this game is all style and no substance

[mw00]

They worked on years to make this game pretty and have nice animations. From dev's perspective this was a good decision as it brought many new players in who paid for the game. But honestly this game is genuinely terrible from the ground up for anyone who cares about gameplay depth. The longer you play it the more you realize that this is still the same game as it was in like 2012 - a simple java flash game where all you can do is kill some zombies to increase your score. Seriously, that's all you do in this game. Are animals going to help with that? I don't see animals making long term survival any harder - you'll still be able to farm cabbages and live on forever in some shed. Livestock animals are just going to be a new path/a helping tool towards your long term survival, which is already a ridiculously easy thing to achieve.
Now compare this game to CDDA. That game is a sandbox too. CDDA has many goals that you can strive towards - cybernetic modifications for your body (you can become half cyborg in CDDA), build a massive deathmobile/mobile base hybrid, build an atomic car, raid an end game location like a laboratory, assemble a group of humans and create a settlement. In Project Zomboid on the other hand most things can be achieved within the first 1 hour of playtime - want an M16? Just rush a military outpost from west point. Want a car? You can find a working car anywhere. I can set up an objective for myself such as "I want to clear a hospital in Louisville", but honestly how is that different from clearing a prison? Or a mall? Or any other location? It's all the same mind numbing gameplay loop where you whack zombies with a baseball bat x2000.
This is why these devs don't deserve the labor of love award. The last couple updates were about style (music overhaul, pretty animations, new graphics etc) - which honestly added nothing in the game for veteran players, it just filled dev's pockets with money. Multiplayer was a cool update, but we already had a working multiplayer before animation overhaul if I remember right.
I'm going to change my mind when they finally add human NPC companions, settlement mechanics and management, more fun end game locations with unique challenges and unique loot. But frankly I don't see any of this happening within the next 3 years. Maybe in 4, 5 years we'll get some basic NPCs. Progress on end game crafting update seems to be slow - we haven't had any info on that recently, and that's supposed to come out before human NPCs, and after animal NPCs (which are at an early testing stage). And like I already said - end game crafting isn't going to make gameplay much deeper, it's just adding more roleplay potential.

[katsuragi]

I couldn't disagree more.

[mw00]

Opprinnelig skrevet av katsuragi:

I couldn't disagree more.

elaborate

[Shady Allie]

Nice to read your opinion, thanks for sharing!

In 3-4 years your opinion might not change and you might still feel a vote is undeserved.

This is okay view.

[ッ tenklop]

They made 100+ millions dollars im sure theyll fix it in 10 more years

[Shady Allie]

Opprinnelig skrevet av katsuragi:

I couldn't disagree more.

This is okay view.

[mw00]

Opprinnelig skrevet av EnigmaGrey:

Yeah if you intentionally ignore everything else and distil a game to a one sentence long description of its gameplay loop, you're going to find every game is shallow and pedantic.
Most people don't think about games that way. Or at least they don't until they get bored after playing them way too much and way too often.

I never feel this way about games like RimWorld. That game's RNG always surprises you and creates new challenges that aren't always predictable. In this game on the other hand - you have to make your own challenges, which I find boring. I see people making sky bases in multiplayer where they farm cabbages and survive like that indefinitely. And this game doesn't really have any way of challenging you if you do that. Maybe that "sadistic AI director" would help in this aspect, but I don't even remember when was the last time this feature was mentioned in the blog. Livestock animals don't feel like they are going to add a lot when you can cheese the game like this quite easily.

[Grishnerf]

you play way to easy.
thats the downside of PZ, the better you get the more boring it becomes
if you dont set difficulty higher.

[Beltneck]

Thats Bait

[BeetlePie]

Clearing out loot areas with no further purpose than to survive, to fill some thirst or hunger bars, will inevitably make the game feel this way eventually. Setting yourself an arbitrary challenge does this, and once achieved, you either quit or set new one. This game can be played infinitely if you give your characters a story, a background that pushes them to achieve things within the world. This way you truly act with a purpose, to accomplish your characters' desires. You can create as many stories as your creativity allows to, especially with the amount of opportunities and build combinations that professions give you.

Of course, this may run out of fuel as well some day, but it doesn't matter. I mean, the game already gave you five hundred hours of gameplay. That's an important quantity of entertainment, and no one that dislikes a game would invest that much time. You may have become so used to the game, that you forgot the amount of depth and mechanics that make it so complex and realistic. With that many game hours, I would consider myself pleased if I ever got bored, for the game already gave me good times for so long.

If creating stories isn't your cup of tea or you're not interested in multiplayer, that's fine. You can always patiently wait for the NPC update. But there is no way to deny the amount of game hours you already invested, which no shallow game could have ever provide.

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

It's a survival sandbox game about killing zombies, so of course there's not going to be a whole lot of depth there. With that being said, even though I love PZ, I have to admit that the wait for NPCS has been atrocious; they've been "coming soon" for like a decade now. I just don't see NPCs or animals coming out anytime soon; I will be shocked if they do come out this year.

As for whether I believe PZ deserves the Labor of Love Award, my answer is no; an award should not be given to any early access game, especially one that has been in early access for a decade. Likewise, I don't really believe Cyberpunk deserved it either; they shouldn't be given any awards for fixing their buggy game. I hate that I have to keep repeating this, but I think the award should have been given to a game that is out of early access and provides its playerbase with frequent free updates.

I miss the good old days before early access games existed; back then, when you bought a game, you knew that it was finished. Also, back in the good old days, developers would either pay or give freebies to people who tested their games; now they expect us to pay them to test their games.

[Puppers]

Opprinnelig skrevet av xAlphaStarOmegax:

Also, back in the good old days, developers would either pay or give freebies to people who tested their games; now they expect us to pay them to test their games.

What the hell lol I wouldn't take anything from them, except their freshly combed hair strings. To me that just feels .. wrong and agiasnt every fiber 1 bar in my being. Also what makes you think they have not done this before?

[big frank]

You can modify the game how you want it, maybe turn on sprinters and it wont be so easy. Also living in a shed is obviously boring

[Kirino]

"The last couple updates were about style (music overhaul, pretty animations, new graphics etc) - which honestly added nothing in the game for veteran players, it just filled dev's pockets with money."

Luckily the Dev´s simply work with Love and the occasional Snackbar...
You do realize even other much Bigger Studios need funding to keep creating their Updates, instead of focusing on an entirely new Game?

If you are that satisfied with CDDA, then why not just keep playing that instead of posting how "bad" you think PZ is?

And honestly the need for Quests is only for People who need directions in their Life for everything...
Or are you unable to work, unless you are given Instructions all the Time?
Does your Boss have to tell you [Finish assignment x Times] for that Real Life XP?

Play Multiplayer and your Goals can be as vast as you want them to be (Cooperate to build the biggest Base, go on a looting Spree, become an outlaw for Hire, etc...)

[BeetlePie]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Kirino:

"If you are that satisfied with CDDA, then why not just keep playing that instead of posting how "bad" you think PZ is?

The funny part is that PZ is the last game he played, and it gets even better when you notice he keeps stacking game hours. This means he's playing it on invisible mode right now. My bet is that he got salty by some random nuisance and decided to rant about the game.

[SgtEmissary [Kane's Will]]

Opprinnelig skrevet av BeetlePie:

Opprinnelig skrevet av Kirino:

"If you are that satisfied with CDDA, then why not just keep playing that instead of posting how "bad" you think PZ is?

The funny part is that PZ is the last game he played, and it gets even better when you notice he keeps stacking game hours. He's playing it on invisible mode right now. My bet is that he got salty by some random nuisance and decided to rant about the game.

Or just someone that likes to stir up ♥♥♥♥ for the sake of it and watch the thread burn.