Recent reviews by Alphakal

Incredibly addicting game and surreal story.

10/10 Would do for badge again

Let me just start off by saying that although I may not recommend this game in it's current state, it may improve in the future (albeit the FAR future, from what's happened so far in terms of development) and become something actually worth purchasing. The devs would have to be the first problem in mind , considering their lead dev left the studio a year in to development and essentially ran off with the money to make his own studio, leaving Bohemia to deal with the rest. I really can't blame Bohemia for this ♥♥♥♥ up, this is their first go at making a zombie game. If anyone is really to blame for the state it's currently in, it'd probably be Dean, since he left the very project he created to go make indie games or something of the like. And this is AFTER the huge success that was DayZ Mod, he realized the market for it, and pursued it with Standalone. I don't know what went on at Everest (To those who don't know, Dean climbed Mt. Everest and shortly after declared he was leaving the project) , but he must've fallen off a cliff to think that leaving the project after he set such lofty goals for it is OK. Not only that, but some of the other DayZ mods devs that stuck around with Hall left afterwards, probably after realizing this game would never be made.

These lofty goals that were set can actually be viewed on their own website (http://www.dayztv.com/standalone/dayz-2015-roadmap/), and one can see that the things mentioned for Q1 (soon to be the end of Q2) AREN'T EVEN DONE YET. The only things actually done are the 'Basic Vehicles' (or vehicle, rather), Loot Distribution (so entire towns won't be completely void of all loot, just mostly), Horticulture (At least that's done) and Zombie AI (Which is still, at best, whether or not Zombie Usain Bolt will zigzag or straight up pursue you until the end of days). Sure, this is a 'light' roadmap, and is generally a baseline, not exact. But if they can't even complete these light goals they've made for themselves, what will become of the bigger things they've offered from when this game was first thought up (Underground bases, anyone?) ? i am let down time and time again after seeing DayZ update in steam, then seeing that it is yet another dissapointing update. And considering that it takes well over a month to push updates that actually do anything, the hopes for completing anything in Q2 are slim. Half-Life 3 could very well be released before this does, honestly.

I won't say anything about the community, it isn't really the game's fault, as it is essentially up to the player entirely. And to those who think that I haven't played nearly enought to develop such an opinion, well, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it, and I won't argue that. But know that I've played the Mod for some 180 hours, and can certainly determine that in comparison, this game is still severely lacking. "But they're making a new engine and it needs time" sure, it takes time, but they've had somewhere around 2 years to work on it and aren't even close to finishing it. You'd think that within that time frame a respectable company like Bohemia could handle such a feat, right? No, since the devs that had the vision for this game abandoned it too, leaving Bohemia to clean up and do their best.

Like I said, I could never recommend this game in it's current state, nor agree with it's 35$ price tag, but there is potential in it. Like the mod, it could even grow successful and end up not complete ♥♥♥♥ like it is now.

Edit: A year Later...

Under the pretense of massive engine imporovements and additional content, I decided to try the .60 update. Within moments, I'm incapable of joining any server, and after several relaunches and even a reinstall, nothing. After a full year, I'd at least somewhat expect the same problems that plagued Arma's sever browser to be rid of. At least now I don't have to worry until the next update.

I REALLY REALLLLY want this game to do well, as a fan of Bohemia and the original Mod, but yet again I am left dissappointed. I can tell in the changelog itself all these amazing and new additions to the aging Mil-sim's engine. A new renderer, UI update, a Central Loot Economy, all sounds excellent and a massive improvement upon what I experienced a year ago, but, in the end, even these massive improvements have yet to fix one of the fundamental flaws of the Arma Engine.

As a returning Souls player, I don't really know how to feel about the Scholar of the First Sins. So far, it seems to me that more has been done beyond the realm of simply "changing the enemy spawns" and more like "So we've added a f$ckton of enemies where you don't expect. Enjoy." Seriously, there's an ogre right in the stream leading up to the Forest of the Fallen Giants, as well as 3-4 extra Undead soldiers right next to the first archer guarding the tree ladder. These enemies may be easy, but let me tell you why it's hard as ♥♥♥♥ even for someone who's sinked hours into the first and second game: the game constantly sends me back to the windows 8 grey background, and only let's me back in when I wiggle my mouse. I cannot tell you how many times I've died with only the short time I've played it. From the first time you encounter the pursuer (with 4-5 extra Soldiers on the platform) to the Ironclad so conveniently placed in front of the ladder to aforementioned Pursuer encounter. I won't say it's bad, because it's not, the game looks really good now and fresh with 60 fps. But as of right now, this bug is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with my gameplay beyond all measure, and the addition of WAY more enemies isn't making it any easier.