ChienAboyeur
SasqWatch
- Joined
- March 29, 2011
- Messages
- 6,265
Being two months without playing a video game could not explain how bad I found the demo of this game.
It had another explanation that was obvious: I have a reference point to compare Dead State with.
For now one year and half, with a group composed with 3-4 core players plus 4-5 occasional players, I have been participating to a tabletop game campaign whose gameplay and settings are very close to Dead State.
That explains why I found Dead State to be so weak.
So, in order to better understand what was going on, I decided to play thoroughly the Dead State demo, giving it three full walkthroughs(3 by seven ingame days). Players known as the investors will tell that I've already recouped more than the basic investment of $25 demo price (less than one dollar per ingame days but this is another story.
Dead State is on purpose an old school type of game so it gives an opportunity to compare two different types of game: video games and tabletop games.
Each of them has their strong point. For example, it is useless to expect from a video game the depth and wealth in story you can get in a tabletop game campaign as the story is written as the human players play the game.
Samewise, you cant expect the wealth of items and tracking of items in a tabletop game as you can get in a video game.
It is about comparing what can be compared.
Both are supposed to be survival games. That games in which the decision making process is dominated by the will to survive. Decisions are taken in order to achieve the goal of surviving.
Survival comes with survival pressure, a pressure that forces to choose between surviving and dying. In a zombie game, zombies are instrumental in installing that pressure.
Tabletop game:
Highly satisfying on this regard. No run is a given, PCs'lifes are put on the line. Zombies operate efficiently and the player learn they must be feared. Noise attracts them. Encounters with NPC gangs can be extremelly lethal.
Fighting is an option that is taken to ensure the primary goal: survival.
It gives all of a variety in completion of runs: runs can be a total failure, semi failures, semi-successes, total successes. Often, you must abort a run in order to survive.
Loot is placed randomly in places and there can be no loot at all. This means that more than often, you might complete a run while achieving nothing.
Fog of war is efficient, zombies or gang randomly appear, meaning you dont know what to expect.
Dead State:
Survival pressure is inexistent in this game. The worst marker possible in a survival game: instead of cautiously balancing the risks of going head to head with an opponent, you start antagonizing everything that moves. Cleanest sign of failure.
Zombies are in fixed locations, they are no threat. Avoiding zombies is actually more dangerous than antagonizing them.
In one sector, there is a church. Zombies are attracted to noise so you can lure them at the front door while some others sneak in to loot the place. Did that on my second walkthrough, gave up on that on the third walkthrough because it is easier to kill the zombies.
My three walkthroughs ended the same: lost nobody. In the third, I probably killed everything that could be killed.
Game is extremelly linear, there is no failure, only successes.
Combat comes with no tension. Never you feel threatened.
It had another explanation that was obvious: I have a reference point to compare Dead State with.
For now one year and half, with a group composed with 3-4 core players plus 4-5 occasional players, I have been participating to a tabletop game campaign whose gameplay and settings are very close to Dead State.
That explains why I found Dead State to be so weak.
So, in order to better understand what was going on, I decided to play thoroughly the Dead State demo, giving it three full walkthroughs(3 by seven ingame days). Players known as the investors will tell that I've already recouped more than the basic investment of $25 demo price (less than one dollar per ingame days but this is another story.
Dead State is on purpose an old school type of game so it gives an opportunity to compare two different types of game: video games and tabletop games.
Each of them has their strong point. For example, it is useless to expect from a video game the depth and wealth in story you can get in a tabletop game campaign as the story is written as the human players play the game.
Samewise, you cant expect the wealth of items and tracking of items in a tabletop game as you can get in a video game.
It is about comparing what can be compared.
Both are supposed to be survival games. That games in which the decision making process is dominated by the will to survive. Decisions are taken in order to achieve the goal of surviving.
Survival comes with survival pressure, a pressure that forces to choose between surviving and dying. In a zombie game, zombies are instrumental in installing that pressure.
Tabletop game:
Highly satisfying on this regard. No run is a given, PCs'lifes are put on the line. Zombies operate efficiently and the player learn they must be feared. Noise attracts them. Encounters with NPC gangs can be extremelly lethal.
Fighting is an option that is taken to ensure the primary goal: survival.
It gives all of a variety in completion of runs: runs can be a total failure, semi failures, semi-successes, total successes. Often, you must abort a run in order to survive.
Loot is placed randomly in places and there can be no loot at all. This means that more than often, you might complete a run while achieving nothing.
Fog of war is efficient, zombies or gang randomly appear, meaning you dont know what to expect.
Dead State:
Survival pressure is inexistent in this game. The worst marker possible in a survival game: instead of cautiously balancing the risks of going head to head with an opponent, you start antagonizing everything that moves. Cleanest sign of failure.
Zombies are in fixed locations, they are no threat. Avoiding zombies is actually more dangerous than antagonizing them.
In one sector, there is a church. Zombies are attracted to noise so you can lure them at the front door while some others sneak in to loot the place. Did that on my second walkthrough, gave up on that on the third walkthrough because it is easier to kill the zombies.
My three walkthroughs ended the same: lost nobody. In the third, I probably killed everything that could be killed.
Game is extremelly linear, there is no failure, only successes.
Combat comes with no tension. Never you feel threatened.
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2011
- Messages
- 6,265