I'm not a zombie game person, actually anything scary. Movies or games, if I can see the scary thing, it sticks in my subconscious and murders me in my dreams every night for weeks. The game has to either not be cheap scary sounds/visuals, have something profound, or the power fantasy of me just mowing down because I'm well equipped, and even then I pay for that experience but it's worth it. This games is none of those (yet, the story is not fleshed out, so we'll see), and is hardly scary at all. However, it's terrifying. I found Subnautica "scarier" than The Last of Us, because Unknown Worlds is a master at terror. This developer too, is a master of terror.
I know, staring down from a balcony, that all the sleeping zombies in the background won't be a bother... unless something wakes them up. I know, that the oddly placed cage full of awake zombies won't be a bother... they're locked tight. I know, there is supplies I desperately need at that building they all separate me from... If I don't get them my survivors die. I know, I'm going to have to walk into that potential death trap... my best fighter could die, permanently. I ponder, am I equipped for this? Maybe I'll just come back later? But my farmer is starving, my crafter is on the verge of mental breakdown, my survivor that forms the social glue of our group hasn't slept in days. I can't afford to come back. It HAS to be now. I climb down the ladder... I climb back up. Maybe this is a bad idea, they go can another day without food. Wait, I already lost my previous fighter because I didn't want to go into the last OBVIOUS trap I came across. After coming back to that one, turns out nothing happened. I was just getting in my own head. This place is probably the same, I just have to say "screw it" and go in. I go down the ladder again, waiting to see if there was anything lurking in my blind-spot from above. The coast is clear, I step onto the street, the zombies are still sleeping, a good sign. There was nothing to worry about. I pass the cage of zombies, and they don't even notice. It WAS all in my head. The developers instill a terror so great, they didn't even have to spring the trap to scare me, I scared myself. I grab the loot, exactly what I needed to get everyone through another day. But before I leave, I notice a zombie squatting in front of a locked chest, I still have a lockpick left, so I creep up to silently take them out when they turn their head. My knife broke before I could take them out, so I shoot them immediately, only to hear the banging of a cage, rattling of the locks, but they can't get out. They can however, wake up the obvious trap, that was NOT all in my head, and I die. After they eat, there is no food left, and they zombies go back to sleep. My remaining group are barely clinging to life, I could have made a second trip and and all of my survivors would have been fine. But I underestimated their levels of sustenance. I got in my own head. I didn't push my luck out of fear, but the terror instilled made me take a gamble that I lost. Now, I go back armed to the teeth.
I know, staring down from a balcony, that all the sleeping zombies in the background won't be a bother... unless something wakes them up...
It's already more of a game than most full priced games are for twice the price, and I have no idea what they plan on adding in later. I can't wait to see what they do with the full version of the game.
