Neat idea for a game? Check.Atmosphere? Check.Buggy ride?....Check
The beginning was actually very promising! The game starts like your typical American B horror movie for teens with popcorn in one hand and cheap beer in the other.
You and your buddy are driving to a city in your fancy American muscle car when all of a sudden it runs out of fuel.It's a middle of a night and also a middle of nowhere.You manage to crawl to an old gas station but you quickly realise something is off.
That something is a zombie infestation.What actually happened and why? Well, this is something you'll have to find out yourself.
It's not like the game itself helps you with that though.There's no introduction of any sorts.The story is being uncovered through conversations presented in a comic book style.You're just in the wrong place at a wrong time, you wonder WTF is going on and you try to survive and solve the mystery using your bat or any other weapon you can find.
The gameplay shows the area in an isometric view.The whole environment looks nice.The buildings, the cars, lights, all of that looks nice and sets the mood very well.It's actually that well created atmosphere of impending doom, isolation and fear that kept me playing.I was really surprised with how the game looked like and how pleasant killing the zombies was.The combat was gory and each hit with a baseball bat or an axe felt right.
I thought " Well well well! We're in for a treat ladies and gentlemen! ".
Until I crashed and burned...
What caused the hard and unpleasant landing was all the technical glitches that this game was filled with.
The first one was the choppy camera.The zoom in zoom out worked fine but when I tried rotating it, it felt clumsy and was confusing me very often.
One issue was that I couldn't assign any of my mouse's buttons for this function.I had to assign 2 keys ( I chose delete and home ) to be able to rotate it either clockwise or counterclockwise.Then I had to use 2 other keys to be able to move the camera left or right.
Ok, now what's wrong with this picture? I needed 4 different keys to be able to move the camera in all directions where all that should've been done was to assign the right mouse button, so when you click on it and hold onto it, while moving your mouse to any direction, the camera follows you.
It's a minor annoyance when out of combat.It's a HUGE problem when there's zombies attacking you from all over the place.You're stuck with trying to operate 4 different camera keys, while also trying to manage people in your squad, their inventories and their weapons.
It wouldn't even be THAT bad if only the responsiveness of the game was like it should be.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the case either.
I can't even count how many times I lost either my life, or got seriously wounded because the weapon I tried clicking on could not be equipped.
See, in this game you really need to choose your fights wisely.Sometimes it's better to avoid battles when you can and those that cannot be avoided, have to be fought tactically and by that I mean using your weapons in an economic manner, or you'll be soon left with just your baseball bat in your hands.
What I was doing I was firing my weapon and when the baddie was lying on the ground I tried switching to my axe to finish the job, so that I could save some precious ammo.
The problem was that sometimes I had to click 3 times on the same weapon in my inventory which also meant, by the time I finally managed to do that, the zombie was already standing and kicking the crap out of me.
Now imagine what happened when there was 3 of us and 10 zombies charging
us.All of a sudden you need to control the camera, triple click on all the weapons, keep reloading them and...well...it's pretty sad sometimes.
There's no map.Not a mini map, not a regular map.Why oh why has this been omitted folks? The area you play on is pretty huge and it's not easy to plan your moves without having an overall view of it.It's actually really hard to do that while moving only the camera ( with those amazing 4 keys ) across a huge field.
What's also funny is that when you move the camera upon a hill or any elevated terrain, it doesn't adjust by zooming out.It keeps the height as default so as a result instead of having a tactical view of the area, you're able to see the color of the cement on the ground.
Another glitch is related to Alt + Tab-ing to desktop while playing.
Each time I then Alt + Tab-ed back to the game, the descriptions of items were gone and the inventory was almost completely disappearing so the game was becoming unplayable and I needed to reload the last save game and when you consider the fact that you can't save the game whenever you feel like it but only in certain places on the map, you can be in for a nasty surprise and may have to backtrack a little.
My advice? Save the game and if you have some important thing to do outside the game, do it right after because little zombie lepprechaums may steal your precious inventory while you're gone.
So...the game has a massive potential of being a really good real time tactical strategy game.The atmosphere, graphics, gory and satisfying combat can glue a person to the screen.
The unfortunate thing that at the same time often causes diarrhea is the technical inconsistency which in later and more difficult stages of the game, makes this game almost unplayable.
So unless you're a really patient person or simply don't have anything else to play but you liked games like Commandos, Jagged Alliance or Desperados or any other tactical real time strategy game this game may be for you.
I would recommend it although only if it's on Steam's 66% - 75% sale.