A18 Feedback From a returning Duo

[Athin]

Heya,

 

Both my wife and I played this game heavily but ended up stopping shortly after A17. It just felt too shallow for us and we got to the point of "no challenge left" way too quickly. We only just started playing again when I saw the update kick in and thought I'd share our experience so far. In short: We love it! It's honestly the only game my wife actually ask me to play with her so if you got her that into it then you got something right!

 

We are roughly around level 30 each with a game stage at 160* roughly. We have a home base from a POI that was a bar and built two more walls around it with 3 layers of spikes between each with wooden bars connecting them to shot down on. Also built a second story for what I call the "Panic Room" on the horde nights. Its a really basic design that we always tend to build playing this game but seems to work. Now I'll try to go over each big topic and how we feel about it so far.

 

AI

 

This has been one of the game changers for us. We use to go days in the game without getting hit by zombies. Now, we need to actually bring healing supplies and armor with us on runs. The small burst of speed zombies get I wasn't a fan of at first but now I grew accustom to it. It's the Horde days that really are amazing for us with the new AI. We have never lost a horde night since we've been playing until today. They manage to break through all three layers of our walls plus my emergency "Panic Room" and took both of us out. (This was after our first death when the cop blew out a side of our wall like that Orc in LOTR!). It was a nice touch too for the horde night to just stop if not engaged after we died so we didn't have a death spiral for the rest of the night!

 

I'm sure there will always be ways to cheese out the AI but honestly with the way the AI is working right now in horde night, I'd take this over anything else I've seen so far in the game. I can only imagine it will get better from here on as well!

 

COMBAT

 

It took us a bit to get use to the new combat system. We were hitting each other by accident all the time with the new weapon arcs. We still have the accidental hit here and there as well. Maybe having the arc disable for allies and only direct hits count?

 

I do love the new spear and throwing ability but my god sometimes its so hard to pick back up. Also if you throw that outside and miss, it can be a huge pain to find again (Still have about 3 stone spears in the wild somewhere I lost) The glow on it doesn't seem to be enough to highlight it.

 

The zombies themselves basically all behave the same minus a few special ones. Maybe some zombies that can knock down or have a "Death Cloud" when killed can help mix it up a bit. Otherwise its basically just smack in the head until they fall for every single one. (Think I saw a new type of zombie has arrived but haven't seem him yet)

 

Other then seeing a bear, there is nothing we come across that makes us say "Lets not fight that". Randomly walking in the wild doesn't seem to have any real threat (Unless that dog pack comes by). It'll be interesting if some rare spawns like screamers or "Glowies" just appear wandering to make you decide if you want to take them on or avoid them. Currently even the random "Hordes" seems to be so small that they don't give much of a threat.

 

The combat in general though seems to be a fairly solid foundation to build off of and these comments are only the small faults I think that need to be look at.

 

QUEST

 

We just finish our first T5 quest and wow. We had so much fun and so many jump scares especially since it took us into the night to finish it. The T5 apartment building we did seem to be a huge jump from the T4 quest we were doing though. T4 we could clear within maybe 7-8 game hours where the T5 took us about 24-26 game hours. Not a bad thing that the T5 took so long but just seem like a big differences to us as we weren't ready for that long journey.

 

If those houses stay the same though, they may lose their effect. The zombies may move but when you know they will come from X,Y, or Z then it may become dull. Possibly have the interior change each time (Ex first room is a kitchen but next time its a lounge). That may be tough to keep them fresh after people play them otherwise.

 

I'd love to have a few different style quest as well. Something like a Gather X resources for the trader to upgrade his outpost or defend this spot so you build these temporary buildings to hold off a mini horde. Right now the fetch or the clear quest (or the creative Fetch AND clear ) are a bit dull as you tend to clear a building anyways when looting.

 

Overall I think the quest are quite fun right now but if they stay too static then they'll get a bit dull over time

 

LOOT

 

This was a huge improvement from when we played last. Before, we found everything we needed within a few days in the game and that is it. Now with the addition of the books and all the new weapons/mods, we are still finding new things and still searching for items we want after 45 days (Looking at you pump action shotgun!). With things like this, the more loot the better!

 

SKILLS

 

First thing I'd say is that I LOVE the fact that you can either spend a point or try to find the book for alot of skills out there you want. That makes a HUGE difference to me on how I spec out my guy and doesn't make me forced into certain areas. Still wish you can just spec into whatever weapon you wanted to regardless of the governing stat. Makes it a bit tricking for me using a crossbow/spear/SMG combo but I make it work. I'd say though these skill trees are on the right path now as A17 had me worried how they were going with them.

 

Keep up the great work guys! Hope this feedback helps from two fans of the game!

 

TL : DR

 

Game is great fun with a few bumps still there!

[OzHawkeye]

Good to hear you're enjoying it. :-)