KickStarter Dead State: Reanimated

[Starwars]

At times, this game gets pretty close to Fallout in terms of smart-ass things to say.

"-I'm a pimphand salesman and it looks like you're in the market"

"-What the hell kinda name is 'Aggro'?
-It means fuck off.
-Hey, if you want to sounds like you're a Decepticon, that's fine."

 

[cw8]

Is the medicine for food event bugged? I was told to go to the farm but I've been there at different times of the day and I don't see any people. There's a rusty truck with medical supplies so I assume that's the place but there's no one. Initially I thought my party's too big as I have a dog follow me around all the time since I have max Survival, the I went in with 3 people but still no one.

 

[SniperHF]

The writing is a little janky in that spot. It's actually the next day. Not on the same day as the initial event.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

This thread proves only that catering to the tastes of the KKKodex is the real mistake.
I must admit that Gaider and Vogel were right, start doing popamole mainstream shit and rack in the money without the hassle of 'customers' that hate you, literally, because of your gender or political ideas, whatever, while keeping your fingers crossed that you breack even.
It tells all that the most 'outraged' shitheads here are renown popamolers like Minus Habens, AKA mastermind.

Yo clarify for the imbeciles, making oldschool games is already a risk, especially because of the oldsKKKool crowd.

Nah, they didn't try to make a game for the Codex. A great deal of people here are split into one of two camps.

The first camp, which I am in, is the storyfag camp. We have a lot of time for Brian Mitsoda because of his work on Vampire: Bloodlines. We like games that have good quests, with multiple resolutions, and different ways to play the main story (whether it be through conversation choices or different faction allegiances). Examples of games that appeal to this group are Planescape Torment and Fallout New Vegas, both have weak combat but good stories.

The other camp are what I call the tacticalfags (also known as combatfags). They like turn-based combat of the TOEE/Jagged Alliance/X-COM Classic variety. They don't need great or even good stories as long as the combat is sufficiently monocled.

Dead State didn't provide either and instead just provided the bugs. The Codex can forgive bugs as long as the needs of one of those two camps are met.

Also, look at the Codex's favourite games from this year. Shadowrun: Dragonfall DC and Divinity: Original Sin, both CRPGs which got praise from the mainstream media who also like popamole mainstream shit.

 

[cherry blossom]

I think there might also be a mechanicfags camp; those who only care about intriguing and smart game mechanics, be it combat, dialogue or whatever. I'm over the simplicity of combat in Dead State but still not over the pedestrian simplicity of the game's overall mechanics.

 

[cw8]

So I visited the Rpgcodex building, sure does have its share of stinking people:

 

[Toffeli]

I'm somewhere around 40 days with this game and don't really know what to really do in this anymore. I have no interesting missions going on and no sense of threath whatsoever. ++1000 food and morale, everyone is in a happy mood and almost every upgrade made to the shelter. The talky bits have becaume somewhat boring also. Maybe because I'm too diplomatic and everyone is getting alone too fine. E: The combat against zombies has also become extremely tiresome. I've had a few "though" battles against them, mostly in the first week. Rest have been just borefest where I kill them one at the time. Yesterday in some random encounter was probably the first time in more than a week where one of my crew members was even near getting infected and had to heal him.

Also, I only just got the car and went to a first trip. I had no clue how much fuel it would use, and didn't fuel it enough, but I was going back to a location which had a ton of fuel so I didn't really care. Of course it was just enough to get there. But how the fuck am I supposed to fuel it. I see no option anywhere. I have fuel both in my inventory and the car trunk so it seems utterly stupid that the game informs me I have to abandon it. I saw two same kind of posts on the Steam forums, but no real answer.

 

[Roguey]

Sounds very much like "the endgame can only happen after 80+ days" was a big mistake considering it seems like everyone gets bored around ~40.

 

[sqeecoo]

Yep, I got bored by around day 50 and haven't finished the game yet. I still think the exploration and the looting are good though, it's just that the story makes up very little of the gameplay and the exploration becomes trivially easy and thus boring. I got a solid amount of enjoyment from the game though, certainly worth the money (if you can ignore the drama from the devs).

I'll probably replay it if there is a extensive balance patch in the future.

 

[Drowed]

It seems like the game doesn't have enough substance to stretch itself for more than 40-50 days. You end up becoming too strong, too well equipped, and the combat system doesn't offer enough variation (aka, is not a system where you will gain more skills, you will just continue using the same ones until the end of the game). The interactions with the other characters, though interesting, doesn't seems to have enough strength to carry the game on the back without the other factors. This can be corrected if the overall difficulty of the game is increased (making it more difficult to fight, with more dangerous zombies, scarce resources, etc), or adding new systems like a) a system that force the player to spend his resources which would force him to look for more or b) deepening the combat system, so it will continue to introduce new ideas until near the end of the game.

As the game has already been "released" (lol bugs), there isn't the slightest possibility of them introduce new ideas at this point, then... They need to work urgently on the difficulty curve and resource management.

 

[Angelo85]

Finished the game after 60 hours according to Steam.
All in all I'd say it was decent and would recommend it. But as mentioned numerous times before in this Thread, I have to agree that it became too easy rather quickly. Both in terms of combat encounters and survival aspects.

I also feel like the game would have benefited greatly from an overarching, interconnected main storyline instead of the several, almost TV episode like self-contained mini stories. The ending story for instance (which - on a side note - as most people seem to agree, would have been more than welcome to begin a couple dozen days earlier) literally just arrives out of the blue in front of your gate and is not connected in any way to the previous story lines. It felt a little bit like a cop out and magic box kinda thingie.

On a more positive note I really enjoyed the interactions with and between the other shelter occupants, though as story fag I was letdown by the almost nonexistent interactions with the other surviving communities. There were many potential great story setups here that sadly never got pursued further and in turn many a great story was left untold.

Bugs wise I sadly have to report that I found my fair share of them. Ranging between the occasional minor annoyance up to some pretty severe ones.

Still, once again all things considered it was a decent game and also considering that I spent 60 hours with it well worth it's price.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

Yeah... We'll do our best to polish it

Regarding modding, we'll see once the the dev process is done, we can divert resources to it now. TBH, it annoys me a little the notion of "Modders will fix it" at this stage, we released the game 3 weeks ago. We are not abandoning the game AT ALL, we'll continue to support the game with updates and improvements, taking notes of all the criticism (especially the late game balance).

Since this comment was more or less aimed at me- I must respond here...

I said I liked your game and felt I got my moneys worth BUT it should have been moddable . My reasoning for this are many INCLUDING but not limited to fixing the things which should have been fixed before released. If "the notion that modders will fix it" bothers you- Try not releasing buggy ass games that require fixing.

There are still places where a double click to a door to lockpick crashes the fucking game... There are still many bugs. Game is gold and released and some of the bugs I have encountered were reported prior to this release.

..So get thicker skin or release games without a plethora of bugs.

Sorry, not trying to be a dick. I enjoy the game. But you released it this way and now it "bothers you" people are wishing it was moddable so things could be changed/fixed.

Still like the game but the attitude is kinda shitty imho. I thought what I said in my earlier post was both fair and kind...Maybe overly so.

 

[Starwars]

I think a shitty attitude would've been to release a buggy game and then abandon it, leaving the modders to fix it.

Maybe the game shouldn't have been this buggy. Maybe a lot of games shouldn't be this buggy. But it is released, rightly or wrongly. And of course the developer (unless we're talking about a huge, non-indie blob-like EA entity) who's spent a lot of time on the product would want to continue to iron out the bugs. Saying that they want to iron out the bugs themselves instead of having included modding to leave it to other people is not a shitty attitude. It's a good attitude addressing a shitty situation that maybe shouldn't have been in the first place.

Also, found the Codex location. Pretty realistic portrayal I think.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

I think a shitty attitude would've been to release a buggy game and then abandon it, leaving the modders to fix it.

Maybe the game shouldn't have been this buggy. Maybe a lot of games shouldn't be this buggy. But it is released, rightly or wrongly. And of course the developer (unless we're talking about a huge, non-indie blob-like EA entity) who's spent a lot of time on the product would want to continue to iron out the bugs. Saying that they want to iron out the bugs themselves instead of having included modding to leave it to other people is not a shitty attitude. It's a good attitude addressing a shitty situation that maybe shouldn't have been in the first place.

Also, found the Codex location. Pretty realistic portrayal I think.

..No,you confusing shitty Actions with Shitty Attitudes. the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

It would have been a shitty ACTION to release the game in its state and totally abandon it. Yes. But its a shitty attitude to release a buggy game and then say it "annoys you" that people wish it were moddable so it could be fixed timely.

In this case there is a mix of shitty action and shitty attitude. I was only covering the attitude aspect. It was a SHITTY action release a game with the sheer amount of known bugs which had been reported. It was a shitty attitude to then get "annoyed"by their supporters wishing it were moddable.

-Again, for the millionth time-I like the game. Hell, I would buy Dead State 2 if it were ever made. The bugs (as horrible as some of them are) I can deal with even though they were reported and known and the game was released ANYWAY (i.e. Shitty ACTION).

There was a point they decided to release the game knowing it was bugged as fuck. The fact they are "going to fix it" doesnt change the fact this is the buggiest RELEASED game I have probably ever played - Granted many of the games ive played that are known to be highly buggy ive played using COMMUNITY PATCHES which fix many of the issues. That would be nice here as well.

Take a game like Temple Of Elemental Evil... The CO8 modpack saved that game and made it not only playable-But fantastic imho and now there are even new modules to explore giving new lifeto the game- Releasing TOEE was a shitty Action in the state it released in but modders DID fix it.

At some point they knew the deadline for making this game was approaching and they decided to release without fixing the bugs. That is ACTION. The claim they havnt abandoned it and tbh I believe them but after releasing a game in the bugged state they did- How can they possibly be "annoyed" that people are clamoring for modders to fix it (since they have not...And released it anyhow...For money)? Thats the attitude part.

My point is,it s a shitty attitude to relesse a game in a broken state and then say it "annoys you" that people wish it was moddable.

 

[kris]

..No,you confusing shitty Actions with Shitty Attitudes. the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

It would have been a shitty ACTION to release the game in its state and totally abandon it. Yes. But its a shitty attitude to release a buggy game and then say it "annoys you" that people wish it were moddable so it could be fixed timely.

In this case there is a mix of shitty action and shitty attitude. I was only covering the attitude aspect. It was a SHITTY action release a game with the sheer amount of known bugs which had been reported. It was a shitty attitude to then get "annoyed"by their supporters wishing it were moddable.

I would say you would only be in the right on this one if modding had been promised. AFAIK it wasn't and it seldom is for a game. so you are asking for an extra feature that would take time from fixing the bugs so someone else can fix the bugs. you are not getting anywhere on that front and I don't see how saying that won't happen is a shitty attitude.

A dev talking about being annoyed on the other hand is something that should be avoided, regardless on whether it is justified or not. and I don't think you were a dick about it.

 

[Mexi]

Man, I don't know if it's the zombies (I love zombies) or that it reminds me a bit of Fallout, but I can't put this game down. I was definitely let down by the story and characters not being all that interactive, but I've done at least 2 playthroughs and 1 half playthrough. Something about this game keeps me coming back.

I have a glimmer of hope that the developers start fixing stuff, especially the game's balance. What I really want is for more shelter situations to be added and more character interaction. No one really responds to anything you do and it's really bad. The good side of this game is how easy it is to potentially mod new dialogue and shelter issues. Once the mod tools come out, I bet the mods will make this game better.

 

[Mr Fantastic]

So what's the update on the sales position of this game? How is it doing on the steam charts, and any more quotable gems from 'murderblonde' (luv this name btw) on her twitter feed/tumblr?

I take it Notch didn't tweet anything about this, now that he is a billionaire and doesn't need to pretend to be a SJW to gain acceptance in the indie crowd?

Infinitron

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Don't think it's been anywhere on the Steam charts since release, and I'm not sure it ever broke into the weekly Steam top 10s even at release. Guess I'll take a quick look at that.

Nope, Dead State didn't get in the weekly top 10 the first two weeks of release.

For December 1st-7th

1. Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Legendary Edition
3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
4. South Park: The Stick of Truth
5. The Crew
6. Alien: Isolation
7. Far Cry 4
8. Arma III
9. This War of Mine
10. Divinity: Original Sin

For December 8th-14th

1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
3. Dungeon Defenders II
4. Far Cry 4
5. Metro Redux
6. DayZ
7. Mount&Blade: Viking Conquest
8. The Crew
9. This War of Mine
10. Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series

And Dead State was released on December 4th.

 

[Jaesun]

People still play South Park: The Stick of Truth?

 

[Haba]

It was on sale.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Yeah, those weekly charts can get skewed if something goes wild during a sale. Heard the in-Steam charts are by revenue so I would assume that's what they base the weekly charts on too, so one big sale can push stuff around. I would assume that's why Skyrim showed up and then vanished too.

If you feel like checking it out, the source of the weekly top 10s is from here. http://store.steampowered.com/feeds/weeklytopsellers.xml For whatever reason they only plop it in there once a week, haven't seen it anywhere on the Steam page itself.
If you want some history for that since Valve doesn't save it, Blue's News posts it weekly. http://www.bluesnews.com/s/157876/steam-top-10 Just do a search for exact phrase "Steam top 10"

Edit: Durr, it even confirms it's based by revenue.

 

[Mr Fantastic]

The charts don't count revenue by in game transactions, so we don't know how much Gabe is milking by his Team Fortress and DOTA II transactions. Is Valve ever going to make a game for the sake of being a game, ever again, like Half Life, or is it always going to be a pure profit base enterprise that takes advantage of steam to monetize every second a player is in game?

Anyway, any chance of a codex interview with MurderBlonde to talk about Deadstate? There could be many lulz to be had.

Infinitron Crooked Bee JarlFrank Grunker

 

[Haba]

Andhaira, andhaira never changes.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I think there might also be a mechanicfags camp; those who only care about intriguing and smart game mechanics, be it combat, dialogue or whatever. I'm over the simplicity of combat in Dead State but still not over the pedestrian simplicity of the game's overall mechanics.

I am a self admitted mechanicsfag though that is not all that I care about. Peel away media/content and the game is ultimately mechanics to me.

That doesn't mean that a game can't have fantastic writing, art etc. which greatly deserve admiration and are important to enjoyment but in the end mechanics are critical.

Broken Record: IMO Ultima Underworld to this day is practically unrivaled in this respect, particularly when you consider how many firsts it introduced mechanics-wise.

 

[kris]

Thanks! Yeah, I agree with you that in some aspects we bite more than we could chew, but we'll be working on improving that

Hey Elhoim, could you put some light to what the plans are for DS right now? I mean further patches or anymore content? Will there be mod-tools at all?

I bought this, but am yet to play, I am hoping for a nice bug free experience and am very cynic about all game releases.