Recent reviews by The Cog (O.T.H.G.)

Okay so after trying this game a few times after buying it, I have determined that while it is actually a nice game (from what I managed to do in the short amount of time I spent playing) the lack of any initial guide makes playing the game a bit hard...even on EASY. Not knowing what to look for, because nothing "lights" up when you get close to it, to let you know it is lootable (like in other games), I spent the better part of the first hour of playtime running around (on normal mode) trying to avoid predators while trying to catch a rabbit or chicken (sadly, even in this survival game, we cannot run down a chicken). Rather then catch anything I could eat, I instead became something a bear could eat; note to self, ignore the small critters until you can manage to make a bow. Oh, and on that particular topic, making the bow isn't the only hard part, making the arrows is just as difficult...if you don't have feathers....which come from chickens...the same chickens that YOU CAN'T RUN DOWN! The 9 mm that you start the game with, will put down a wolf with most of your ammunition being used up in the process; better hope a hunter doesn't come along. Oh, and don't bother using it on small game unless you want to carry around an animal carcass, because live ammunition + small game = bad.

So, I found that finding food is rather difficult even on easy mode. For me (not sure about other players') finding the fiber was really hard, because it blended into the surroundings. I am old, and my eyes are not that great. The lighting (or lack there of in some areas) actually hurt my eyes. So as far as gathering fiber and other "gatherables", I found it very difficult to do, due to looking out for predators, and the lighting effects causing eye pains. Why am I so concerned about gatherables you ask? Well, to put it simply, not only do we have a food and water meter, but also a "fruits and vegetables" meter! We have to manage 3 different meters to keep the 4th meter in a "happy" place. Proteins (from what else but meat), fruits and vegetables (from gatherables that I couldn't find easily), and water from...well...water. That one is the easiest I think, not very easy to miss a large body of water. Oh, but keep in mind that you also need to be able to boil your water before drinking, and we only have "1 freakin match" in our inventory???? I didn't really check the crafting pages too much, because I couldn't even get the base foundation part done (again, all thanks to hard to find gatherables), but it may be possible that there is a "flint and steel" or something of that nature that you can make...once you make a pick axe.....

I was not very impressed with the level of difficulty of the crafting system in the game, and I absolutely love crafting in games (it is my main focus in fact). I mean, we are in the middle of a forest, with all manner of plant life around us, and we can only gather fiber from one source? The fact that the first building we can construct requires "nails" makes me a little unhappy as well. While I was a boy scout 39 years ago, I seem to recall a basic structure being tree branches and twine or cord or something of that nature....not NAILS! This is supposed to be a survival game, not a Builder Bob game right? Basic survival shelter should not require us to seek out nails from boxes that are surrounded by predators; the very same predators you tell us at the beginning of the game to AVOID! There needs to be more options for actual "survival" in the game, rather then expect us to sate our hunger on Gourmet meals and live in air-conditioned housing! In other words, we should be starting from basic, and working our way up to luxury, not starting from middle class and going for luxury... Survival shelter, tree branches tied together with long woven grass cords are a basic structure for example. Snares are simple traps, requiring very little to construct, but allow us to actually catch small game and helps us to survive.

Okay enough of the rant I suppose. Over-all, I think this game has potential, if there was a basic tutorial that would help us figure out what it is we are supposed to be looking for it would definitely make it better. Equally good would be a better crafting system, which would include actual basic survival facilities and items. (several years ago they used stone tools for example, and they must have worked because we are still here today). But, as for recommending the game to others' I cannot do that based on my experiences. All I can say is if you like something that is really challenging (and have better eyesight then I do) go ahead and give it a try.

I haven't played very long, and I kinda like the game, but I mostly do not. I would like it a lot more if some of the things that I have experienced weren't happening. To start:

Animals that we are supposed to hunt for food are able to run full speed "UNDER WATER" and escape us, while we hit the water and are reduced to 10% speed. Its bad enough the landscape is filled with vegetation that makes using a bow at the beginning of the game (due to having absolutely no skill with the bow at all) nearly impossible, we can't even run them down and melee them. So I often end up starving. I build near or on water, and have found that I cannot fish for food. It doesn't seem to be a skill we can get in the game. So the only thing we can do for food early on, is hunt. I am fine hunting, but I should be able to run a chicken down....

As I mentioned above, I build near or on water. Our characters "CANNOT SWIM"; we sink or float VERY SLOWLY! This would be fine, if there was a build camera in the game. But since I often have to build things going down in the water, I have to wait until I have sunk to the bottom which as I said happens slowly. Basically, building underwater is tedious and annoying. Even I can swim, so I find it hard to believe that in a survival game, we CANNOT SWIM!

I am not a fan of the "Press E to remove" feature that we have on the frame shapes. They should default to a temporary lock, and have us hold E to remove. Since we have limited storage, I have to build secured storage chests a lot. The problem with those is that they cannot be removed once placed (in my experience anyway). So I have been building them on frame shapes, because when I remove the frame shape, what ever is attached to it, or on top of it, gets destroyed. And I am sorry, but I am not interested in spending 5 minutes bashing those chests with my stone axe to get rid of them. So the issue here, is that when you try to interact with an item attached to a frame shape, sometimes the frame shape gets removed instead of the interaction taking place. I just lost a chest full of crap I spent all day gathering (no, not game day, 12 hours of my life that probably should have been spent doing something else, day), while I was gathering to build my base. Yes, more then 200 raw meat destroyed because I didn't have space in my inventory to remove anything in the bag of stuff that appeared after the chest was destroyed (and if it wasn't made obvious, getting that more then 200 meat was not an easy task to begin with). Mods, meds, a chest full of items that needed to go somewhere, destroyed, because I am too stubborn to smash a box for 5 minutes to remove it from the area I place it in. I was at day 4, 18:37 hours when this happened. That is a lot of time wasted and not enough time to try to get the items again before the 7th day.

Something else that goes along with the water, is the effect that my building seems to have in the water. Where ever I place something, or remove something, the water indents, leaving a hole that doesn't respawn into areas that are interacted with. I also noticed that those indented areas also seem to have water flowing down into them, like a waterfall. If I swim into them, I get pushed down under water. Also, since I am back to water, I cannot climb out of water onto anything I have built. For example, if I place some stairs or a ladder under the surface of the water, I cannot climb out of the water on them. The only way to get out of the water is to float (because we can't "swim") to the shore. I am not sure if this was an intentional handicap for us, or an over looked bug, but yeah, when I am building 150m off the shore, and want to get out of the water, I have to spend a lot of time slowly floating back to the shore.

Even though I have the music turned off, I still get music tracks playing when events happen. And that ♥♥♥♥ is loud!!!!! I can't hear my friends speaking when that music comes on! I realize it is for general atmosphere, but we should be able to disable "ALL" music, not just the stuff the developer lets us. Those of us that turn music off have our reasons for doing so, but the game forces us to have the atmosphere music on. I haven't tried turning off all sound though, because I need to be able to hear zombies coming. So I have no idea if that would eliminate that music.

I am sure there are some other things I am forgetting at this time, so I will just move on.


The concept of the game is awesome, I totally love it! I think if the issues that I have with it were not present, that this would be my new favorite game. The building, the zombie killing, is great! If things change in the future, I will amend my rating, but currently, the only way I can recommend this game is by saying, if the things I mentioned above are things that would bother you, then play at your own risk. It is a really good concept, but in my opinion, there are somethings that need to be changed.

This game, I both Love and Hate, and for the same reason.

I can't play this enough!

I have to sleep, I have to work. I've been playing it almost constantly since I first started it. Honestly, for $15.00 I feel like I am stealing from the developer. This is a game I have been wanting for several years. The ability to play at my own pace, no timed quests to complete, no "competition" for anything with other players. No, I can just farm resources for a few hours, build my villages, then go out taking down Monoliths. This game gives me the feeling of playing an RPG, without internet access, because I can't always find an internet connection (professional driver). Plenty of surprises along the way as well. I was shocked that a deer attacked me.... o.O

At the present time, the one thing I am hoping for, is that bags kept in other containers allow for items to auto populate an existing stack, so that I can avoid constantly stopping to clean up my backpack space. But seriously, I love this game so far.! I haven't found any bugs yet, and I am far from running out of things to do in the game.

I recommend this game to people that want to play a casual RPG and have the ability to do and make what you want in the world you create without worrying about questlines. I am so glad I decided to get this game!!