(All my hours are solo gameplay)
The game is not abandonware, it’s finished (there was an update not to long ago surprisingly, added new structures), people seem to be having a tough time grasping this concept.
This game can absolutely be child’s play if you play it on easier settings, but trust me when I say this, playing it on the hardest difficulty settings is far more fun and rewarding (but not you iron man).
Without a doubt, this game is a grind-fest. You will be grinding for resources for an ungodly amount of time. You will have a tough time grasping the concept behind building your base. You will save scum to recover 1-2hrs back because you spent to much time Lolly gagging rather than resource farming for your base build and finally, you will restart multiple runs until you hit your flow state.
It is a punishing game, not in terms of technical ability, but in terms of your time management capabilities.
I feel I should add a bit more to this, as there are certainly issues that need to be discussed.
One of the most glaring issues, in my eyes, is the games polish. There is a plethora of bugs & glitches you will run into, however, none of them negatively impacted in a way that impeded progress or discouraged me from playing.
Next up would be the story, certainly not one of the most compelling narratives I have seen, but I feel that having it is certainly better than not having it at all. Without it, I feel that there would be no sense of progress, which I find is absolutely essential in survival games.
One other issue would be the animations. Once again, certainly not the best, but also, not the worst. My problem with them, is that some of the animations are misleading and attacks will occur earlier/later than (I believe) is intended, making dodging attacks difficult.
AI pathing for the hordes can also be a bit finicky, but once you spend enough time experimenting with base builds, you’ll quickly discover what works and what doesn’t. Tip: Height is your friend just make sure you have proper supports.
There are more issues that can be mentioned, however, I’d like to bring up my main point:
[i]Why am I only mentioning these issue now? [/i]
Honestly, it’s because I can overlook the flaws and focus on what the devs did right:
[b]Game Mechanics[/b]
Survival, Exploration, Action, RPG, Crafting, Base-building/Tower-defense
In my opinion, only one other game has done this formula correctly (7DtD) and even then, I prefer NotD’s approach.
Truly, this game will surprise you.
It takes effort to get there, but once you do, there is nothing more satisfying than eviscerating countless zeds at night with your traps.
Or the feeling when you complete a insane melee build that tears up zeds like nothing.
There’s also nothing more humbling than when you “unlock” a new area, and then get slapped around by stronger zeds, but as a result, loot better gear.
Which brings me back full circle to the games difficulty, turn that **** all the way up, if you don’t make this game difficult on yourself, you are not going to enjoy the moments that you should once you get good enough.
Despite all of this, with the 250 hours of time spent in the game, I still have not finished it, I still have not even really explored the possibilities available the in-game vehicles and I've seen some really whacky set-ups.
I definitely plan on returning to this game at some point, fresh restart, for maybe the 3rd - 4th time, and you know what? Im going to enjoy the grind getting back to where I stopped the previous two times I've played. With everything I've currently learned, it makes setting goals and achieving them so.. so much faster. What bosses to grind, what areas to farm for resources, where certain blueprint locations are, best locations to set up beginner, mid-tier, and approaching end game bases.
I honestly, this is something I really look forward to in a game, the feeling of real progression provides an incredible dopamine hit. I will say this though, this is not a streamer friendly game, the grind is real and you will probably bore the tears out of your audience, but, making videos, clips of your progress? That's some good instant gratification right there.
