Recent reviews by [#2] Banditten

feels more like work than work

Great roguelike game. Very similar to Halls of Torment with a hint of Hades mixed into it :)

There isn't too much content at the moment, but hopefully there's more to come.

PSA: Restart your PC after you close the game. It doesn't close properly. Luckily my refund came through anyway, but I managed to accumulate 15 hours while the game was "Stopping".

I bought the game to try it because I don't want to be influenced by bad review bombs. Main menu and character creation gives off good vibes imo, and made me just a tiny bit excited.

The Dayt Before had the potential, but they flopped it by releasing a paid access to basically an alpha.

Amazing puzzle concept that bites you in the ass if you don't plan ahead; it really makes you overthink. Sadly, the map and building variations aren't big enough, and it quickly becomes a bit repetitive.

Graphics are great and the gameplay is smooth, but there is not a lot to it - I guess KISS can really be applied here.

Took me 2½ hours to get 24/26 achievements, so for a completionist this game is quick to get to 100%.

If you expect epic tank battles and battles alike: Don't buy this game. After a few minutes in the game I was alerady bored by the mediocre graphics and animations. Controls feel a bit clunky and movement-speed of units seem way off. Since when are infrantry crawling faster than a Panzer IV? Another thing I disliked was the limitations to the parts of the battlefield that you were able to see.

To mention something good: Tanks actually have ammunition and once you run dry of ammo you'll need to order a halftrack to come fill you up.

Would I recommend this game? A clear NO.

This review is purely based on my opinions and my experience with the game. The review also contains slight spoilers, so if you don't like that then get away ;-)

H1Z1 is a zombie-survival MMO set in a time which seems to be around where we are now. Even though the early access alpha has only just been released, it seems to have massive potential. There are bugs, but that's what you get in an early access game. Anyone crying about it should... Yeah.

There is a lot of good stuff about this game, and considering the recent release, there is a lot of gameplay to it already. The start is actually pretty hard for newcomers. Just like with Rust, DayZ etc., you need to figure out controls, inventory, crafting and most importantly (Probably mostly for Rust), you need to find your way around.

I will list some pros and cons and elaborate what needs to be elaborated.

Pros
The pros are mainly about the gameplay itself, as Sony has done a pretty good job

• Overall nice feeling of that the game is playable and is developing.
  
  
• Exploration value - You need to explore to find stuff and find different types of structures and areas.
  
  
• Ambient sounds - I can't emphasis this enough. Going into a church in the dark, with a stranger and two flashlights, and you can hear the owls in the distance - that makes it just a tad scary, which is good.
  
  
• Music - The music only adds to the scaring-effect. It's not pleasant in the dark.
  
  
• Zombie armies - You better get out of your house if zombies get in. Stay too long and you will be flooded with zombies.
  
  
• Crafting - the crafting part is designed in a way so that you have to discover everything before you can craft it. You have 4 boxes in which you can put in parts to see if they match. You will be assisted though. If you put in a Wooden Stick, it will highlight the Scrap of Cloth, showing that you can combine those two. After that, you will know the recipe for a bow.
  
  
• Navigation - It's not that you don't have a map like in Rust - you have that, but it's stationary. Maps are located on posts in most towns, and each map shows a square of the complete map, and then a red arrow with your position. This doesn't give you the feel of being completely lost, but it's not easy to find your way around, and who doesn't like a challenge?
  
  
• Details - From a flare being able to light a fire to missing car parts. It not something you see in every game, and I know there will be more of these details.
  
  
• The game is generally beautiful and the lightning and shadows are really great.
  
  
• In-game voice - The first thing I noticed (after seeing the graphics, shadows etc.) was the quality of the in-game voice system. The quality is really astounding compared to many other games that I have played (This requires a bit of tweaking though. Setting Talk Volume to ~50 should give a really clear voice to other players.)
  
  
• Rarity of items - Generally loot is very rare in H1Z1 at the moment, such as weapons and tools, so most people only have a bow and maybe a homemade hatchet. This gives longevity to the game, as everyone wants a gun, but it takes time. (I will also include this in the cons, as there are some downsides to it)

Cons

• Queue position and estimated wait time (EWT) - This really pisses me off, as I hate waiting for players to disconnect and the EWT is quite inaccurate (which is sorta expected as 100 people could disconnect immediately). I'd much rather have a "xx/yy players online"-section in the server browser, and then be able to sort by players.
  
  
• Station Cash and pay-2-win - Now, don't get me wrong here. People have been complaining a lot, saying that the game is pay-2-win because you can buy yourself an airdrop, and then get a gun. However, it's bugged, and unless you are 2-4 people, you won't get the airdrop straight away. The drop is filled with zombies that will try to kill you. And then there are the other players who will see the smoke beacon from miles away. But on the other hand, the Airdrop Tickets should be purchasable for some in-game currency and not this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Station Cash. Microtransactions are for F2P-games. We already paid $20-$40 for the game.
  
  
• Slightly bad optimization - I have, what I think is an amazing rig for gaming. Sitting on a GTX 970 from MSi and an i5-4670 3.4GHz and 16 gigs of RAM, you'd expect to be able to run everything (Except ARMA), yet I have trouble with playing on higher settings than high - and I am still getting FPS lower than 60. This is of course expected, but it is worth mentioning.
  
  
• Physics are kinda sloppy in the game at the moment. If you kill a person on a slightly steep hill, he will rolled 200ft to the bottom and another 100ft down a flat field. That's a long way to run just to loot. This also counts for animals.
  
  
• Buggy houses with misplaced furniture.
  
  
• Too much berry collecting. Currently Blackberries give 2% to hydration and energy which means that you have to eat them constantly. I'd much rather see something like 5% and then decrease the amount of blackberrybushes. Stopping to right-click into left-click 15 times to regenerate 30% energy/hydration is a pain in the ass. (This could also be solved with an "Eat all"-button.)
  
  
• Rarity of loot - As I stated in the pros, the rarity is a good thing, as you don't want everyone to be running around with an AR-15 and an M1911 when they're only played for 1 hour. However, this rarity is also applied to the more common stuff (or what should be common). You can end up running for 30 minutes with your branch and berries, beating zombies down and not get a single piece of cloth (to make your bow). It can be very tough.

My answer is: Yes!

The hype has been really big for this game, and in my opinion Sony has delivered a decent piece of work, that is easily playable. However, people have been complaining a lot (mainly on launch date due to servers being down, but also about the airdrops), but those things are in my opinion quite minor.

The game is good looking, people are friendly and talkative, you can go out into the wilderness and pick your berries, sticks, branches and go chop down a tree when you have an axe. Everything you'd expect from a survival game. When you progress further into the game you will even be able to build camps and bases.

A thing to remember is that the game is full of bugs, and will be for a long time until its beta is released, and you might have issues with playing the game if you have a lower end PC.

All in all the game has great values.


The verdict: 8/10



Update January 18th 2015
Thanks to the new patch that landed some time yesterday (January 17th), the zombies are now more dangerous. Atleast they'll follow you around now and won't just stand idle, looking at you.

This update is also to give my thoughts on the big subject that has been going around since release, and that is regarding the airdrops, and the people claiming it to be pay-2-win. The recent update that also improved the zombie AI, also gave a nerf to the loot that are in the airdrops. A friend and I chose to call in 3 airdrops, and we got 3 crates:

The Lone Wolf

• 1x M1911A1
  
• 21x .45 ammo
  
• 2x Wood Log
  
• And some other random common stuff that I don't remember.

The Medic

• 2x First Aid Kit
  
• 5x Bandage
  
• 6x Scrap of Cloth

The Farmer

• 10x Fertilizer
  
• 10x Corn Seeds
  
• 10x Wheat Seeds
  
• 2x Barbed Wire
  
• 1x Landmine

That seems to be a great nerf to me. The very first airdrop we called in, two days ago contained an AR-15 and tons of backpacks, ammo and med kits.