Here's Some Feedback and Thoughts on This New Version

[callmesrabbit]

Overall I started playing this game back in 2022, and here are my thoughts on the December 2024 update.

First Impressions

At first glance, separating difficulty levels is a great improvement. The character abilities seem to have been enhanced, with more growth options compared to before. Also, fixing the issue where only the team leader could gain zombie kills is a welcome change. Overall, the update looks promising. The new damage tags and status effects are refreshing. The ability to customize previously fixed bonuses for each character is also a great improvement, allowing for better synergy among characters.

However...

After playing for a few days, I started noticing some issues. By the time I finished using Glass Cannon today, I decided to share some long-standing concerns I have about this game.
(Spoilers ahead, read with caution.)

First, while I think the new tag system is a good addition, it comes with its own problems. After much thought, I realized that if you aim to play Endless Mode, you must choose badges that increase tag counts. This is because, aside from character leveling and specific items, there is no other way to gain new tags. While items have been strengthened in this version, the limitation of only 8 item slots becomes very restrictive. This forces players to sacrifice other excellent items if they want to collect more tags.

This limitation results in very few viable item combinations. It’s clear the developers intended to encourage creative builds for an enjoyable experience, but here’s the issue:

In Endless Mode, zombie damage scales excessively in the late game. This leaves only a few viable strategies:

Stack damage buffs + attack speed + reduced reload time (for ranged characters) or attack cooldown (for melee characters).
High-growth builds: Using Schrödinger's Cat and Letter of Recommendation to grow faster than the zombies. As long as your growth outpaces theirs, you won’t have to worry about being hit or one-hit-killed.
High lifesteal/HP recovery builds: Combining Ghost, Medic, and Tank for survival, plus innate lifesteal, makes it easy to survive past 30 minutes.
Other builds are either too complicated to execute or lead to one-hit deaths. While I’ve seen players survive 3+ hours in Endless Mode, suggesting there might be other strategies, these are the main ones I found.

Character Design Issues

As I kept playing, I noticed some characters’ designs could use further refinement. Here are some specific examples:

Medic:

The Medic’s Tier-3 weapon is nearly unusable unless controlled manually. Upgrading it to Tier-3 in a three-member team and checking its stats reveals that the output is lower than Tier-2. Why? The main issue seems to be its low hit rate. If you can’t hit your target, damage is meaningless. I suggest redesigning or improving the Tier-3 weapon. While the Medic is a support character with low damage output, this feels unnecessarily limiting.

Engineer:

The Engineer’s Tier-3 weapon (Explosive Gun) seems to have been nerfed repeatedly, making it weaker. While reducing its penetration might make sense, the reduced range feels unnecessary. Similarly, the Tier-2 Tesla Gun, which was previously strong, now feels underwhelming. Its ability to stun multiple zombies and reduce incoming damage was a crucial feature, but it no longer feels effective.

Pyromaniac:

The Pyromaniac’s weapons feel inconsistent. For example, in lower difficulty levels, the Firefighter Axe performs better than Ghost, but in higher difficulties, it becomes nearly unusable due to its slow attack speed and inability to kill zombies in one hit.

Weapon progression is also flawed.

Tier 1: Firefighter Axe
Tier 2: Blowtorch (the extended range in this update is great!)
Tier 3: Flamethrower/Blazing Axe
While it’s clear the developers want to offer a choice between melee and ranged, the new tag system renders this character’s late-game tags inconsistent. Additionally, using the Flamethrower means losing the bleeding tags accumulated by the Axe. This makes the Blazing Axe the only viable choice for maximizing damage and status effects.

Furthermore, the Pyromaniac’s "No Pain No Gain" skill evolution feels poorly balanced. One option increases damage based on HP, which pairs well with Milk and Frozen Heart. However, the other option adds a "No Life Recovery" debuff. This becomes disastrous when combined with Glass Cannon, leading to frequent instant deaths even in Hardcore Difficulty.

Other Feedback

New Camera View: If your screen position isn’t set properly, the new camera view is better left disabled. In the first Endless City map, I noticed the camera automatically scrolls upwards but doesn’t follow when moving downward, making it harder to see zombies ahead. This makes the new camera less effective than the default one, and I wouldn’t recommend using it unless fixed.

Summary:

I appreciate the developers’ efforts to improve character growth and item mechanics, as well as their intention to create more strategic gameplay. I hope the feedback above can help make the game even better.

This feedback is translate by gpt.