Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

Dead State is Alive

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 8, 2014

DeadState1Dead State has been released.

I wish I could give you a detailed run-down of how awesome this game is, but I avoided playing it during the pre-release, and it hit full release just as I was hitting a convention and getting ready to travel out of the country AND had my editor demanding some significant (but much-needed) changes to a short story. So… triple whammy. It was force of will to avoid playing the crap out of it so I could get all my necessary things done.

Anyway… I’ve been waiting for Dead State for a long time. Long before the Kickstarter.  Part of me is terrified that after such a long wait, it’s not going to live up to my expectations. And… I’m hearing some rumblings that there have been some bad hiccups / glitches on release, so maybe it’s good that I wait a few more days (probably not until I return from my business trip) before playing.

The concept is thrilling. It’s a “zombie game,” which was popular when the game was first announced, but has gotten pretty stale since then. However, the real focus is on survival and dealing with human enemies, as opposed to the zombies, which are supposed to be more of an environmental force.

I guess folks can tell me how awesome (or not) it is while I’m away. Go ahead. 🙂  For me, it’s one of those things that truly represents the “indie revolution” and its effect on one of my favorite genres, the RPG. This is not something I can easily see being made back in the old studio / publisher system.  Maybe with the popularity of zombie games a few years ago it might have been possible, but… not likely. Especially not a more cerebral, turn-based, party-based, base-building RPG like this one promises to be.

Anyway, it’s a long time coming. Glad to see it has finally made it to release!

 


Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: 3 Comments to Read



  • Dave Toulouse said,

    I’ve been waiting for a good turn-based zombie game and I’ve been watching this one for a long time now.

    I just can’t get into these nerve-racking real-time games so it means I haven’t played a single zombie game yet so I guess that’s why I’m not “bored” yet by the zombie theme.

    Now all I need is time to play 🙂

  • Tom H. said,

    This was quite fun over the weekend. Every time something started to feel rote in game, the feel of the game shifted.

    Early on it was definitely a question of survival against zombies and making sure I had minimum levels of stockpiles.

    Then I was feeling at risk but generally secure, with nearly two week’s food and fuel on hand, but at only 8-10 survivors without any redundancy or a work force to make improvements rapidly.

    Now (~30 skill points), although I’m well-equipped enough that combat against a half-dozen zombies, looters, or gangsters isn’t worrisome, I’ve had several days where I rescued multiple survivors and now have more than 15 people in the shelter. It’s getting harder to manage personalities and conflicts, I’m carrying several of those people as overhead who can’t work or strongly prefer to work in nice-but-non-critical jobs, and food is suddenly a worry again. Meanwhile every time my main character progresses it’s hard to choose between improving combat skills, in-world-useful skills, and the leadership & negotiation tracks.

    This game follows the Original D&D concept of XP-from-loot (and various other goals) instead of XP-from-combat, and it’s quite appropriate to the context.

    Currently at ~30 skill points.

  • Modran said,

    Damn, there are skill points?
    Got my first REAL dead on the third day. Looters are much more dangerous than deaders.
    Didn’t reload. part of the game.
    Oooh, boy, I lost the medic and everyone tells me they miss here. Oh boy. This is gonna get tricky…

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