So this is coming out of Early Access in about a month, but I was thinking of grabbing it now to get a start on it. Can anyone comment on the condition it’s in after the last couple of updates?
Full disclosure - I’m the Project Lead. I’ll state the facts - we’ve been in Beta since late August, just put out patch #4, and are working on polishing up the balance and content of the game. You can check the last few months of Steam reviews, but we’re currently at “Very Positive” there. We get questions about the state of the game often on our Steam forum, so you can look at those answers if you want to see what others are saying. Note that if you start playing right now, you will have to restart your game for the final release, so that might be a factor for you. There are still a few bugs to squish in the build, but the difference between Build 1.0 and the current one are immense. If you do pick up a copy, we’re always grateful for feedback.
I’ve played a bit of this on a friends PC and must admit I really enjoyed what I saw, to the point of being at the swaying point of purchasing. Said friend has sunk huge hours into the early access which is always a good sign. Not a fan of early access and having to restart at final release myself, so I’ll probably wait until go-live to purchase/play.
The only thing that was missing for me was the immersion of sound effects/music, which might not be implemented yet. Standing outside a house, about to bust in the door where you’re not sure whether there’s Z’s inside. IMO, the bg music could change or ramp up in volume to add to the suspense. Also, the Z’s themselves make no sound. If there was some kind of ambient moaning, based on proximity, multiplied by the number of z’s on the map, it would certainly add to the overall feel. It would also give you an relative indication when you are making too much noise.
Overall, it is exactly the kind of game I love. Can’t wait for next month.
I like what I see, but the one thing that has me not purchasing it, is that as I understand its more of a linear game than an open world game.
Unlike say, State of Decay where you have the freedom of the world, this is more on rails. I understand its a design decision to probably tell more of a focused story, but its not really for me.
At the start it does seems to direct you towards certain locations to continue the story, but it’s not forced. I wandered off in the opposite direction and found other locations and had fun.
I liked state of decay, but the game became extremely repetitive after a short while because you were doing the same events over and over again. I think we can do with a bit less of that type of freedom.
Indeed - State of decay was an…what the name for Xbox digital only games? which meant that it couldn’t be larger than 2Gb which limited it a bit. I didn’t mind the repetition personally, since I found the freedom and exploration combined with the large amount of NPCs quite nice. I’m talking mostly of the DLC that added that kind of gameplay here.
I’d much rather have that kind of freedom, than being funneled through a story. If Dead State doesn’t do that though, then the game suddenly became a lot more interesting to me.
It’s an open map. You can travel out in any direction and go to any map. You’ll probably get killed if you wander into higher level maps, but we don’t stop you from doing that. The first week seems more linear because we walk new players through all the systems and you don’t have many allies yet, but you can do whatever you want as long as you keep your base’s fence up. There are random encounters, random events, and other events that are dependent on which allies are at your shelter. While we do have a linear (day by day) progression, your story will have some unique differences based on choices you’ve made, allies you have, deaths in the field, shelter morale, other factions, and where you’ve been.
Picked it up this morning and am looking forward to taking it for a spin.
Thank you for elaborating on that. Is day ending something that moves forward the story, meaning that after a certain amount of days, the game ends?
Game is out in steam. People who’ve played the early access - how does it compare to Wasteland 2, DOS etc? What’s the estimated length? Game size seems to be pretty small (1.5gb according to steam page) but I’m hoping this isn’t related to the length, especially at that price.
We estimate 40-60 hours, although that number goes up if you explore every location, have a lot of allies in your shelter, and spend time on the data minigame. We’ve had some Early Access players go over 100 hours.
Sounds great! Any eta on the demo? Ideally I’d like to try it myself but if impressions here and on steam are positive I’ll probably pick it up - gotta get that tbs fix!
We’re planning on putting together a demo at some point, probably won’t be out until January. We’ve been 100% focused on the release build and the team is going to need some recovery time before we put together a demo version of the release version.
I hope your team gets some rest in the coming weeks. A release version demo would be excellent! Thank you for considering it.
-Todd
Edit: Clarification
This is on my wishlist. If it sees any sort of discount on the Winter Sale (I know it’s brand new, so I don’t expect anything big) I’m going to be sorely tempted.
It looks really solid, and the reviews (on Steam) are very positive. Congrats bmitsoda and everyone at DoubleBear on releasing the game and I sincerely hope it’s very successful for you all.
I’m always conflicted at release day with games of some complexity like this. Should I start playing now, or wait a month or so for some bug fixing and updating to the game?
While I understand reasons for post-fix patches, its annoying to me that release day always means STILL waiting a bit more for the best experience.
All that said, I’ve tried it briefly in Early Access and liked what I saw so I’m happy for the release and can’t wait to dig into it for real (But I’ll wait a bit ;-) )
Yay! Another game to cross of my KS backed games list. I haven’t been disappointed yet, and I’m sure I’ll be liking this one too. I didn’t play any of the early releases, though, since I’d rather spend my time with a finished game, so although I have some idea, I’m not entirely sure of what I’m walking into here. Which is great. :)
I wonder if it might be wise to wait for another patch or two, like I wish I’d done with Wasteland 2. Has anyone taken a look at this yet, or maybe played the latest version before release?
edit: Oh, and congrats to Brian and Annie, and the rest of the team, for getting this out the door. :)
I’ve been holding off for the past month or so, ready to roll up my sleeves and dig in. With soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9aM9Ch97U8
I want this game, but I have too many time sinks at the moment as it is.