SERKET REVIEWS: PROJECT ZOM8OID 8y THE INDIE STONE For my first installment of reviews, I chose to start playing a game in Karkat’s li8rary that had 8arely seen even an hour of playtime. At time of writing, I’ve gone WELL over the two hour threshold for refunds. Hopefully Karkat doesn’t mind, 8ecause I can tell this is going to 8e a game that sucks me in! Instead of 8eing the typical d8ting sim, lifestyle sim, or occasional looter shooter that is common to his li8rary, this game is user-descri8ed as an open world survival sim. I chose to dive into it without much research, and ignored the multiplayer function to 8etter immerse myself in the survival mechanics. This was the o8vious correct choice. The game opens to a haunting screen of a man cradling his m8tesprit closely, clearly attempting to comfort her as she is 8andaged and injured in the splash art. There’s a swell of dramatic music, and then thunder claps, lightning flashes, and you see the gruesome truth of the scene revealed as an ela8or8te ruse!!!!!!!! The man is ACTUALLY tearing at the flesh of his lifeless partner, who has yet to rise in undeath to join him in eternal hunger. That is essentially the entire tone of this game. You may not realize it, looking at the cute trash-gru88er8east mascot, 8ut dreariness and loneliness are the main experience, 8eyond the dread of the undead hordes slowly closing in around you. Zom8oid is a game that promises to punish the slightest misstep, and such punishment can very quickly send you into a tailspin of utter desol8tion. My first attempt at the game (post the ro8ust and informative tutorial, of course) was thwarted 8y a 8roken window lock! Had I 8een a8le to pull open the window to make my escape, I likely would have lasted several more in-game days. As it was, I was forced to start over and try again, this time a touch more cautiously. The first area where real mistakes can 8e made are in the character cre8tor screen. There’s a ton of options for how to kneecap your character from the get go, ranging from things to challenge yourself with, and work around, such as 8eing underweight or hard of hearing, all the way to the truly formida8le illiteracy tr8t, which makes it completely impossi8le to 8oost level growth 8y reading skill manuals. If you choose to 8e illter8te, and don’t know how to oper8 generators, you’re shit out of luck when the power goes out! 8etter hope you like to camp!!!!!!!! Taking positive attri8utes su8tracts points from your character sheet, while taking negatives adds them 8ack. I think it is a very 8alanced system that challenges you to take weaknesses that you can grow your character out of, such as 8eing unfit, overweight, or overall weak. Practicing fitness routines while not escaping from zom8ie assaults will eventually pay off, as you gain muscle and agility, just like real life! Food and rest are also required, much like real life. The nutritional system is fairly ro8ust, 8ut pretty punishing, though it does do an incredi8le jo8 of accounting for physical exertion for food and sleep needs. Your character can also 8ecome 8ored, or even depressed, which means a variety of food and entertainment experiences (such as 8ooks or tv shows) are required to stave off the inner demons of the zom8iod apocalypse. It’s rare to see a survival simul8tion take into account the needs of the mind and soul as well as the needs of the 8ody! There’s also a very ela8or8te crafting system, including the possi8ility to craft your own hive from scratch, crafting weapons and gear, and repairing or cr8ting your very own clothing and armor to fend off the hordes with. Each of these systems dovetail together to make an awesomely in depth and challenging game that somehow doesn’t start to feel like an organiz8tion sim until you’ve 8een playing the same save for several nights str8! As for gameplay, there are myriads of options to customize and tailor the experience to your desires. If you’re more interested in a relaxed approach, may8e a focus on the ranching and farming portions of the gameplay loop would 8e more your speed. If you find yourself a god among zom8oid slayers, perhaps you’d prefer to try the challenge options? And, like I mentioned 8efore, there IS a solid multiplayer 8ase out there, though I haven’t personally delved into that area of play yet. All in all, a solid 8/10. There are still game 8r8king 8ugs to 8e found AAAAAAAAALL over the place, which is crazy for a game that’s 8een in development for 6.9 sweeps! That’s 15 years for you humans out there, 8tw. Appar8ntly someone even stole the hard drive that had the early game stored on it, forcing them to start over completely once. Crazy stuff! 8eyond a little 8it of gameplay jank, there’s not much I feel compelled to complain a8out with this title, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to play solo survival games with huge maps and challenging scenarios. https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/037caf4ea2c2.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/f9f16c7a888c.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/66acc553d388.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3aa94372518d.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/38c1d94ea15d.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/44618803912e.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/37287d796296.png https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/6da84e0e119a.png #serketreviews #nsfw #gore
