Dead State: Shambling impressions

Download this Friday and played it over the weekend:

Dead State is an unusual beast for sure. The game is more about scavenging than anything else. You scavenge wood, metal, stone, etc for your shelter. You scavenge special items to keep the morale of your community up. Some folks want fancy chocolate, another wants batteries, etc. I avoid combat as much as possible, luring the undead out of buildings and then trying to outpace them. It doesn't always work though, so there is a moderate amount of combat. Respawing does happen, but only if you revisit a map, which isn't that common. Ammo is a major problem early, so make sure to take at least a few points in the melee skill. Cutting weapons are great on live enemies but bashing the head works best on the dead. If you kill a live enemy, there is a moderate chance that it will come back to life and you'll get to kill it again.

The game plays out in 24 hour periods. Each day there will be tasks, both at the shelter and also for the scavenge team. You might repair a fence, build a well, or maybe just spend some time encouraging other members of the community. Your main character has to be a scavenger, though most activities at the shelter are just completed by passing time anyway. You might pick one skill (mechanical, scientist, etc) that helps at home and then skills that help in the field, (survival, melee, ranged). Most tech skills like mechanical will also have usefulness while scavenging too. A mechanic is a good lockpick, and a scientist will likely find more fuel, etc.

I'm enjoying it, so that's the most important thing. This is wouldn't be anyone's game of the year, but it's solid.

I find myself mostly looking toward the visual novel portions at the base. It's kind of like Persona, except with a zombie theme and with Fallout/X-Com lite gameplay instead of randomly generated dungeons.

I must say it's been a very long while since I've had a game with so many relatable characters, I really feel like I musn't give up on them and take care of my base. It helps that many of them have issues similar to ours only in extreme conditions, so it makes it easy to put ourselves in their shoes.

The management of resources is in fact very important and forces you to make important choices. For instance you have to go out and scavenge constantly so that your morale score doesn't drop too low. Although I think the game is too generous in this regard, it's not hard at all for example to run out of food and fuel.

Yeah, I still haven't figured out what to say to the stewardess lady upstairs. She hasn't really responded to anything I tell her. I'm guessing it takes her several days to come out of her pity party.

crpgnut said:

Yeah, I still haven't figured out what to say to the stewardess lady upstairs. She hasn't really responded to anything I tell her. I'm guessing it takes her several days to come out of her pity party.

Click to expand...

You need leadership or negotiation skill for her I think(I had first one).

This game just doesn't have enough variety to keep my interest. I really don't care for any of the mannequins at the Shelter and the combat has gotten old by day 7. Games that depend mostly on story typically fail for me, and this one is no different. If the companions in the scavenge parties actually spoke in more than barks, the game might have worked, but there isn't enough content here. I'd rate it 4/10. It starts out pretty cool, but gets repetitive fast.

Is it possible from time to time to leave the shelter for several in-game days and then explore the map and complete quest etc like in a traditional RPG, or is it necessary to return to the shelter after a short while?

At the moment, travelling on the strategical map is very rough. Could be expanded.

Leaving the shelter several days in a row? Might be possible.

The situation: passed midnight, if still out, the party is penalized with fatigue (somehow halves the party performance)
If not returned to the shelter by 3 AM, the shelter suffers a morale penalty.

At the moment though, there is no reason to leave the shelter several days in a row since you can reach locations and return in the same day.

The travel speed is still very high. At some point, I computed that the travel speed on the back of a horse was 100km/h.

Some upgrades like the mobile radio have no value at the moment. Getting the player to travel several days in a row to reach a location would provide value.

Through the story, it appears clearly that travelling long distances should have been difficult and may have required several travel days.

In the current version though, it is not the case.

Thank you for the answer. I backed the game on Kickstarter, but wanted to know what to expect - I guess it will make sense for me to alternate between Dead State and an RPG with a more traditional structure (or maybe an action-adventure).