedom from the Downside, and they invite you to be a part of it. Unfortunately, this is not just a simple spell. You will have to fight for your freedom.

Pyre is my favorite Supergiant game so far. It completely flew under the radar for me, so I consider it to be a hidden gem. After playing Bastion and Transistor, I decided I might as well try Pyre before moving on to Hades. Out of every Supergiant game, Pyre was the least intriguing just based on the store page screenshots and videos. But I gave it a chance, and I'm very glad that I did. While Bastion and Transistor had fun gameplay, I really struggled to get invested in the stories or the characters. You could tell by the art style, the cutscenes, and the use of music that they really cared about the stories they were telling. This made it all the more disappointing when I could recognize the passion, but failed to absorb it myself. I did not struggle this way with Pyre. The stunning artwork and beautiful music did not go to waste. I felt personally invested at every turn. You as the player are treated as a character in the game, never shown on screen. This makes it so easy to put yourself in the narrative, you are part of the team. Their success is your success, their goals are your goals.

You and your new found friends journey together, facing off against other groups who are also seeking their freedom. Securing your own freedom is to deny it to others, and the game does not ignore this. The game is constantly making you question if you truly deserve it more than anyone else. The ritual itself, the 3 v 3 sports like minigame you see in the trailers, is your key to a chance of escape. Your goal is to douse the other team's Pyre before they can douse yours. It plays out like a game of Football or Basketball. You grab a ball from the middle of the arena, and run, dive, or throw it into the enemy's Pyre. Different characters have different abilities for attacking and defending. Every victory is one step closer to freedom. Defeat is a setback, but it is not game over, you learn from your mistakes and move on.

While most generalize the Pyre ritual by calling it "the gameplay," it is really only a fraction of the experience. The true meat of the game is traveling with your companions, befriending them, learning about their pasts and how they ended up in the Downside, as well as learning what they hope to achieve with their freedom should you succeed. You are also making decisions for the team that can affect your odds of success. The more invested you become in the characters, the more difficult your decisions become.

The narrative may seem slow to start, but after a few hours, it is absolutely gripping. I went from playing it a half hour at a time on 4 occasions, to playing a full hour on the 5th session, then the next time I launched the game, I played 8 hours straight, stayed up all night, and beat it. I could not close the game, I had to know how the story was going to play out. If you like narrative and story driven games, this is a must play. It ranks among my favorite narrative experiences of all time.

It was so much more than what I expected. I'm sure enough has been said about the the mechanics of the game. What really caught me by surprise was the emotional depth of the story and its characters. The game uses simple seeming dialogue to dive into incredibly deep questions, without dragging on or becoming pretentious at any point.

Very few stories across any medium are able to invoke this level of emotion. This is a must play and one of my all time favorites.

Only purchase on Steam I regret so much that I'm bothering to leave a review.

When Payday first came out, it was the closest thing to a L4D follow up that existed. Payday 2 only expanded upon things, with more in depth weapon and skill choices, a mask and customization system that allowed for every player to create a unique look for themselves, and constant content additions and updates to top it all off. So when this game was announced, I was absolutely trusting of Overkill to deliver a fun zombie experience. They had proven on multiple occasions that they were capable of it. I made the terrible decision to pre-order the game, the deluxe edition no less.

The short version is this: This game is bad.

Despite the claims that this game is based on the comics, everything from the look of the zombies, to the fact that they are exclusively referred to as "Walkers," and the incredibly dull color scheme proves that all the design choices for this game were based on the television show. Everything is a dark and gloomy shade of gray or brown. It's not depressing or ominous as it is just plain ugly and boring to look at. Even one of the characters comments on how every single building looks the same. Payday 2 also happens to take place in the DC area, and the difference is night and day. I get that it's a zombie apocalypse, but why does the world itself have to look as boring as absolutely possible? Even going to a game like Left 4 Dead after playing this is like when the Wizard of Oz goes from black and white to being in color.

The story is all but nonexistent, and the characters have absolutely no personality or chemistry to speak of. If someone told me they had only hired 2 or 3 voice actors to voice every single character in the game, I'd believe it. The dialogue is awful, when it happens at all it's usually during the most unnatural moments. A character will randomly decide to talk about their life or hobbies before the apocalypse, while everyone else is dying and surrounded by zombies. All the story is told through pre-mission cutscenes and an announcer during missions, and it's not enough to engage the player at all. Skins do exist for the characters, but nothing about them is fun or stands out in any way. I also wouldn't want to spoil the game in any way, but you actually lose several skins during the game, including some of the deluxe edition and pre-order bonus skins. No way to get them back, and no way to avoid it besides choosing not the play the game. I'd take the characters and story from Dead Island or Dying Light over this one any day, and the characters and stories are my absolute least favorite things about both of those games as well.

The gameplay is nothing more than a chore. When a zombie gets close it grabs you, even if you are charging or swinging an attack at that exact moment. At the beginning of the game, a single grab takes half your health. You can right click to push them away or spam left click to fight then and there, but option B is never worth it as your health significantly drains in the meantime. Two melee hits to the head is required to kill a single zombie in the early game, which is at its best completely repetitive. A head shot from a gun is usually enough to kill one, but beyond wave defense levels, the game completely punishes you for using firearms. A sound meter is constantly building up throughout the level. Gunshots, car alarms, explosions, and so on will raise it. Instead of a Left 4 Dead style system where a noisy trap will create a single horde, the noise level just goes up and up, arbitrarily spawning more zombies throughout the entire level. Hit a car alarm by accident in a parking lot at the beginning of the level? Have fun fighting 3 times as many zombies 30 minutes later when you're in the basement of a shopping mall, nowhere near the car you hit. Human enemies using weapons to kill zombies will raise it as well. I once managed to succesfully stealth through a level, but had to go back and fight every human anyways because they would not stop shooting zombies and raising the noise level. Weapon suppresors break during the level, and the crossbow, while being silent, starts with a broken and dirty scope that makes it impossible to aim, and has almost no range to it. Any random player joining the game can ruin a run by being too loud. And while they usually get blamed or kicked, I don't think a zombie survival game should be anywhere near that punishing of using weapons. The human enemies themselves are complete bullet sponges that can down you twice as fast as it takes to kill them. Their AI is terrible, but when they do finally aim and shoot at you, you'll die right away, despite having hit them multiple times. Early game espeicially is nothing but farming exp and weapons before moving on.

There are skill upgrades in this game, but nothing exciting. Faster reload speed here, a little more health there. Weapon based skills are for the most part locked to a specific weapon class. You can mix and match weapons if you want, but why would you when the only skills you have only affect one specific type of weapon? In addition to the signature weapon of each class, there's also an axe type weapon. None of the skill unlocks in the game will make you any more efficient or powerful with it though, so I'm left wondering why that weapon type even exists. Once you master a the primary ability of a class(health bag, molotov, smoke grenade, flash bang), it can be used on any class. I feel like they should have done the same with the other weapon and class specific abilities.

And to top it all off, there's an absolutely dreadful micromanagement system within the game. Every succesful mission passes one "day" in game time. Every 3 days, your camp eats up resources to resupply. You rescue survivors and then send them on timed missions. It's literally like a mobile game or the assassin training missions in Assassin's Creed. Pointless, boring, but you do it to collect resources. Because in addition to resupplying the camp, those same resources are needed to upgrade the camp, which is needed to unlock any skill above tier one, and to access the enitre game map. Most of the missions I choose to do are only to make sure I have enough supplies for the next resupply. And after doing 2 or 3 missions to reach that goal, you have to do it all over again.

I feel like I've covered everything. Don't spend more than $10 on this unless they make SIGNIFICANT improvements and redesigns to the game's foundational formula.

My first Steam game and still my all time favorite. It never gets old.

They're not just zombies, they're Nazi zombies. Nazi zombies don't wanna eat ya just 'cause they're craving the protein. They do it 'cause, they do it 'cause they hate Americans, man. Talibans. They're the Talibans of the zombie world.

Armas, analgésicos, bebida, guarda-costas, tempo de bala, e futebol de todos em São Paulo Brasil.

The best game to be released so far in 2012. Excellent storytelling, amazing voice overs, the best gunplay in a rockstar game so far. Just as good as the original.

Save the galaxy again, this time with Yvonne Strahovski.