Introduction in to The Dead Linger.
URL - http://www.thedeadlinger.com/
Platform - Windows (Mac/Linux unofficially with WINE or alternatives)
Manufacturer - Sandswept Studios
Gameplay - Singleplayer/Multiplayer (LAN, Online)
A little bit of disclaimer: My first language is not English, so please excuse my grammar and/or stylistic mistakes. Please feel free to correct and/or comment on the next below. Thank you for understanding. Enjoy!
The Dead Linger (TDL) is a first person zombie apocalypse survival game in a early alpha stage. TDL aims to revive the zombie genre by making zombies the true enemy in their game. There are (or will be in the future) no special zombies. Zombies that are in game are varied by the amount of decomposition of their bodies - "fresh" zombies can run, "normal" zombies walk at medium speed and "decomposed" zombies that shamble at below average speed. In the future builds, however, it was discussed that zombies cut/blown/ripped in half will be crawling to it's prey. So you might add a "crawler" zombie to the list, but you will not see them in TDL right now. Killing a zombie only works if you destroy the brain - head-shot or a blunt force trauma to the head. Zombies can break down doors (in future, they will be able to smash and climb through windows), which makes it not safe to find yourself in a room with no windows or other exits. Zombies also have senses. They can see/hear/smell/touch/ or taste (a rather unpleasant situation) you. In the latest build (007) zombie meshes were re-worked - making them look much better, comparing to previous builds.
TDL features a randomly (procedurally) generated world, as opposed to static maps. While it is not fine-tuned to perfection, developers are working non-stop on making the generation as close to real life world as possible. There are different biomes in alpha so far, ranging from grasslands to forests, with suburbs being the most populated by the undead right now. In future however, there will be towns and cities overrun by zombies for players to travel in and get that gear they always wanted.
For now, all the troubles for players are zombies and hunger. Later builds will bring the possibility to get infected by the virus and NON-Friendly survivors (PC and NPC) that will show aggression towards players.
You can find food and weapons in housing estates. Plenty of melee weapons to choose from - ranging from Japanese katana to a frying pan or discipline paddle. Clothing and other gear can be equipped, but for now offer no protection or other benefits. Clothing does not appear visually for other player, so there is no real purpose to wear it right now. All subject to change in future builds.
In alpha, the game continues for as long as you want (or until it crashes), with death being a minor setback of you waiting ten seconds to re-spawn mere meters away from where you met your demise. In Multiplayer other players can kill you, but right now they gain absolutely nothing from it (further in development you will drop all your inventory content on character death), but rather to annoy you. Later builds will feature a Hardcore game mode, which will have permadeath (once your character is dead - all his data is deleted, forcing you to start a new character). Developers stated that they intend to make zombies a serious and deadly threat, so players would co-operate with each other, rather than participating in PvP griefing.
Inventory space is defined by a backpack you are carrying. Player start off with just clothing, have only pockets to store their gear in. TDL features 'diablo-style' grid based inventory, making it convenient and familiar to people who played the game. Newcomers will not find it difficult to get used to it.
Inventory saves are on per-server basis, rather than per-character. So leaving a server and re-joining it later on, players will have all the gear and items from previous play-through.
The latest (007) installment brought a world generation overhaul introducing a new building type - prison. In alpha there are not that many buildings so far: house, prison, grocery store, barn and water tower/grain silo (both of them are not really buildings). The 008 update is rumored to have few new buildings and overhaul for the old ones. One of the main advantages of TDL is that players can enter all the buildings they see and can got to all the locations visible to them, making it a truly unique experience. Day/Night cycles are a great addition to the game, making the night time full of suspense and horror.
Music is also really good in TDL and it is worth to mention that atmosphere would not be the same without it.
And now for shortcomings of being a game in ALPHA stage.
First thing you will notice loading up the game are zombies, and well, they all look the same for now. For me personally it is less than nothing, since I helped Kickstart the game and am fully aware how ALPHAS go. Said zombies also have iffy path-finding system/AI, which will result in twenty zombies chasing you down the street, only to be stopped by tiny steps that lead to the door. Second thing you will notice are bugs. Bugs are actually expected from any game (no matter how polished it is), but some of the bugs in ALPHA were game breaking. SandSwept are working really hard to find those bugs and fix them. The TDL community plays a large role in this bug hunt. So far, 007 brought no game breaking bugs for me. People seem to have sound issues, but I myself did not notice anything (that was not in prior builds). Worst thing in ALPHA is latency issue in Multiplayer. To play a game with little to no lag you will either have to host the said game or join a game from your world region. EU vs. US or AU or CN or XX does not work well (but same happens even in full fledged and polished games). Frames drops are to be expected when entering a largely populated area or when world is loading a segment (but these drops are only for a second or two - noticeable, but not a big issue). There is art in TDL right now that is used only as a placeholder for the future, so some of the props are not that good visually.
Last thing I want to mention is the community of TDL. Starting from developers that are great at communicating with customers, ending with simple forum lurkers who follow the game eagerly, waiting for "that" update so they can purchase the game and enjoy it. There are a lot of hot debates going on, sometimes getting a bit out of hand, sometimes with dreams for a feature shattered, but sometimes with a word from developers, praising the ideas. TDL developers said they will be accepting user created content to put it in the game, later down the road. Many great models/survivor diaries/music and general art was made by the active members of the community. You can meet the them all here. [http://www.sandswept.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=12]
In conclusion I would like to thank you for reading this and remind people that are interested in the game, they can purchase ALPHA ACCESS (far from finished and polished game) from this page [http://www.thedeadlinger.com/iwanttolinger] and let me be the first one to welcome you to outstanding TDL community.
Additional information can be found here. [http://www.thedeadlinger.com/info]
