Posted September 09, 2013
Look, I really tried to like this game. I think it's a good concept, and my problem isn't with the challenge level, it's with how the challenges are presented.
Let me explain. I was playing Deadline - which, by the way, seems much easier than Roadkill, since clues are easier to come by than car parts and you can win the game without all of them. To wit: I found a clue fairly early that said the chopper was coming to a factory, and I was on a map that had only one factory. Pretty lucky there. I was less lucky with breaching other buildings, so I had steadily lost people while breaching about half the total buildings looking for the radio and frequency. At this point I was down to two people, one with a fever, so I grab all the food I can, hunker down at the factory, stay quiet, and hope the chopper saves us. That was around Thursday. Fever claims one survivor, food runs out (two survivors can't carry much of it), but the zombies leave me alone. Sunday, I get a message that the chopper will be arriving shortly.
The next hour, I get the event. The dreaded super-zombie event. He's coming for me - I declined to hunt him earlier when the stranger offered, because I still wasn't doing too well and it would have been certain death. So, one, starved, injuried survivor, who probably has no chance. I run. I miraculously don't die. I head back the factory, and don't die during the re-breach. Only to find out that the chopper had already came and left without me.
I don't necessarily mind failing - I'd prefer not to, but whatever, so long as it's because I understand the rules and wasn't quite able to meet all of them. This was different - I feel like I lost not because the game outsmarted me, or even because of bad luck, but because the game arbitrarily decided at the end that, even though I had done what I thought I was supposed to, I lose anyway.
I like the idea of the game enough that I might pick it up again later, after some patches. But this instance was frustrating enough that it's soured me on the game. I have yet to actually win a game, and I'm not patient enough to keep trying until I do, since this makes me feel like winning is left entirely up to the game's whim, and the player only controls how quickly they eventually lose.
Let me explain. I was playing Deadline - which, by the way, seems much easier than Roadkill, since clues are easier to come by than car parts and you can win the game without all of them. To wit: I found a clue fairly early that said the chopper was coming to a factory, and I was on a map that had only one factory. Pretty lucky there. I was less lucky with breaching other buildings, so I had steadily lost people while breaching about half the total buildings looking for the radio and frequency. At this point I was down to two people, one with a fever, so I grab all the food I can, hunker down at the factory, stay quiet, and hope the chopper saves us. That was around Thursday. Fever claims one survivor, food runs out (two survivors can't carry much of it), but the zombies leave me alone. Sunday, I get a message that the chopper will be arriving shortly.
The next hour, I get the event. The dreaded super-zombie event. He's coming for me - I declined to hunt him earlier when the stranger offered, because I still wasn't doing too well and it would have been certain death. So, one, starved, injuried survivor, who probably has no chance. I run. I miraculously don't die. I head back the factory, and don't die during the re-breach. Only to find out that the chopper had already came and left without me.
I don't necessarily mind failing - I'd prefer not to, but whatever, so long as it's because I understand the rules and wasn't quite able to meet all of them. This was different - I feel like I lost not because the game outsmarted me, or even because of bad luck, but because the game arbitrarily decided at the end that, even though I had done what I thought I was supposed to, I lose anyway.
I like the idea of the game enough that I might pick it up again later, after some patches. But this instance was frustrating enough that it's soured me on the game. I have yet to actually win a game, and I'm not patient enough to keep trying until I do, since this makes me feel like winning is left entirely up to the game's whim, and the player only controls how quickly they eventually lose.
