Project Zomboid: First Impressions

This isn’t the first time I’ve played Project Zomboid. My first experience with the game was when I downloaded an early demo in . . . 2011? Was it really that long ago? Spin on several years and Project Zomboid is still going strong – in fact, it’s more popular now than it’s ever been, largely thanks to a recent multiplayer update. After watching some videos of the new build and seeing the game go on sale (before an opportunistic price hike – and hey, who can blame them?) I decided to finally pick it up myself.

There’s a tutorial to play but there’s a lot it doesn’t teach you. You’ll learn the basics of movement, interaction and combat, but the rest you’ll have to figure out on your own through trial and error or beginner guide videos. Don’t expect to start your first game and survive for very long at all. It took me a dozen restarts before I finally felt I had a decent grasp of the game and how everything works and even now, 20 hours in, there’s still occasions I have to pause and google something.

I’d also recommend not starting on the default modes but rather, set up your own custom sandbox. The sandbox tool is great because it lets you almost totally customise your experience making the game as easy or as punishing as you like in so many different ways. Right now, I’m playing a more ‘easy’ version of Project Zomboid with weaker zombies, no respawning zombies and no infections. It’s enabled me to enjoy and learn the game at a more relaxed pace.

There is no real ‘goal’ in Project Zomboid beyond survival. This is a game where you really have to set your own goals. There’s a single, massive map to explore with thousands of zombies to kill. There’s no NPC characters (at least not yet) so unless you play in the new MP, you’re going to be very much alone.

Combat is one of the most tricky things to learn as it can be pretty fiddly until you get the hang of it – that’s why turning off infections is recommended until you do because it’s so easy to get bitten or scratched. This is very much a survival sim so that means any wound needs to be properly treated – ideally with disinfectant and sterilised bandages, but some ripped clothing will do in a pinch to prevent blood loss.

Your character needs rest, food and water to stay healthy. You’ll also need to learn various skills such as farming, carpentry and mechanics if you want to survive long term. The water and power will eventually be shut off (although how and when will depend on your sandbox settings) and you’ll need to plan and prepare accordingly.

How you play is really up to you. You can go mobile – travelling the map, scavenging supplies, never staying in one place for very long. Or you can choose to fortify a particular location, hoarding supplies to prepare for the winter. Right now, that’s what I’m focusing on, but I’m also spending a lot of time clearing out zombies from my local area and transporting the bodies to some mass ‘graves’ I’ve set up.

It’s kind of silly that I’m spending so many hours just disposing of zombie bodies so that the streets are free of them but that’s a perfect example of how easy it is to lose countless hours playing Project Zomboid doing the most futile and ultimately pointless tasks. It’s a great time sink, if nothing else.

There’s still a lot about Project Zomboid I’ve not yet learnt or explored – crafting, farming, vehicle mechanics etc. I don’t know for how long I’ll keep playing. I wonder if it might be a game where it’s much more fun at the start when you’re just trying to survive but once you’re ‘secure’ there’s not really much more to do.

But like I said, this is a game where it’s important to set your own goals. No game has to last forever. Achieve what you want and then start over in a new spawn location with a new objective and more challenging sandbox settings.

Overall, I’m quite enjoying my time with Project Zomboid and I’ve not even tried the MP yet. I don’t know if I’ll do a full review or not because I don’t know for how long it will hold my attention. In a week or so, I might have grown bored of it and moved on. Or maybe I’ll have sunk another 20 hours into it. It’s that kind of game.

Now Playing: Total War: Warhammer 3

With 60 hours clocked and 3 campaigns completed, I figured it was time to knock out my review of Total War: Warhammer 3. If you’ve read my First Impressions post you’ll know that my initial reaction to the game was rather mixed, primarily due to the core campaign mechanics. There’s a lot that’s pretty fantastic about WH3 – the visuals, animations, music, battle maps, faction variety and impressive level of release day content.

The new siege system – whilst needing a few tweaks – is a welcome change. I agree that there needs to be less minor settlement battles, but a simple fix would be that these battles only occur at settlement level 2 or 3, otherwise a field battle is fought outside the settlement. Another easy tweak would be tower / barricade points being one-use only, stopping the player or AI from continually rebuilding them mid-fight.

There are some technical / bug / performance issues that also need to be addressed, but there’s nothing here that I felt seriously harmed my experience. I spoke in my FI post about returning to the Warhammer series from Three Kingdoms and how, in some ways, it felt like a step back. But I’d say that feeling isn’t as strong now I’ve readjusted to the way the campaign in Warhammer plays. That said, I still find the hero spam to be a particularly annoying facet of this series.

The real big problem with Warhammer 3 is the way the core campaign plays out. I’m certainly not opposed to smaller scale, objective focused campaigns. I liked the Vortex campaign in Warhammer 2 because it offered an alternative, more focused way of playing compared to the full sandbox experience of the Mortal Empires combined campaign. And I’m totally okay with Warhammer 3 doing something similar – offering a shorter, more focused narrative driven campaign that offers an alternative to the as yet untitled and unreleased mega-campaign that combines the maps and races of Warhammer 1, 2 & 3. The problem is, the core campaign of Warhammer 3 just isn’t very fun – at least not in its current state.

I’ve completed the campaign 3 times – as Kislev, Khorne and Cathay. Every campaign followed a similar pattern – an enjoyable start, followed by a tedious slog when the portals begin to open, followed by an irritating finish as I just want the campaign to end. Khorne, due to their faction mechanics, was probably the campaign that annoyed me the least. Kislev was an absolute nightmare of a grind and Cathay . . . well, Cathay was just kind of boring.

I’m not talking boring as in how the faction plays – because I love how each of the factions I’ve played work in the campaign in terms of mechanics and units. No, I’m talking about how each faction is faced with managing the core campaign. Kislev is mostly surrounded by hostile factions, constantly facing attacks so it’s not easy having to keep your best army and faction leader out of the fight either in the portal race, or resting in a city to remove negative traits before the next round begins.

Khorne, thanks to their increased movement mechanics makes getting through the portal realms pretty fast – but you’re still stuck waiting around for the traits to be removed which is even more annoying for a faction that relies heavily on momentum. And then we have Cathay which, once you’ve secured your initial province, is fairly easy to confederate the others around you giving you a safe and secure position where you’re not really in any danger. As a result, you just sit back and play the portal race because there’s not really any reason to expand – but this is also kind of dull.

Because despite the fantastic faction variety in terms of mechanics and units, every faction has to play the portal race exactly the same way – a race in which the less territory you hold, the easier it is because you have less portals to deal with continually spawning chaos armies and heroes and spreading corruption. A race in which if you don’t get into a realm before the AI, you’ll likely get kicked out and have wasted your time when they claim the soul before you.

A race in which your faction leader will be afflicted with multiple negative traits once they exit the chaos realms, forcing them to remain in a city for several turns waiting for the traits to be randomly removed. And by the time they are, the next round of portals will soon be ready to open so you have to do it all again.

The general concept of the campaign – entering the 4, unique chaos realms to retrieve the souls and fighting survival battles is something I actually like. The problem is, it’s way too punishing and restrictive towards the player. The good news is that, like the issue with the siege rework, it can be improved with just a few simple changes.

The first is that the negative chaos realm traits need to go – they’re completely pointless. Just get rid of them entirely. The second is that the chaos portals shouldn’t do more than spread a little corruption – no spawning heroes or armies. Right now, you have to keep several heroes strategically positioned throughout your territory so they can play whack-a-mole every time the portal event begins.

It’s annoying and tedious and it means that even if you’re trying to ignore the portal race and focusing instead on territorial conquest, you can’t ignore it entirely – and the more territory you take, the situation only gets worse.

If we really must race the AI, then don’t let us get kicked out if they claim a soul before us – it means we have to sit around and rush into the realm we need on the first turn the portals open or we’ll risk missing out. Let us enter when we’re ready, at our own pace. In fact, why not remove the AI from the portal race entirely? Just let the player engage with it when and if they want to. That’s obviously a bigger change, but probably the best one they can make. It would also make more sense from a narrative perspective.

Okay, I don’t want to drag this on any longer than I have to. Between this review and my FI post I think I’ve made it pretty clear what I think the main problem of WH3 is and how I feel about it. But let’s not forget that, aside from this problem, everything else WH3 does is pretty damn fantastic. I honestly can’t wait for the mega-campaign to be released so I’ll be able to play with these new factions in a pure sandbox experience.

Because the races, their mechanics and their units are all pretty great. And I think that once the mega-campaign is released and a few (inevitable) patches roll out to fix any initial issues, this Warhammer trilogy really will go down as one of the best strategy games of all time. But we’re not there yet, and there’s clearly a lot more work to do.

So I guess the question is – would I recommend WH3 in its current state? If you’re a fan of the previous games but you didn’t like the Vortex campaign at all then I’d say no – wait for the mega-campaign. If you’re like me and you did like the Vortex campaign for the smaller, more focused experience it offered then, even in its current state, I’d say the core campaign is worth picking up and playing.

I just hope CA can roll out some updates over the next few months that change the way the campaign works along the lines I’ve suggested here. Because like I said, the concept isn’t bad, it’s just the execution that needs work. Overall, WH3 is a solid and impressive release with an unfortunately big problem in the form of a campaign system that’s just not very fun in its current state. I am still having some fun with the game despite that problem, but not as much fun as I’d like.

7/10

Cyberpunk 2077: Update 1.5

Cyberpunk 2077 was my GOTY 2021 which I guess might be a controversial pick for some but for me, 2077 delivered exactly the kind of game I wanted. Despite its many flaws and technical issues, the core story, characters, quests and gameplay were superb. I completed the game twice following its release, including an all-content run, clocking over 170 hours of play.

I wrote in my GOTY post that – ‘There’s still so much potential in Cyberpunk 2077, but even if the promised patches, updates and DLC don’t deliver on that potential, 2077 will still be one of the best games I’ve played in recent years. With fantastic visuals, a stunning world, great gameplay and a compelling story and characters, it’s a game that, despite its poor release and numerous little flaws, is still pretty damn special.’

And now, here we are with Update 1.5, the first major patch for 2077 released alongside the next-gen console upgrade. The question is, does this patch begin to deliver upon that potential? Is it worth jumping back in for? And if you’ve not played Cyberpunk yet, is now the time?

My answers to those questions would be sort of, probably not and yes. This patch does improve many areas of the game that needed work, although there’s clearly still a lot more work to do. But I wouldn’t say there’s enough stuff here for a player like me, who has already exhausted the existing content, to jump back in – especially not when Warhammer 3 releases tomorrow (at the time of writing). But if you’re a new player, then now is a great time to pick up the game and experience the world, story and characters of Cyberpunk for yourself.

So what’s actually in this update? There’s been a pretty extensive overhaul of player perks and a rebalance of the game economy, although I’d have to play a new game to really test these out. NPC behaviour has been improved in the sense that they don’t all duck and cover in unison, but now actually scatter and run and sometimes even fight back. Civilian drivers now also react in ways that help the world feel more alive.

A lot of the improvements in this patch may not seem particularly significant but they do stack in such a way that does begin – and I stress begin – to improve the weakest aspect of 2077 – the open world. In terms of new content, the best thing is the inclusion of new apartments to purchase throughout the city. It’s neat, but not really exciting enough for a new run.

I think this is probably the last big update we’ll see for 2077 prior to the first major expansion – assuming it doesn’t get cancelled. I’m sure there will be several minor patches and content updates along the way, but I just don’t see myself going back to 2077 until there’s more new – and substantial – content to get stuck into. I’m also thinking I might prefer to wait and play it on a new PC – when GPU prices finally come down . . . if they ever come down. This patch certainly hasn’t helped with performance on my system and I’d say it actually runs a little worse.

Overall, my opinion on 2077 still hasn’t changed. It’s a fantastic game that deserves to be played and it would be a shame if the developers eventually decide to give up on it. There’s still so many stories to explore in Night City. But for now, I’ll continue to wait and hope.

Now Playing: Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village is set about 3 years after the events of Resident Evil 7. Once again, we’re playing as Ethan, this time searching not only for his wife, Mia, but for their daughter, Rose. Rose has been taken by the nefarious Mother Miranda to the titular Village and it’s up to Ethan to rescue her. Honestly, the story of Village is just a load of nonsense but this is Resident Evil so I really shouldn’t be surprised.

Like RE7, Village is a first person experience. And like 7, Village begins strongly but unfortunately loses its way towards the end. The village in Village acts like a central hub from which you will travel to four different haunted houses. That’s essentially what they are – haunted house rides each with a unique theme and boss.

The idea is that in order to rescue Rose from Miranda, Ethan first needs to take out the four Lords (bosses) of the village. Initially I thought I’d get to choose the order in which I tackled each boss but, no – you have to follow a very linear path through the game, taking each Lord in turn.

It’s kind of a shame because using the village as a hub and letting the player decide which Lord to tackle next would be another new twist on the RE formula – and it could have led to meaningful decisions for the player as each Lord could have unlocked different weapons, items or exploration tools and it would then be up to the player to prioritise what Lord to go for next.

But that’s not how the game works. Village is painfully linear. It really is like a haunted house ride – you just sit back and let the game carry you through. There’s always a singular track to follow and it always leads you from one key item to the next. The puzzle aspect that you might expect in RE is almost entirely absent.

Do you remember the Baker family from RE7? They were easily the best part of the game, injecting real personality into the experience and once Ethan had dealt with them, that’s when the game really lost its way. Village suffers from a very similar problem.

The first Lord you’ll face – Lady Dimitrescu AKA The Tall Lady – and her daughters are very similar to the Bakers in the way you interact with them as they taunt and hunt you. But their haunted house isn’t very long and within an hour or so (on a first run – you’ll probably clear it in 30 minutes on repeat play) you’ll be moving on to the next.

The good news is that the next Lord – Donna Beneviento – offers a very different haunted house experience, one without any combat and instead focuses more on tension, simple puzzle solving and horror. It’s great, but it’s also incredibly short – maybe 30 minutes for a first run. Like Dimitrescu and her daughters, Beneviento and her doll Angie are sadly underutilised.

Despite feeling like these Lords weren’t given the time or attention they deserved I was still enjoying Village a lot at this point and I was eager to see what the next two Lords – Moreau and Heisenberg – had to offer. But this, unfortunately, is where Village started to lose its way.

The Moreau section is just a bit crap, to be frank. Moreau turns into a giant fish monster and his haunted house just involves running from one floating platform to the next. You wait for him to pass, run across, then do it again. And finally we have Heisenberg who is probably the Lord given the most amount of development from a character point of view, but his haunted house is where Village shifts focus entirely into mediocre action schlock.

You’ll fight waves of idiotic lycans followed by cyborg type monsters in his factory. But like the other Lords and their haunted house rides, it’s like you’re stuck on a conveyor belt yourself just riding it along to the end. Village, at this point, becomes a first person shooter and not a very good one.

When you strap in to a vehicle armed with a machine gun, a rocket launcher and a chainsaw arm for the upcoming boss fight you know the game has totally lost the plot. To be fair, the RE games have always had their ‘silly’ elements but they’re not well integrated here at all.

And then we get to play as Chris – and his section really is just a crap first person shooter level in which you shoot waves and waves of stupid enemies. The game ends with a pretty lacklustre boss fight against Miranda herself, a character we’ve barely interacted with all game.

I probably sound like I really hated Village but I didn’t – I’m just frustrated by how much squandered potential I see here. Miranda should have been a more active presence throughout the game. The Lords should have had more screen time and more interactions with Ethan. The Village hub should have been more important and changed the way the player tackled the content.

I’m glad I played Village because I did, overall, enjoy the game, but I’m also glad I picked it up on sale – I finished my first run in 8 hours and my second in 4 (on Hardcore). It’s pretty short and that’s largely due to how linear the experience is. I’m sure you can argue that’s in line with other RE games but I guess I was looking for something a little different from Village. Something new.

Instead, I got a game that begins strongly but squanders its potential and descends into silly action schlock long before you reach the end. Overall, despite suffering similar problems, I’d say RE7 is the better game and that’s pretty disappointing because Village, as a sequel, should have identified and fixed those problems, not amplified them.

It’s also disappointing because Village had the potential to offer far more variety in terms of characters, locations and monsters than RE7 in addition to new gameplay twists. It just doesn’t fulfil that potential to any degree that I’d like.

6/10