#4
Initial Impressions Played about 5 hours of this so far and am enjoying it. Like expected, it is similar to Dead Island in a lot of ways. So, where does it differ? Well, the graphics and general tone of the game are a lot grittier and darker than Dead Island. Think of this as the Empire Strikes Back to Dead Island's Star Wars.
The looting and melee part of the game is very similar. You pick up, trade, craft weapons and use blueprints to upgrade them and so on. They increase in damage as you level up and unlock rarer varieties.
The free-running is unique here - I don't think I have ever seen it done in a first person game before. It is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because when it works, it works really well and gives a new depth to the game that would not have existed without it. It's a curse because it can be extremely fiddly and disorientating. Sometimes things just don't seem to work as well as they should and simple things turn into frustration inducing annoyances. It's a real shame too, since the system is *almost* good. Example: want to climb down and hang on the ledge? Forget it, something this simple is possibly the most frustrating thing you will ever do in this game.
This game also features a unique night-time experience where you must run, dodge and hide from powerful super-zombies during night time. Unlike the normal Z's, these ones chase you and can run just as fast as you can. When they catch you it's game over - so a race for the nearest safe-zone ensues. This part of the game really fills you with panicked adrenaline and mixes up the pace of the game. It is a welcome and interesting addition.
The (side) quests suffer from the same thing they did in Dead Island - fetchy and boring for the most part. There is one exception that I have found so far. In order to tell you about this I will just explain what happened to me:
I was tasked by a man in the "tower" to power up 2 electricity generators in town and then head to the main distribution center and power that up. There was a catch - the center is crawling with Z's - I mean, hundreds of the fuckers - and that's not all, I have to do it AT NIGHT time so that all the Z's get fried when I power it up. First I went and powered up the other 2 sub-stations with little issue. When I reached the main one I think my exact words were something along the lines of "holy fucking fuck fuck". There WERE hundreds of them. I gingerly scouted the area (in the day-time still), to see what I was going to do. There was a small entrance in the fence at the front and no other way in. I also didn't know which of the buildings I had to reach to turn on the generators. I dashed through the fence and jumped onto a van. A horde surrounded me within seconds and I was trapped. Fumbling through my inventory I fashioned 2 molotovs and let rip. The Z's burned and I jumped down. A second massive horde approached and I jumped back onto the van. I spent a few minutes trying to thin the heard, but after a time realised this was not going to work. Low on health, weapons all broken I decided I had to make a break for it. I jumped over several Z heads and ran for an opening, hoping it would lead me somewhere. Z's where everywhere and I was dodging and jumping past them. I came to a fence and vaulted over it. The area was "safe" and had a building. I went in and found the generator I was meant to use - some good luck that this was the right building. Problem was, it was day-time. Fair enough, at least I knew where to come now. I marked the location that I was standing on my map and made my escape. I headed to the nearest safe-zone where I slept until night time... Night was here. It was pitch black. I couldn't see more than 2 metres in front of me without a torch - yet the torch attracted zombies. Great. It's okay, I knew the terrain now and I had a custom waypoint set. All I had to do was get there without anything seeing me. I made my way to the station, slowly, avoiding all the "super-z's". When I got to the station my heart sank - one of the super-z's was pacing along the bit of fence that I had to get through. Bugger. Checking my inventory I found a couple of firecrackers. Hmmmm. I chucked some in the opposite direction and it vaulted over to them, attracting some of the massive horde inside as well. This was it. This was my moment. I ran. Jumping over the van, onto some z-heads. I got stuck on my planned route because there were too many of them. I had to think fast as they were everywhere. At this point I had little choice, I had to turn my torch on to see what was going on. I did. All the Z's turned and began after me. I climbed up a nearby generator before taking a running jump into the enclosure. Running to the building I slammed the door behind me and turned on the generator. I made it, phew. The sound of electric fizzing outside caught my attention and I went for a look. Sure enough, most of the horde was now being fried. One more firecracker left, I chucked it and made my escape. On the way out a super-z noticed me and gave chase. I was clambering up buildings, over fences, through houses to make it to the safe-zone. I picked up about 4 of these super-Z's on the way but finally managed to get the the safe zone. I lit up a cigarette and congratulated myself on a job well done. "You see, preparation is key, bur?", I said to myself. That's a side quest. It has turned out to be my most memorable moment in the game as of yet. I look forward to playing it some more. When it works, it works really well. This story above however, is not the only way the game works sadly. A lot of time is spent running from point to point doing meaningless fetch quests and trying to climb buildings (and failing) over and over again. Question is, will this ruin the game or not? Too early to tell...
Jimbo Rating: 7/10Last edited 7 Apr 2015 at 09:13.
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Jimbobslimbob
Maximus
Gregory
...have you tried climbing DOWN from a tower? Utterly impossible without dying. 
