Just Beat Heartland (My thoughts)

[No' Name]

Hello all,

So I've owned this game ever since launch on Microsoft store and such, and finally decided to beat Heartland.

At first this was a neat little change from what I normally do on just the basic mode, but after beating it, I think I left with mostly negative things to say about this mode or the games so called "Story".

Firstly the map was interesting, and at first I felt like there was tons of opportunity to off-road, and didn't really have an issue going back and forth, at least from the north side, to my base. This soon changes when you go exploring elsewhere. There are so many godamned rocks, and things to catch your vehicle on it's amazing. Not only that but even if you don't try off-roading and take the normal roads, it's so littered with trash, vehicles, and other crap, that it almost feels like the map was intended to just go off-roading, because god forbid me from not wanting to get caught on every damned rock from doing it, but the alternative by actually going on the road is actually worse. Based off of map design, and if we're comparing it to the basic 4 maps we have on campaign. I would honestly say this is absolutely without a shadow of doubt, the worst map in the entire game.

Character wise, it's pretty neat, I've only done Halena, and the other guys story, though I'm pretty sure other than characters, it's not much different, I guess I'll have to try to find out myself. But anyways, the characters you find in the game are more interesting than the basic people you find in campaign mode, and almost everyone (if not everyone) has their uses in the base, it was nice that I actually "Wanted" to go out and find people, and or help them, rather than being called every 10 minutes to go save someone's ass for nothing in return in the campaign mode. Albeit, this is due to how "Story" drive Heartland was supposed to be. The only gripe I have here, is a character you save near the end of the story allows you to craft backpacks (8 Slot ones). Why is this the LAST Person you end up finding? I could have used the ability to craft backpacks, before I picked up 10+, 8 Slot Backpacks, thus making that character absolutely useless. I could see maybe throwing picking them up in the middle of the "Story" a good idea, but at the end of the game? That's just stupid, as I'm never going to go back and play that save "just for fun".

And finally, the Story... Seriously you could tell this was just an after thought. There honestly doesn't need to be any talking at all, and could have just pointed me where it wanted me to go, and I would have got the gist of the story, just by moving from point a, to point b. For a mode that gives you a choice of four characters to play with at the beginning, I found myself wanting to get away from them the very second I could, and that's exactly what I did. I'm not sure why giving us the option to pick between starting characters was even a thing, they are pretty much forced into one, or two quests, with the bare minimum things to say. You'd think at the very least, these characters would be "Main characters" throughout a good portion of the "Story", but they're not. I might as well have just had two random survivors like in campaign mode.

The idea of having "Plague Walls" was interesting at first, and I like how portions of the map were actually blocked off until these walls were destroyed, it gave me probably the only sense of progression in the entire mode, and it's incredibly short lived. When I focused on these Plague Walls, it took me all of 30 minutes to destroy them all, and then the game just ended. The ending was terrible, and a 2 year old could have come up with something better, in much less time to.

Once Heartland has been beaten. Your characters don't go anywhere like the basic campaign, where you could throw them into a Legendary Survivor group, you keep absolutely no one, which is a shame, because at least two of the characters looked cool, only due to the fact they have clothing I've never seen before, and their hair is blue, which honestly I'm pretty sure someone screwed up somewhere, and it's just a glitch they were too lazy to fix, and said "Eff it, looks cool, no one will notice". And after beating it, you'd think "oh okay, I can go free roam now, right?" NOPE! Reloading your Heartland campaign only throws you at the last checkpoint you were at before beating Heartland.

Anyways, these are just my thoughts, and I'm glad I didn't buy this game for the "Story". I might play Heartland again to see if anything changes from picking the other two characters, I highly doubt it, and I'm sure if I look it up, I won't be surprised at the answer.

[SpunkyJones]

Only difference with the starting characters is the building they allow you to build.

[Newsush]

i was disppointed with the ending

[Fifteen]

I'm curious about the thing you discover at the end of the gauntlet but, yeah, I would have liked to free roam in Heartland. And the increased debris is super annoying. But I liked going back to Trumball Valley like in the first game, as well as the breakable fences.

[cruinne]

I too was disappointed that the game just ends, and there's no going back. All the build up, and that's it? Hey, this thing is here. Game over.

[No' Name]

I think the worst part about the ending, is that it basically rips off like 40% of the story of pretty much any Zombie/Horror movie, or game, that if you really can't see how it's going to end within the first 25% of Heartland, you must have missed out on a LOT of Zombie games, and movies.

[wpeale71341]

This is by far the absolute worst map/storyline to play in this entire game. What? The regular writing staff went home for the holidays and they let the janitorial staff write this one? Totally glitchy. Some glitches are even game breaking. Based on searches I made for work arounds for them Undead labs knows but either can't find any way to patch them out or they just don't see any reason to bother fixing this piece of garbage map set. Its impossible to navigate in a car and in places even on foot if you happen to encounter a deadly sidewalk. There is a glitch where you can't pass the second quest you get after creating the first home base. The simple plague preparedness quest. 3 plague samples and craft a cure. Nope it never clears which in turn does not allow any further quests to kick off. End of the story for you right there. Tried to bypass it by going to the next story locale. NOPERS!!!!! NOT HAPPENING. Even the most annoying features in all the the other maps pales in comparison to this absolute garbage storyline with its non keepable characters. I rather enjoy having characters I get to keep after getting o know them. There is nothing about this story that is worth a second look sadly.

[Fifteen]

Originally posted by wpeale71341:

This is by far the absolute worst map/storyline to play in this entire game. What? The regular writing staff went home for the holidays and they let the janitorial staff write this one? Totally glitchy. Some glitches are even game breaking. Based on searches I made for work arounds for them Undead labs knows but either can't find any way to patch them out or they just don't see any reason to bother fixing this piece of garbage map set. Its impossible to navigate in a car and in places even on foot if you happen to encounter a deadly sidewalk. There is a glitch where you can't pass the second quest you get after creating the first home base. The simple plague preparedness quest. 3 plague samples and craft a cure. Nope it never clears which in turn does not allow any further quests to kick off. End of the story for you right there. Tried to bypass it by going to the next story locale. NOPERS!!!!! NOT HAPPENING. Even the most annoying features in all the the other maps pales in comparison to this absolute garbage storyline with its non keepable characters. I rather enjoy having characters I get to keep after getting o know them. There is nothing about this story that is worth a second look sadly.

Boo! Hiss! Boo! You don't represent me!