KickStarter Dead State: Reanimated

[Tacgnol]

I liked the game but it gets real retarded towards the middle mainly due to the painfully slow walking speed of the enemies. In one hospital level I had to wait full 8 minutes for enemy turns to complete. I ragequit at that point

If it's the one i remember, there was something like 50-100 zombies on the map, clearing the ones outside first and then going room by room took forever but i guess alerting too many at once is even worse.
Good game but i quit by late mid-game as well, thinking i'd finish the run (didn't uninstall it) and never came back.

It doesn't need much to improve but it really needs it (less zombies but more lethal, more zombies types, a lot of NPC outside the base).

Before the reanimated patch it was a lot easier to sneak up and stealth zombies. It made clearing them more methodical and cut down on the annoying overlong combat turns.

After the reanimated patch zombies seem to aggro from much further and you can't reliably stealth them anymore.

 

[Darth Canoli]

After the reanimated patch zombies seem to aggro from much further and you can't reliably stealth them anymore.

You can use the stealth tactics attacking them from behind even with the reanimated version, which i played.
At least outside.

Of course, it's more difficult the more zombies are on the map.
And it was even more difficult on the hospital map because of all the tents outside the hospital, with two entrances and zombies watching most doors ready to ambush you.

 

[Grunker]

I liked the game but it gets real retarded towards the middle mainly due to the painfully slow walking speed of the enemies. In one hospital level I had to wait full 8 minutes for enemy turns to complete. I ragequit at that point

If it's the one i remember, there was something like 50-100 zombies on the map, clearing the ones outside first and then going room by room took forever but i guess alerting too many at once is even worse.
Good game but i quit by late mid-game as well, thinking i'd finish the run (didn't uninstall it) and never came back.

It doesn't need much to improve but it really needs it (less zombies but more lethal, more zombies types, a lot of NPC outside the base).

Before the reanimated patch it was a lot easier to sneak up and stealth zombies. It made clearing them more methodical and cut down on the annoying overlong combat turns.

After the reanimated patch zombies seem to aggro from much further and you can't reliably stealth them anymore.

I played on ironman, so one fuck-up and it was game on. Besides, the game has combat, so it should be able to handle it. How little do you have to play your own game to miss how slow the turns are? I mean 8 minutes - no game can compete with that, not even Wiz8 without WizFast.

 

[Tacgnol]

After the reanimated patch zombies seem to aggro from much further and you can't reliably stealth them anymore.

You can use the stealth tactics attacking them from behind even with the reanimated version, which i played.
At least outside.

Of course, it's more difficult the more zombies are on the map.
And it was even more difficult on the hospital map because of all the tents outside the hospital, with two entrances and zombies watching most doors ready to ambush you.

Maybe they changed it a bit since I last played. My memory of the pre-reanimated version was that sneaking up on zombies and killing them from behind was really easy, with reanimated they seemed to aggro a lot easier.

I played on ironman, so one fuck-up and it was game on. Besides, the game has combat, so it should be able to handle it. How little do you have to play your own game to miss how slow the turns are? I mean 8 minutes - no game can compete with that, not even Wiz8 without WizFast.

Crazy thing was they improved the turn times a lot in reanimated and the turns still took forever.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Maybe they changed it a bit since I last played. My memory of the pre-reanimated version was that sneaking up on zombies and killing them from behind was really easy, with reanimated they seemed to aggro a lot easier.

If i remember correctly, you had to lead with your high AGI/STR guy, get 4 tiles away from behind, start combat and bash their skull in with a baseball bat (and later the aluminum baseball bat) with a single swing.

Quite repetitive but usually, it didn't spook the surrounding zombies.

 

[Grunker]

Tacgnol I think I might have played reanimated, actually, lol.

 

[Tacgnol]

Maybe they changed it a bit since I last played. My memory of the pre-reanimated version was that sneaking up on zombies and killing them from behind was really easy, with reanimated they seemed to aggro a lot easier.

If i remember correctly, you had to lead with your high AGI/STR guy, get 4 tiles away from behind, start combat and bash their skull in with a baseball bat (and later the aluminum baseball bat) with a single swing.

Quite repetitive but usually, it didn't spook the surrounding zombies.

Maybe that's what they changed, I seem to remember being able to do that without initiating combat before remastered. Again, might just be my faulty memory though.

 

[Grunker]

I mean, tbf it does look like they just ran out of time and money. The basic idea of the game - even the baseline execution - is so good, it's a wonder no one else has done it. This War of Mine actually comes very close but it is too superficial mechanically to compete with Dead State's vision.

 

[Tacgnol]

Tacgnol I think I might have played reanimated, actually, lol.

If it took 8 mins in remastered it probably would have taken double that in the base game.

I ragequit the base game in the shopping mall area once cos the zombies were taking about 20 minutes a turn.

As you say, how the fuck do you design a game based around turn based combat with hordes and not get the turn speed down?

 

[lightbane]

Yeah it (unintentionally) becomes a simulator for severe depression about half way through the day count. You just wake up each day and immediately go back to bed because there’s barely any content left to engage with.

Don't forget everyone bitching at you for saving their miserable lives and never being happy no matter what, or the slow, repetitive music of the school driving you insane(r).

I liked the game but it gets real retarded towards the middle mainly due to the painfully slow walking speed of the enemies. In one hospital level I had to wait full 8 minutes for enemy turns to complete. I ragequit at that point

It didn't help that zombies couldn't attack you from diagonals so zombies always had to surround you in formations of 4, which slowed things a lot and made things awkward. Meanwhile, dogs were able to attack diagonally and thus mob you way more easily.
Funnily enough the only exception is triggering zombies by sound, moment in which they'll walk to the last tile the source came from, happily walking past your guys and letting you hit them from behind.

You can use the stealth tactics attacking them from behind even with the reanimated version, which i played.
At least outside.

Nope! With the patch, the moment you're close to a zombie, combat immediately starts with the zombie attacking you, turning around to hit you regardless of how slowly you moved. That broke the tutorial since sneaking upon zombies is no longer possible and the text was never changed. Worse, human enemies had their visual sight improved and were capable of spotting you and acting even before you could see them in the damn map.
Moreover, way too many doors are locked and no-one of your guys have good lockpicking skills, forcing a very specific MC build if you don't want to bash every damn door and attract zombies.

It also tried to make morality a thing, but most people were either cartoonishly evil, or too dumb to live. Or they're randomly killed for no reason in one case.

 

[4249]

Finally finished this pos... ~37 hours out of which some is for fiddling around with the endings.

Spoiler

First I was going for asking help from the military, but didn't really get any hints where to find the guy. Or I was too retarded/pissed of to read properly, I was mostly skipping stuff anyhow at that point. Then I just rested until the 100th fucking day and everyone died. Pissed off I went back to a save from day 77 and did the bus ending. My PC was a melee guy and felt utterly useless in the fight, other than throwing a shit ton of grenades. Also afaik no hints were given about who's gonna be involved in the second part so I did not bother equipping them. Fuck this game.

Best advice I can give about the game is to just quit around 15-20 hours. Everything past that is a tedious slog. And the endings don't seem to really be worth it, there was a fight and a single ending slide, wooptie-fucking-doo. I have no intention to ever touch this shit again.

 

[Sotomonte]

I personally don't consider this game a bad game (I started playing with the reanimated version). I like the mechanics of, when you meet a group of looters / bikers, make some noise, wait for zombies to start arriving and let them kill each other.

It is true that cleaning large areas of zombies (such as hospitals) can be somewhat tedious, but when you get good armor and weapons things go faster.

It would also have been nice to have more improvements for the shelter to not have it complete after a few hours of play. Something like improvements to the watchtower that allow more guards, improvements in the generator to spend less fuel (and be able to use it to get more ammunition), improvements to the plantations (in my base more than a hundred food was consumed per turn since I have it full of people ... I suppose that having a character with full negotiation and leadership allowed me to keep all the PCs), improvements such as workwrechs that allow you to build things for fewer materials or recycle them to get more materials, etc.

 

[Mexi]

I personally don't consider this game a bad game (I started playing with the reanimated version). I like the mechanics of, when you meet a group of looters / bikers, make some noise, wait for zombies to start arriving and let them kill each other.

It is true that cleaning large areas of zombies (such as hospitals) can be somewhat tedious, but when you get good armor and weapons things go faster.

It would also have been nice to have more improvements for the shelter to not have it complete after a few hours of play. Something like improvements to the watchtower that allow more guards, improvements in the generator to spend less fuel (and be able to use it to get more ammunition), improvements to the plantations (in my base more than a hundred food was consumed per turn since I have it full of people ... I suppose that having a character with full negotiation and leadership allowed me to keep all the PCs), improvements such as workwrechs that allow you to build things for fewer materials or recycle them to get more materials, etc.

What's the point of improvements if there is no base-defense built in?

Their problems were several, but one of the highest is the fact that you never do anything in-shelter. Also, I can't believe how few the shelter dialogues are. It would've been cool had they put in a base-guarding scenario that comes up either randomly or scripted. If your shelter gets attacked, you play with the people you put up for guard duty. The people resting are the ones that loot. Kind of like how This War of Mine does it.

Would've been a lot better if they allowed for more shelter dialogue instead of having to talk about the same shit over and over. Also, there are very few fucking shelter scenarios. Just as has been parroted, there is nothing to fucking do when you get midway into the game.

 

[Old One]

The game would improve a lot if the zombies simply roved around at random instead of standing still all the time.

 

[Darth Canoli]

It would be unplayable on some crowded maps.

 

[DarKPenguiN]

It would be unplayable on some crowded maps.

Already is

 

[c u in da ballpit ashren]

Years later and I'm convinced that not only was this one of the biggest wastes of potential known in all of gaming, but that the fact that this game was using the Torque3D engine is likely what drove off any updates or hope of modkits for it. It's really a fucking shame.

I've started my once in a blue moon replay of Dead State hoping this time around I get to finishing it and do a video review. Can't stop wondering over what could have been and why nobody has bothered doing something like this again. I don't count Urban Strife because that's just Jagged Alliance with zombies.

 

[agris]

I just wonder how the game got through development and release without anyone ever telling their portrait artist that everyone looks the same

 

[PanteraNera]

I just wonder how the game got through development and release without anyone ever telling their portrait artist that everyone looks the same

Because, indie, no money, please be supportive?
As far as I can remember they ignored pretty much all the critic they got on their official forums. Also they had more than enough devoted fans who would white knight for them.

 

[agris]

I liked the game quite a lot, I think it's a good zombie RPG. Yet, the portraits are hilariously bad.

These two things can both be true.

 

[Old One]

Years later and I'm convinced that not only was this one of the biggest wastes of potential known in all of gaming, but that the fact that this game was using the Torque3D engine is likely what drove off any updates or hope of modkits for it.

I somewhat enjoyed the game, but you're right - it could easily have been so, so much better.

 

[Lokiamis]

Can't stop wondering over what could have been and why nobody has bothered doing something like this again. I don't count Urban Strife because that's just Jagged Alliance with zombies.

What, besides the ballistics system, makes Urban Strife so different? I thought it was also going to be centered around managing supplies, your base, and survivor drama inbetween heading out to scavenge different areas much like Dead State.

 

[c u in da ballpit ashren]

Can't stop wondering over what could have been and why nobody has bothered doing something like this again. I don't count Urban Strife because that's just Jagged Alliance with zombies.

What, besides the ballistics system, makes Urban Strife so different? I thought it was also going to be centered around managing supplies, your base, and survivor drama inbetween heading out to scavenge different areas much like Dead State.

I have yet to see survivor drama in any of the videos I've looked for on Urban Strife.

Dead State takes place in a setting close to what you'd imagine any disaster zone being like, that's cut off from the rest of the world. Brian Mitsoda used some of his experience on 1992's hurricane Andrew on designing that setting, so as a result, not only do you have a story that takes place in the very beginning stages of martial law where looters still bother to conceal their identity, but the atmosphere matches what you'd imagine a very desperate, lonely, dark, confusing situation to be. Urban Strife seems to take place way beyond when the apocalypse is already settled and the bittersweet melancholy is irrelevant so the setting is more generic beat up apocalyptic urban ruins.

Urban Strife appears to have base building over Dead State, but the latter had the gameplay loop of who to send to take time to do so, and why. As a result you were always forced to considered whether somebody's better off with you hunting down supplies, or if their skills makes them invaluable to making a chicken coop or something, which can clearly change if you fuck up in any other aspects like your best boys get killed and now you need the fragile twink and his caretaker to go with you.

My understanding is that Urban Strife only has three factions with minimal interaction planned for, nothing like survivors from said factions running to your doorstep and asking for help, putting your shelter at risk, or crisis events where you and every other sub leader that people trust to get their word in with you to have intense meetings designed at hearing everyone out night of the living dead style.

I could be totally wrong about Urban Strife not having any of that but I also certainly welcome it.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

It's been a long time since I played Dead State (completed ReAnimated one time only at launch), and I overall liked it (probably 6.5/10), but from what I remember it suffered from three cardinal sins:

1) Technical issues. Enemy turns could sometimes take minutes to complete, and that was after multiple patches that (allegedly) reduced the time. For a game as fugly as Dead State there is no excuse for that.

2) Combat/encounter design and itemization were pretty purely linear progressions. No real meaningful decisions to make when equipping characters or deciding combat tactics; there's always a "best" option.

3) No end-game content. I can't remember at what point exactly it happened, but I think it was somewhere around Day 50 (our of 80ish?) that I ran out of content and would just immediately go to bed upon waking up because I had already fully explored the map and there was nothing else to do except wait for the scripted sequences. Just really embarrassingly retarded, and a clear result of either no play-testing or solely play-testing with game journos.

I also remember reading here that the game has a surprising amount of C&C, but is very bad at telegraphing it and as a results players often complain about being rail-roaded. Like I said I only played it once, but I find that interesting if true.

 

[c u in da ballpit ashren]

It's been a long time since I played Dead State (completed ReAnimated one time only at launch), and I overall liked it (probably 6.5/10), but from what I remember it suffered from three cardinal sins:

1) Technical issues. Enemy turns could sometimes take minutes to complete, and that was after multiple patches that (allegedly) reduced the time. For a game as fugly as Dead State there is no excuse for that.

2) Combat/encounter design and itemization were pretty purely linear progressions. No real meaningful decisions to make when equipping characters or deciding combat tactics; there's always a "best" option.

3) No end-game content. I can't remember at what point exactly it happened, but I think it was somewhere around Day 50 (our of 80ish?) that I ran out of content and would just immediately go to bed upon waking up because I had already fully explored the map and there was nothing else to do except wait for the scripted sequences. Just really embarrassingly retarded, and a clear result of either no play-testing or solely play-testing with game journos.

I also remember reading here that the game has a surprising amount of C&C, but is very bad at telegraphing it and as a results players often complain about being rail-roaded. Like I said I only played it once, but I find that interesting if true.

Can confirm all of this. That's why I say this game truly is the posterchild of why you shouldn't give up in hard times, when you've got something with amazing potential going strong. Mitsoda worked on this since 2009 and his worst mistake was what I said, plus the fact that he was using a garbage engine to do all this in, with soaring ambition. I'm extremely impressed by the amount of choice and consequence this game has, and if he had built upon the combat system to be less barebones, given it more content, iron out the bugs, it could have been stellar.