Dr Jones said:
As many say, the zombie thing is soon getting old. I just want an open world zombie game about SURVIVING. Not where you run around gunning down every single foe. Sorta like the game Dead Island's trailer made it look like..
This.
This is fucking it.
All hail this.
This.
Short answer: This.
Long answer: THHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Really, almost all of the "zombie games released are shooters, or hack 'n' slash. Now, that may sound incredibly stupid, but think about this.
Project Zomboid.
That is a tough as fuck game, with NO WAY to win. It is the story of your death. It is about trying to survive with real life challenges, in a Zombie world, with food, water, sanity, depression, everything. Yeah, you can barricade yourself inside of a home, block the stairs and hide in your room for months, but think about it. Do you have enough food? Medicine? Things to do? Will you go insane? What happens when the water plants stop working?
The zombies in the game are slow but the numbers are massive. You can never know if that one, lone zombie spotted you and slowly shuffled to your safe house. You can never know if that one shotgun bullet was heard by ten or ten thousand zombies.
And one scratch can kill you. It might not always, but a single scratch MAY infect you, whilst a bite WILL infect you. Then you live out your days. You can even catch a common cold.
The thing is, all zombie games over look this. Well, most. Think about Left 4 Dead. It is a great game, no doubt. But to me, it is not a zombie game. At least, not a full one.
Because, you could replace the enemies with say, rioting people, the clones from Killing Floor, a horde of giant flies that have to walk, a group of huge dogs, a lot of things, and it will still play the same.
All the same, it is fun. And I like it. I might say I love it. But I have been so fed up with the amount of "zombie" games that don't think about the actual threat of "Surviving". I'll quote Yahtzee here (If I remember rightly):
"Survival horror combat is supposed to be hectic panicky and often not worth it. If I'm not dreading every single encounter then it's not horror is it? Its just setting up an unpaid pest control business."
This is what I mean. I really love zombie games which deal with SURVIVING, not with MURDER-CRAZY-MACHINE-GUN-KILL-FEST.
I even took it upon myself to make a whole series of open ended zombie missions in ArmA 2, and all of them are SURVIVAL, with the whole idea being finding food, water, safe houses, survivors.
To sum it up, what I am trying to say is that the "Zombie" idea is dried up because some developers decide to make a shooter (or hack 'n' slash etc.) and just slap zombies in because people will buy it. Like I said, many of the Zombie games enemies could be replaced by raging clowns with rabies.
And I am still waiting for the day that some developer (apart from Indie Stone) will realize this and make a true zombie game.
ALSO, for people wondering, Project Zomboid is in Alpha stages ATM and is being updated Minecraft style. It is very fun ATM but there are many planned features, like co-op, NPC survivors, events happen over time (like power plant failing, military rolling in etc.), more guns, bigger maps, more cities and more.
ALSO x2, the thing I can't wait for (apart from co-op) is NPC survivors, as they are planned to act like a real person. Let's say, some 10 year old keeps leaving the safe house door open, and the 16 year old hates his guts, so when they go on a "looting" missions, he brains the kid and returns with tales of courage. Or if some older person was a great cook, but make lots of noise, how would you deal with it?
Make a show and execute him in front of the whole team, showing them that's what happens when you put the team in danger. Talk to him, try to convince him to stay quiet. Kick him out, risking him getting revenge. Kill him out on a "looting" mission, therefore dealing with a lot of previous problems, but maybe raising some suspicion.
But notice, choice is the big thing here, as for me, whilst not every game is improved by sandbox, almost all zombie games are.
And before anyone replies.
THIS IS MY OPINION!
EDIT:
GrizzlerBorno said:
I SO hope they get the survival part of survival horror right this time. Dead Island was such a disappointment. Anyway not getting my hopes up too high because, I mean I don't even have a PS3.
Again, this.
Survival.
Not Sir Bulletshooter Bucksecks Blower Boomer Bomber Bigger the Third.
EDIT EDIT:
Also, Minecraft comes VERY close to a true zombie game, with the hunger now, but the problem is that you have to premake the maps and set a lot of rules.
It's no fun when you can build a three block high tower of dirt and live, or when you can mine some stone and within a minute have enough swords to supply an army.
But still, there are some GREAT zombie survival maps. Horizon city is one of my favorites.
Crazycat690 said:
There's not enough zombie games until someone gets it right.
Again, this.
This is my main message, in that the whole "zombie" idea won't dry up until someone makes what a lot of zombie fans want.
And of course, until then, developers will keep sticking zombies in, and people will keep buying because they hope that this new game might be the answer to their prayers to the Gaming Lord, holy be thy console, blessed by thine PC and thousands may be thy hats.
Gamen!
