Project Zomboid- First Look on an Early Access Game.

Hello weary traveller! Pull up a hand made seat and a warm can of beans as I proceed to tell you about the indie game that has gripped me like that bad case of food poisoning I got that one week in Uni that had me walling off the bathroom rather than clean it.

Welcome to Knox County! And Knox County is fucked.

Ever wanted to play a game where if you make an error in judgement, don't eat often enough or get cocky then the game is going to beat you to your knees and laugh at you whilst you spit out gobs of blood and bits of skin? Well here is Project Zomboid, the newest installment of "If you fuck up, you'll know about it."

When you make your character in Project Zomboid you have nothing but the clothes on your back, and you actually have less than that if you chose the handyman specialisation in the character creation screen, where you will be topless, not the best choice for the zombie apocalypse.

First off, you choose your map, the place where you will inevitably die, then you create the character who you will inevitably die as, choosing Male, Female, skin tone, weight, job, extra skills and most importantly - beard.

Then you wake up in the map somewhere and shit goes downhill from there.

First things first, there is no map, no HUD circle in the corner to tell you where you are, no you have to remember how you got to where you are going and how you are going to find your way back to your safe house before some undead bastard uses your skull for the Sunday league bowling tournament.

Secondly you are going to need to find a bag! Because you can only carry so many cans of beans and baseball bats before you get weighed down so any fucker can sneak up behind you and nibble on your neck...and not in the good way.

And then you are off! In to the wilderness of Knox County! Oh wait did you use a gun? Good luck mate, I'll time you to see how long you last after firing the first bullet....And you ran? You are just going to make them hungrier and angrier.

Zomboid is a game about tough love, there is a tutorial as soon as you open the game and you can call it up at any time. But when the first group of deadites come shambling through the door to your safe house lets see how well you remember to not run before using that bat to cave their skulls in, so you can save on stamina.

Now then, it should be a couple of days after you have first emerged blinking from the static caravan you spawned in and it's time to start reinforcing your safe house, time to go in to town and find equipment and tools if you haven't found them in the houses you've looted in the area...oh and be careful about smashing windows, some places have burglar alarms still on.

So then...Now that we have a little time now that you know what the difference is between your arse and your elbow, let's talk more about what you can do in Project Zomboid, starting with looting an entire house from top to bottom, using a hammer and nails together with planks to board up windows and doors, cook, farm, hunt.

Admittedly to get some of the necessary items for this you are going to have to go in to town, which is about as good as it sounds when used in the context of Zombie Survival game, because you are going to need things like a Fire Axe, seeds, a trowel and things that you probably won't have access to in your current location.

Electrical systems and Water systems will shut off after a random portion of time (You can decide on this time in Sandbox mode, along with what type of zombie you will be surviving against,) so your food will go rotten, and you won't be able to use the oven, microwave or fridge to cook or store food, so perishable foods are less than useful at that point...and you will have to learn how to make a fire outdoors.

So let's see what I have covered: If you run you'll get killed, if you use loud weaponry without checking your surroundings and having lots of ammo you'll get killed....eat bad food? Killed....Don't fortify your safe house? Dead...Don't take enough weapons to adjust for weapon degradation? Whoops!.....Don't check your surrounding before entering or exiting a place? Zombie food...

Well, aside from it being an early access game, there isn't much more to say about this game...other than I have spent over 110 hours playing this thing...so I would probably say that I do enjoy this game.

And in conclusion!: 

Pro's:

-I have been playing this game for over 100 hours and haven't been able to put it down for a long period of time.

-I have found this game to be incredibly tense when things start going wrong.

-It's being updated often so things are changing and there are lots of new thins being added.

Con's:

-It's in Alpha, I didn't really touch on it, but it is in Alpha, I have found a few occasions where the processor was chugging it's heart out trying to get it to work.

-Weapons degrade far quicker than I would like but that is just me.

Similar Games!:

Okay...now then, I'm trying to think of a few games like Zomboid but I can't think of any.... Well I guess you could play any zombie apocalypse game like Dead Rising and pretend it's your own character.

Shadowrun Returns

Hello and welcome children, come in to my parlor and let me tell you about a wonderful Computer Role Playing Game that had taken hours and hours of my life, leaving me as a smelly husk of a former university student.

Shadowrun Returns was a game I found on Steam some time ago, but didn't buy until I a) saw Total-biscuit's review of the game on YouTube, and B) I only bought it after climbing out of my X-COM dungeon because I was enthralled by the damn game so much that I felt like I had given up cigarettes all over again.

Shadowrun Returns is a fantastic game....that is about the crux of the matter when I talk about this, in fact I struggle to find anything wrong with it or anything it lacks, especially considering there is no voice acting to have fuck up, no video to crack the immersion or wobbly camera going behind the character when they move which is fluid enough to cause sea sickness (No joke, it happened to a mate of mine, he can't watch Cloverfield for more than 30 minutes at a time.)

So let's go over the story, you are broke and living in a bedsit when you get a message from an old runner buddy who has been slotted or died from drinking himself in to an early grave, that is for you to find out, but that is only the start, seeing as though this is a CRPG in the old style like Fallout and Wasteland, you are going to be finding out a lot about this world that is trying to kill you and wear your skin as a Troll tea cosy.

The combat system is very reminiscent of X-Com, in that you are moving in turns rather than in a constant flowing clusterfuck like Dawn of War or Company of Heroes, so you get a bit more time to think about what to do before getting your people in to cover and returning fire, as opposed to freaking out clicking everyone and killing the first thing that looks at you funny.

Conversation's are quite open and you can talk to anyone who is in the area as far as I remember, so feel free to talk to the people that have been created. And damn well you should! It probably took a lot of time to make these characters and their conversations!

Now in closing, I would heartily recommend this game, in fact I can't recommend it enough, watch a Total Biscuit WTF video of it if you want to see the combat and conversation system in play because even I with my lovely words can only describe it so well.

In Summation 

Pro's:

-The story is well written.

-The combat system, whilst not perfect, feels fluid.

-the conversation system is engaging.

Con's:

-This might draw you in quickly so book a few days off work.

-The combat system can be a bit clunky, and people don't get in to cover as they should

Medieval 2 Total War

After having played Rome 2 and Shogun 2 on Steam, both of which have made me incredibly annoyed with the games and also with Steam because of their lack of ability to read my main graphics card on my laptop, I have come back to the game that got me in to the Total War series.

Medieval 2 felt like it was an amazingly huge game when I first started playing it, that may be because it allows you to play as one of a number of countries during this era of western history from Britain, down past France and Spain to the top of Africa, across to Jerusalem and up to Russia, which constitutes the entire map.

So, when you first start you get to choose from a small subsection of the countries, after having completed a short campaign and finishing the objectives (Or a long campaign if you want to play as a starting nation) you can go through again and choose who you want to play as, almost to the extent where it feels a bit like FIFA where you can play as a 1st division team and try and get in to the premiership.

Ruling your kingdom is relatively streamlined, there are a few bits of micromanagement, for example you need to do taxes and the like, but only if you have a general in the city who can rule as a duke/baron, but if you don't then it will just go to auto tax unless you change it, which is nice because it allows you to just focus on building your empire or building your army, if that's your thing.

Moving on from the army, we can navigate directly to the combat, which actually functions like a real battlefield and army manager and simulator, for example, if the battlefield is covered in snow then your troops will get cold, move slower and the like, if it begins to rain then you will not be able to use archers as effectively and so on, which makes choosing the correct battlefield and correct weather to attack just as important as choosing the right troops.

This means that you can use the environment to your advantage, like positioning your archers on top of a hill whilst your enemies try and climb it whilst your light cavalry attacks from the flanks, which feels incredibly satisfying when done correctly.

Your troops also get tired, for example sending a unit of dismounted feudal knights running and screaming in to close combat like football hooligans on a night out might sound like the best form of attack, but you have to make sure that you haven't left too big a distance between you and the enemy so your men aren't shattered by the time they close the distance and hit like pensioners on sedatives.

Now, I understand that some people might prefer to do a campaign as the Romans, or the Oda clan from Rome or Shogun respectively, but to be fair, those 2 games have annoyed me, and secondly I am a big fan of medieval Europe, massively so, which is why, regardless of how long it has been since I last played it, I can slip back in to Medieval 2 and play as someone like Portugal easily, almost like slipping on a pair of comfortable shoes.

However, to the bad parts.

I hate the religion part of the game....that might just be a personal quibble but it's a pretty big one, but it can develop a major thing for you if you become excommunicated by the Vatican or have a jihad placed upon you, especially if you have a lot of generals who view being pious as a disease that needs to be destroyed. 

The AI from the enemy can be at times a little dim, I.E. sending a unit of horsemen around the flank and hitting the enemy in the rear can be amazing, but only if the AI picks up that it is having it's face torn off and responds accordingly, not standing around picking it's noise as my horsemen smash them in their faces with maces.

But those are the two small niggles that I have for an altogether fantastic title that I have been playing for years and will continue to.

Pros and cons:

Pro's

-Fantastic Battle System

-Great management system for your empire

-Moving around the map without actually doing anything can be a pleasure due to the gorgeous map

-The TBS part where you move around the map has FOW, which is really nice to have.

Con's

-I hate the religion system because I hate religion in general, but that's just me, I want to walk around a kick someone's teeth in without worrying if they have been invited to afternoon tiffin at the Pope's gaffe.

-AI can be thick on occasion.