Tried NMRIH2 during the free weekend and honestly lost interest on the first day. The atmosphere and co-op potential are there, but the zombie spawn system completely ruins it. You can clear a room, check every corner, and two seconds later zombies just spawn right behind you like it never happened. It makes any kind of strategy or teamwork feel pointless. Instead of feeling tense or immersive, it just feels cheap and frustrating. Hard pass unless they seriously fix the spawn logic.

Free Weekend Review

After seeing all those negative reviews flow in at launch and restraining myself from purchasing this game, I've decided to give it a go during free weekend. I can see a lot of improvements had been implemented since launch which included many features from the original Source game such as infection, a wheel inventory menu and classic guns. As well as bug fixes which makes this game a bit more enjoyable to play compared to video reviews showing it at launch. But at this stage and speaking from my personal experience, I still don't recommend it to anyone yet. Also, don't expect NMRIH2 to be similar to the original NMRIH, especially if you really like the first game.

My main complaints and what can be improved:
- Joining a game: There is literally only one option, and it's multiplayer. Not even an option to pick a server either. So if you're very unlucky, you might be connected to a server half way across the globe with 300+ ping, making the game literally unplayable with the lag delays. And if you quit mid-game to rejoin, you instantly lose the character you're using. There really should be at least an option to adjust your acceptable ping for joining a server, or choosing a server you want to join that's not 300+ ping away. Especially due the consequence that NMRIH2 will kill off the character you're using if you decide to go back into the menu, given that character progression and skill unlocking is a feature.

- No single player mode: Yes it can be extremely hard and challenging for a solo run, but there really should be an option to give players the mode they want to play, especially when offline. Having just the multiplayer option available kinda limits player preferences. Or, at the very least change the minimum requirement of needing 2 players to start a private lobby and make it so that just the single host can start a private lobby, and friends can maybe perhaps join mid-game.

- Zombies, their respawns and balancing: There is literally no limit to zombies respawning. This needs to be reworked and balanced out. You can clear an entire room with a squad of 4 people, all turn our backs to walk one way, and turn around with 2-3 zombies just appearing out of thin air. During finales, this is extremely annoying especially when ammo runs scarce. There needs to be a balance between finding sufficient resources and zombie respawning rate.
Even comparing to the first game, military zombies have a chance to drop resources such as ammo, a pistol, grenades or bandages players can pickup and use, which does help out to balance the game a little.

Review will be subject to change accordingly to how the game improves over time. I would like to purchase this game one day, but I much rather wait until it's full release and finished, not in early access.

As a NMRIH 1 veteran, I’m quite disappointed with this game. At the time of writing this review, I can’t recommend buying it - not even when it’s on sale for around 23€. The main issues I’ve encountered while playing include:

► Occasional problems when trying to join games, whether solo or in a group (the game says "ready" or "in a match" but nothing happens, and eventually it shows an error)

► An absurdly high number of constantly spawning zombies, who are either extremely tanky or melee weapons just deal far too little damage

► Zombies sometimes manage to grab or hit you from a distance where it's clearly not physically possible

► Item spawns sometimes make no sense - for example, you open a military crate and it's empty, but then you find an assault rifle and four magazines just lying on a rubbish bag

► At times, it's absolutely unclear what you're supposed to do even with the compass

► Bugs - zombies were climbing through closed windows, some doors were duplicated and clipping into each other, and the hitboxes are weird. They can hit you while you’re standing on certain cars, but not if you’re on a gravestone or a kitchen counter

► When I die, spectating others can be difficult due to a glitched inventory screen covering the entire view. And when it does work, the player I'm spectating often teleports

► Overall, it feels like the game is not playable solo or with a small group of friends. In order to survive, you either need someone who really knows the game or you’ve got to run with a full squad and work together the whole time