Dead State is one of those projects that you don't really get to see enough of, in my opinion; a hardcore survival game with a serious storytelling focus and a good balance of combat and character management. It is competently put together by a team that obviously knew what they needed to do in order to craft an immersive, decently challenging experience.
However, Dead State isn't without problems. The first and most glaring problem is the lack of truly interactive storytelling. Dialogue is really sparse and occurs only on very specific occasions; either in your shelter just after your character wakes up, or when you (very rarely) encounter another non-hostile survivor our in the field. The game's narrative is good, but you experience it in such a narrowly-defined fashion that it doesn't really have much emotional impact.
A second issue in Dead Stare is the combat. The A.I is brain-dead, and this doesn't just refer to the zombies. Hostile survivors will gleefully fire guns at every opportunity, attracting vast hordes that kill them more often than they do the player. A.I scripting in general is extremely basic, with nary a hint of innovation or clever tactics - just 'target nearest/least armored survivor and blast/hammer/slash away'. This is pretty disappointing.
A final issue I have relates back to my initial point regarding the game's storytelling. NPC's are well-characterized, but there are virtually no opportunities to interact with them. You can't carry out a decent conversation with anyone, and the default shelter dialogue options literally never change unless influenced by a choice you made in a special event. It just. feels. stiff.
The good news is that apart from the aforementioned issues, Dead State is pretty damn good - if fairly easy. It kept me rabidly playing until I'd exhausted all the content, which is fairly rare for games like this. The shelter and time management elements of the game are well-implemented, and the feeling of progressing from a gaggle of desperate refugees to a band of veteran survivors is both appropriately hard-earned and quite fulfilling. The game looks fairly nice, too, with lovely character art and an appropriate balance of style and graphical fidelity.
In conclusion, Dead State is worth the effort, but lacks the true polish and story focus to be considered a masterpiece.
VideoGame Yeah, it's pretty good.
Dead State is one of those projects that you don't really get to see enough of, in my opinion; a hardcore survival game with a serious storytelling focus and a good balance of combat and character management. It is competently put together by a team that obviously knew what they needed to do in order to craft an immersive, decently challenging experience.
However, Dead State isn't without problems. The first and most glaring problem is the lack of truly interactive storytelling. Dialogue is really sparse and occurs only on very specific occasions; either in your shelter just after your character wakes up, or when you (very rarely) encounter another non-hostile survivor our in the field. The game's narrative is good, but you experience it in such a narrowly-defined fashion that it doesn't really have much emotional impact.
A second issue in Dead Stare is the combat. The A.I is brain-dead, and this doesn't just refer to the zombies. Hostile survivors will gleefully fire guns at every opportunity, attracting vast hordes that kill them more often than they do the player. A.I scripting in general is extremely basic, with nary a hint of innovation or clever tactics - just 'target nearest/least armored survivor and blast/hammer/slash away'. This is pretty disappointing.
A final issue I have relates back to my initial point regarding the game's storytelling. NPC's are well-characterized, but there are virtually no opportunities to interact with them. You can't carry out a decent conversation with anyone, and the default shelter dialogue options literally never change unless influenced by a choice you made in a special event. It just. feels. stiff.
The good news is that apart from the aforementioned issues, Dead State is pretty damn good - if fairly easy. It kept me rabidly playing until I'd exhausted all the content, which is fairly rare for games like this. The shelter and time management elements of the game are well-implemented, and the feeling of progressing from a gaggle of desperate refugees to a band of veteran survivors is both appropriately hard-earned and quite fulfilling. The game looks fairly nice, too, with lovely character art and an appropriate balance of style and graphical fidelity.
In conclusion, Dead State is worth the effort, but lacks the true polish and story focus to be considered a masterpiece.