Recent reviews by Benjuan

TLDR: don't bother if you want to pick up a complete game and play it, that's not what this is yet. Lots of features missing, still buggy, long development road ahead. But so so much potential! Buy in if you want to help shape the game.

So the game released into Steam Early Access last week and had a bit of a rough ride. I backed the game last year as I loved the potential it looked to have and the idea behind it. Getting more involved with the community side of things it was refreshing to see a development team that actually interacted with their userbase. They aren't a big team. They aren't an experienced team. But they are open and honest which is great to see and they're not afraid of holding their hands up when something goes wrong.

The "unlisted" release they wanted for Backers wasn't possible due to Steam, so as a result they ended up having a couple thousand people try and play the game as opposed to a couple hundred immediately upon release. In short, their systems couldn't really keep up, especially with some big streamers fuelling the hype-train inferno (the game reached second "most popular" on Steam, not something that should really happen for a release that wanted to be unlisted). That's led to a lot of negative reviews on the game's Steam page which I think is a little unfair. Lots of complaining about features not being implemented that are in gameplay videos, servers being terrible, "cash-grab" etc. A lot of people getting arsey when those that have been involved with the community for some time defend the development team and point out to the numerous statements from the developers that the game is nowhere near finished, isn't the most stable thing in the world and has a lot of features not implemented because they aren't ready to be tested on a large scale yet. Apparently that's tantamount to fanboyism and huge arguments follow and ultimately, I'd imagine, put quite a lot of people off the game.

I've only stuck a few hours into, mostly because I've been quite busy with other things, but from what I've seen and experienced so far it's starting to shape up nicely.

The world design seems quite good so far, some very well thought out areas with great scenery and some very atmospheric areas of the map. They definitely come a little short, as most games do, when it comes to hills and rocks. The hills themselves are quite large, but the resultant rock formations look for the most-part, out of place and sparse. The world is designed in a way that there are few areas of civilisation leaving large swathes of nature between towns - this sometimes feels quite empty and could do with some more "something" to fill it. I'm not sure if it is the settings I'm running at, or the game itself, but the pop-in of foliage seems quite short currently which is a shame; but on the other hand the foliage is pulled off very well in my opinion and really makes the game "pop" and look stunning, especially with some of the light effects at dusk, dawn and even under moonlight. One big thing so far though is you cannot swim - considering there are quite a few inland rivers that makes for some very large detours which is a shame to some extent, but then again if I was trying to survive "off-the-land" then I don't think I'd fancy swimming across a river and getting completely drenched.

The inventory system seems a bit archaic compared to most games and I think will be a sticking point for a lot of players. It's mostly a text based system but it is very functional. It needs a bit more work to make inventory management a bit easier I feel, as things like to reorder themselves when used for a reason I can't quite fathom. The crafting that is in the game at the moment is quite limited, but I feel that also coincides with some of the gameplay features that are currently disabled. The inventory screen also houses the character information and health stats. From what I've experienced so far, the health of characters can decrease if they fall sick, don't maintain calorie intake or dehydrate too much. I haven't managed to get my health to increase though so not sure if it only works as a one-way mechanic currently. The "mental health" I haven't had an experience with yet - I've only met one other person in the game and he unfortunately succumbed to "eaten alive by zombies". Also certain things like being able to remove loaded rounds from a gun would be handy to stop me carrying around several guns of the same calibre.

The fortification mechanic, which was one of the features that got a lot of love from the public, isn't in currently. You are able to build hasp and staple locks, but you can't reinforce windows or doors as of yet. You can also put the locks onto containers, such as wardrobes, kitchen cupboards etc. There was a day one issue with loot not appearing or respawning, this seems to have been resolved with the day two patch and I've come across loot appearing in containers that I know have been empty the day before. What I haven't discovered yet, and need to test, is whether the loot respawn strips the container of current loot before populating, or adds onto the end - i.e. can you actually store things you want without having to worry about them magically disappearing. Same goes for free placement of items - if I put something on a shelf, will it definitely be there when I come back to it in a few hours? If it does work, then I can actually start knuckling down in an area of a map and create somewhere to base out of.

Electricity generation is another feature that has been shown in the past and from what I can tell it isn't fully implemented yet. Most buildings have electricity meters (some have gas too!) and breaker boards which you can interact with, however the main generation of electricity is powered off. I believe the thought is that you can repair substations and start supplying power to towns, however that's going to take a lot more gameplay time to test that out! I have a feeling it won't work yet, but who knows! I've found a portable generator too so there may be a way to locally power buildings, again more game time needed!

Sadly there are no vehicles in the game yet. Early gameplay videos had a motorhome and pickup in them, but they've been left out of the current public builds. You can however still find a lot of the parts required for them, so it seems more of a choice to leave them out rather than necessity at this stage.

The zombies. From what I've experienced so far, they seem quite good. One-on-one, you can take one down with your fists. It will hurt, but it's doable. Any more than two attacking you at once, you're gonna need a melee weapon or firearm realistically. You also won't be able to one-on-one several zombies in a row as your health will have taken a nose dive. The hit registry does seem a bit off so far, I've witnessed several zombies go through their attack animation whilst I should be out of range, but it seems to me that if they start that animation when they are in range of you, you're gonna get hit no matter how far to step back. Doesn't seem to work the other way though... They seem to react to noise quite well from what I've heard so far. Can't really tell yet if they respond to light or proximity though, again more time needed. You can out run them and use line of sight to escape and they will stop chasing. You don't want to be running away when low on stamina though - they will catch up very quickly and you're as good as dead.

So lots to look forward to, a long road still ahead in terms of the development, but for a first stab at it I'm quite impressed with what they've come up with so far! I need to stop treating it as a DayZ "run here, loot, run there, loot" game, and more of a "find an area, lock it down, survive" game.

TLDR: don't bother if you want to pick up a complete game and play it. Lots of features missing, still buggy, but so so much potential!

Awesomely addictive little game. Sure it can get a little repetitive, but it just has that spark that keeps you playing for hours on end! Definitely recommend!