Dead Age 2 has attempted to go more complex in its mechanics, but it's missed the survival and rogue-like mark.

This game is too easy. After a few playthroughs on Normal, I started a new character on Hardcore and didn't take the upgrade medals. I'm a good way into it and it's been fun, but very easy still. The combat is fun, but gets repetitive once you work out your routine, and food, water, snacks, and medical equipment are all too readily available to be much of a worry. You can buy enough food and water from the independents early game not to have to worry about it for the first three or four days and nights.. Once you have the garden set up, and someone with some levels in biology, you can generate enough food and water not to have to worry about it from then on.

The rogue-like mechanics are out of whack, too I played a couple of times on Normal and went to start a new game and it told me I had 55 upgrade medals, which translated to significant skill point upgrades so that I could start the game early-specialised in two or three areas. Given how easy I've found the game on Hardcore without the upgrade medals, I can only imagine what it would be like on Normal and taking the medals. These kind of rogue-likes are supposed to give you incremental progress that keeps each run through challenging and allows you to progress a little bit further each time. See For The King. It just feels like the developers have put the mechanics in but not bothered to balance them properly, but the balance is everything in these games.

Maybe I'm not the intended audience here, I like my survival and rogue-likes to be pretty punishing. Any readers should keep that in mind and take my views accordingly, but this game just didn't hit what it feels like it set out to do.

The game has only been released, so patches may address any or all of these criticisms. I'll come back and change my vote if that happens, because maybe this is something that can be fixed just by tweaking the numbers.

Dead Age 2 has attempted to go more complex in its mechanics, but it's missed the survival and rogue-like mark. This game is too easy. After a few playthroughs on Normal, I started a new character on Hardcore and didn't take the upgrade medals. I'm a good way into it and it's been fun, but very easy still. The combat is fun, but gets repetitive once you work out your routine, and food, water, snacks, and medical equipment are all too readily available to be much of a worry. You can buy enough food and water from the independents early game not to have to worry about it for the first three or four days and nights.. Once you have the garden set up, and someone with some levels in biology, you can generate enough food and water not to have to worry about it from then on. The rogue-like mechanics are out of whack, too I played a couple of times on Normal and went to start a new game and it told me I had 55 upgrade medals, which translated to significant skill point upgrades so that I could start the game early-specialised in two or three areas. Given how easy I've found the game on Hardcore without the upgrade medals, I can only imagine what it would be like on Normal and taking the medals. These kind of rogue-likes are supposed to give you incremental progress that keeps each run through challenging and allows you to progress a little bit further each time. See For The King. It just feels like the developers have put the mechanics in but not bothered to balance them properly, but the balance is everything in these games. Maybe I'm not the intended audience here, I like my survival and rogue-likes to be pretty punishing. Any readers should keep that in mind and take my views accordingly, but this game just didn't hit what it feels like it set out to do. The game has only been released, so patches may address any or all of these criticisms. I'll come back and change my vote if that happens, because maybe this is something that can be fixed just by tweaking the numbers.