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[Preview] The War Z: Unpolished, But Addictive
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Now that the wraps are off The War Z, we've got a full written preview to share with our audience. If you're looking for an addictive post apocalyptic zombie shooter, look no further. Keep reading!
The War Z, from Hammerpoint Interactive, aims to give the world a Buy-to-Play zombie survival MMO in much the same way DayZ has as a mod for ARMA II. Only, death in TWZ isn’t permanent unless you want it to be. There will also be private servers and player created “Stronghold” maps to add to the game’s content. There will be clans, character progression, even missions, player created content and much more that bring The War Z closer to the MMORPG genre than its forebear. I’ve been in the Alpha and now Beta for some time, and while it hasn’t been without its fair share of issues, crippling bugs, and just plain old goofy antics, I find myself logging into the game quite often. What does that mean? Well, I expect it means that the core principals the game is built on (survival in a world where zombies and players are all enemies) is a solid one. It’s improved quite a bit over the past few weeks, and while many features are still only promised and not included, The War Z is definitely a game to watch.
Read more of Bill Murphy's The War Z: Unpolished, But Addictive.
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Comments
I see a lot of "this game will have X feature", none of them actually in game yet at all, the map is also very small for a survival game, you run in to other players far too often. What about the current hacker problem?
I thought the game had stayed in Alpha and didn't actually move to beta?
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
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Aye, i bought into the false advertising too, it's fun for a bit, but the map is just too small. Also the game feels more like a pre-alpha in it's current state as they don't even have the first full map completed and once completed it'll probably be only like 1/4th of chernarus.. and they intend to ram upto 250 into that tiny area. Zombie AI and zombies in general are a joke, weapons are broken (in a sense that they pretty much do as they please damage, spread and recoil wise (snipers 1-shot kill every time and are the easiest snipers i've ever used), ghosting and server hopping is out of hand, hacks are rampant, movement is awkward at best.
The game might be where it promised from a year or so from now.
Every single asshole in this game will shoot you. It's not fun. All the c***s have guns and will waste bullets taking you out even if you only have a flashlight.
Think Day Z times 100, guaranteed that asshole will kill you the moment your back is turned.
I hope they all die of zombie cancer
Sadly the game is full of inmature players (prefer not to use another term) that find joy in killing unarmed players with assault rifles and stuff...
No thanks, I am too old for this.
Joined - July 2004
I'm with Remy on this, even the writers here do the EXACT SAME THING as the average "kiddo" mindset does, shoot people first hope for the best next.
The community truly turned this into a pile of crap death match kill fest. Day 1: Was awesome.
Day 2: I stuck it through even though the tone changed.
Day 3: It turned into this.
Now everyone can say that's what FFA games are all about, and I'll agree.
Except for the fact that you know the intention never was full on hardcore spawn camp pvp.
It was to add realism, if this is how people would be at the end of the world then I'm a money''s uncle on cocaine.
I beg your pardon, I'm always friendly first, kill last. That doesn't serve me well.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
So if I preorder a game/or pay money to get perks and to get into alpha/beta (LOTS of games doing this right now, especially indie games) then it means the beta is the full retail client and we should judge it at that?
The guy is probably referring to RipperX video where the first person he came across he just killed without the slightest bit of communication.
If the guys working for sites like this are posting videos of that playstyle other people will copy it.
Not that it is even a problem there are far worse cases of PKing in game than killing a random guy you stumble upon.
Think he was referring to Ripperx and in his vid he killed the guy without hesitating and he didnt even know if he was a friendly or not just shot em.
Also yeah they did extend the alpha till the 30th and I guess the wipe occurs then. We all get our gc restored. Being they have about 3 weeks left to get t he rest of the features out and tested id assume every week the game will grow and become even better.(can only hope it d oes)
Seems with the new person they now have communicating to the community is much better then the other so we are now being kept a bit more informed as well to the status of the game.
with the new features beign implemented this month -maybe some good will come , but ive kinda shelved this game.
The player base will dig this game into the ground before launch. with their sensless goals and killing fellow players before a 'zombie' - when your the last man standing....what else is there left todo 'alone'.
not much of an mmo.
Mind you, I'm not "reviewing" the game or tagging a final score on it yet. But when they're taking money and the NDA is lifted? Yes, I think it's safe to start judging the title as it is. We'll track its progress and review its final state, but considering the NDA is gone and they're taking upwards of $55 for players to get into the test I think it's fair for us all to start weighing in with opinions of the game so far.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Fair enough! I can't comment on Ripper's playstyle, but I'll remember to put him in my clan or join his when the feature is in.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
My idea is, everyone is infected with the zombie virus. Every evil act you do (which apparently the only thing you can do in this game is scavenge and kill players and zombies) has a chance to turn you into a zombie, who can only shuffle about and moan, maybe able to attack people if you can make it to them.
This state lasts for a duration of time based on previous acts. Even if you don't immediately turn into a zombie, your infection bar would go up and your hunger and thirst would require much more attention while the bar is up, based on how far up.
Alternatively (or additionally), players with clean records for a certain number of play hours could join a faction of enforcers that are alerted to evil acts, and given a time period in which they can then take revenge on the perp. Acting outside the bounds of their oath would result in the same action taken against them. But the benefit of such a role would be access to easier supplies and gear for dealing with aholes.
Hah, Bill Bill Bill...
You can call it beta all you want, but that doesn't make it so. If they choose to call it alpha, then it is alpha. You don't get to make that decision, they do. I didn't know the definition of beta had anything to do with paying for it.
I'd like to point out that servers can hold 40 players, to be exact. Since you were being vague. I'd also like to point out that you can't buy revives, as they aren't in the game. I'm not sure where you got that information from, because it's certainly not from actually playing the game.
I'm actually quite surprised that you didn't focus more on the massive amounts of player griefing, or PvP as one would call it. The majority of the player base wants change in the form of punishment for excessive player killing, according to a sizable poll on their forums.
But yes, while the game has some bugs, it's definitely addictive. That is, if you can handle the inevitability of dying on a sonsistent basis and losing all of your items.
I have been playing for a few weeks now and even in the current state the game can be fun. I have not felt this white knuckle tension since playing in wormhole space in Eve Online (dangerous NPCs, FFA PvP, and high risk). But there are some glaring issues that could be a game breaker to some players.
The first issue and the biggest IMHO right now is how prevalent hackers are. My team of nine players, decked out in armor and good gear was killed in less than 5 sec by one player with an average weapon and an aim bot hack; he never missed a single shot in pure rapid fire succession. I have heard others on the official game forums complain of similar issues, and the dev team is said to be addressing the hackers as fast as possible. But it totally kills the experience when it happens to you.
The second issue is the map size, or rather the projected map size. Even with about 60% of the map released you encounter players far too often on a 40 player capped server. I cannot see 250 players on a map this size, when it is completed, working very well. It will turn into a complete mess of pure PvP and race to item spawn locations. So much for any immersion at that point IMHO.
The last issue I will talk about here is not necessarily a game breaker, maybe just how I see the game player base progressing. Once clans and players are allowed to rent servers, mainly game worlds, we will see a migration from the open servers to those privately rented for the players who are tired of the non-stop, often pointless and excessive PvP (95% of the current player base is shoot first, don't ask questions, and take your loot . . . even if it is just a flashlight and granola bar you were carrying). What will be left will devolve further into a death match-type game with NPC zombies who just get in the way, not a zompocalypse survival game.
If they can fix the hacking, rethink the server cap for this first map (I would cap it at 50-75 for Colorado when it is complete), and find a way to make PvP have balanced consequences and be more meaningful to keep everyone from just using private servers (perhaps a reward system for players not of the same clan who work together, maybe in the form of better loot spawns), then the game will be very good once all the content they plan on adding is implemented.
Edit: I think the number of zombies should be 3-4x greater on a private server, than a public one to offset the lack of most likely hostile players.