Recent reviews by Ab Barba

I love this game, but I cannot recommend it.

It is far too stochastic and this simply saps any kind of fun out of the game. Regardless of what you do, how many resources you stockpile all you will do is prolong the inevitable. I have built now 2 towns with over a 200 population, mountains of resources and both have been completely wiped out by random events. This makes it impossible to actually enjoy playing.

For example there is no faster way to starve your civilization to death than farming....

A documentary for anyone who has ever played Dota or explored the fringes of professional gaming

DayZ is, for me, the first delve into a survival MMO.

Gameplay is far from polished but perfectly playable, the controls make sense and you will find yourself moving around pretty instinctually in no time. There are many inherent bugs in the game which are clearly related to the development of the engine. As it stands at this moment zombies are sparse and do not pose a threat to anyone but a new character. Doors and ladders are plagued with gliches and really need some more work. That said the world is beautiful and you will find much to explore whilst you get to grips with all of the extensive features and items already in game.

Progression is limited to gearing up your character currently however this can be challenging and will give you many hours of gameplay before you feel you do not want to hunt for more items.

Interaction and community leave probably the most to be desired in the game at the moment, interaction between players is frequent on busier servers in beginner areas but once you have geared up alittle encounters will become rarer and rarer. Trust is almost nonexistant and you WILL get shot on sight by 90% of players. I would strongly recommend playing this with friends for the most enjoyment.

Updates and development is constant and the community feel very involved in this element of the game. I expect to see alot more of DayZ in future and not only watch its development intently but look forward to seeing features develop.

See you in Cherno.

Godus 2.0

Well I reviewed this prepatch and since this has finally been updated I think it is only fair that I provide a new perspective on this game. In its current form Godus is a badly told joke, the build up has you eagerly anticpating the punchline, it has all the right ingredients theres the talking monkey, the shopping cart and the disgruntled cleaner all lined up waiting to mesh and put a big smile on your face...

But it never comes, I want to be smiling at this game, I want to enjoy it; but i really cant. There have been many changes for the better in 2.0 but this game simply lacks soul.

Controls

Godus still requires you to click everything, 2.0 brought in the possibility to drag to collect your belief or to sculpt but this still results in you clicking on everything constanty. The result is in 5 minutes you honestly feel tired. Scrolling by keyboard creates an odd motion blur that actually manages to make you feel ill whilst also feeling sluggish. Fortunately controls are relatively intiutive however and the layout is crisp and makes good sense. So its not all bad but it really does need a lot more work.

Gameplay

In its current form this is tied so closely to the controls that it is honestly difficult to find a way to seperate them. So what to say? Progression has been improved, moderately, you can see where your civilization is going although sometimes it feels too forced. You move through progression cards as your population goes and regardless of what you are doing this will ping incessently until you finally concede that you will have to click on them, only to be dragged through a semi tutorial that you cannot seem to escape. Sculpting is much improved upon now that it is possible to drag terrain and sculpting costs less belief but it still only lets you drag one layer at a time at first which makes sculpting infuriatingly slow, this wouldn't be so bad if the game had more character at the moment but considering this really is the most important element at present it needs to feel better than it does.

I feel I do owe it to point out the good which has come in 2.0 as well and I pray (haha.) that it is a sign that perhaps more is coming. Followers do now, not only wander around but also, show some signs of socializing; It is wonderful to see a follower light a fire and others come to join them. Having had only a couple of hours to poke at 2.0 there were few other unique interactions although i acknowledge others may already be in game. Personally I would like to see more happen in this regard; followers with a life of their own and not some blue army of conformists.

Graphics

To my mind this remains Godus's most redeeming feature, I like the style, it looks like it has potential and gives the game a great sandbox feel; if only the gameplay could match it. There are a few irritating bugs but mostly they are minor, one which persists from prior to the patch which requires attention is when scrolling the horizon becomes visible exposing the blackness of infinity at the edges of your monitor this is particularly noticable when scrolling and feels like it could be really easilly remedied.

Where to from here?

Well it is hardly fair to lay into an Beta but I think many customers will equally mirror the exasperation felt having spent so many months being provided with so little feedback. There is a glimmer of a great game here but it does feel more Alpha than Beta and does not feel ready for early access. Personally I hope to see several changes come about in future:

- Belief needs to naturally be collected no more clicking! Please, please 22-cans pay heed to this, we have all had enough of Farmville and Simpsons Tapped Out. We are not using a mobile phone app we beg you, our fingers beg you, no more clicking.

- Personality; simply where is it? I don't really expect this to emerge immediately it is more a mark of polish in finishing off a game but some minor concessions would at least let fans (of which lets face it any one buying the early release clearly will be) really want to see.

- Sculpting needs to be more natural from the beginning and do we really need to create a completly featureless world? I played Populous and Populous, I know what this comes from but its 22 years on, lets have some life in the world. At the very least trees should start to grow amongst houses after clearance.


Conclusion

This is a game that is very far from completion, 22-cans state that this is currently at 49% completion. The result is a game which feels like it came off a demo disk. You can begin to see the shape of something which could become a fantastic god game but this will most likely require several complete overhauls before it even begins to take shape from the crude wooden soulless block it currently resembles. As an avid fan of many of the games Peter Molyneux has produced I will watch this game intently but in future 22-cans should steer well clear of early access games until they are genuinly prepared to engage with the community to which it is exposing itself.

A little slow to get started but the game is loyal to the Final Fantasy franchise, controls feel polished and are not alien to anyone who is familiar with MMO's. Game play is smooth and although taking alittle time to really feel it gets started is enjoyable and encompasses ideas from many different MMO's.

In short if you have enjoyed any of the more polished subscription based MMO's of the past 10 years, e.g. WoW, Rift, DAoC then you will probably find this is well worth a look.