I was recently playing Deadside, a game that has been talking about in the Steam gamers community, and I have been sharing my impressions since this promising first-person survival game.
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Deadside is a hardcore multiplayer survival game developed by indie Bad Pixel, the game aims to deliver a more realistic survival experience, without fanciful elements like zombies, robots or animals fictional(speaking of a robot, you've seen my analysis of Generation Zero?), and focuses the whole game's attention on the most realistic aspect of staying alive in a "dead" and abandoned world.
Right now being in Early Access, the game is in pre-alpha (or alpha), and the map is based on a mountainous environment full of forests formed by pine trees and open fields, with some clusters of houses at certain points, not even close to being "cities" themselves, they are basically farms. There are several streets with abandoned cars, and small points of interest if you wanted to explore and collect equipment.
The game like all survival games (Rust, The Forest, Generation Zero, etc.), is not an easy game, it aims to be really difficult, and playing solo can be frustrating and as it is in an early stage of development, it can be a bit monotonous.
The map is quite large, it is not well filled and you end up walking a lot and having little to look for in the small houses you find, usually a set of 2 houses with 1 or 2 shacks and some cars. This makes you wander for several moments simply looking for what to do. And during these long walks you can meet with some players, or with some hostile NPCs, the most common is an armed trio that will open fire at the slightest signal you make when crossing your front.
But the game delivers a very interesting graphic quality, with beautiful landscapes and good modeling of weapons and objects, but it leaves much to be desired in the houses, houses that have little variation and are simply empty, with some broken objects here or there. There are some missions accomplished by time, in which you must arrive at the points indicated to accomplish, some with levels higher than the other and that can give you a certain job to accomplish.
Something I didn't notice is if there is a cycle of day and night, in the hours I played I witnessed a constant and endless sunny day. In the game there are also 2 safe spots on the map, where you can find NPCs that make a trading system, for buying and selling items and weapons, an interesting addition that can make life easier for more casual players, and save you if you're running some danger, since in these areas the use of weapons is disabled.
Unfortunately the game suffers from the effect of Rust, players with more time on the server can set up gangs, and simply decimate any chance of solo players (or smaller groups) to survive. And also with more exploration, you will have a chance to find better weapons and equipment, but even with good equipment, being alone and meeting an enemy duo is almost certain death, as the game does not help you at any time, with aiming or balancing weapons in order to facilitate".
In the game there is a system for manufacturing items and bases, but it is not clear at first how it works, still comparing it to Rust in which when you appear on the map, you are already harvesting basic resources, in Deadside there is no such stimulus, in it you already appear and go out instinctively exploring looking for weapons and clothes, which makes it late to appear the need to create a base, boxes or even bags to carry more equipment, which sometimes is not even needed if you find one in a downed NPC.
Speaking of which, remembering those 3 NPCs who patrol the areas? They can be your doom or your salvation. Passing close to them and ending up not seeing them can be a certain death, but if you already have a weapon, you can calmly shoot them down using minimal strategy. And their equipment is generally good, which guarantees you a good advantage against other unsuspecting players. You can simply hunt these 3 NPCs for the maps and guarantee good loots, and also sell them in the secure areas, also guaranteeing credits to buy resources. What makes it a rather meager and pointless process to "grate" by collecting items to create things in the actual construction mode.
But I am very suspicious to analyze this type of game, as I like to be prepared for more difficult survival experiences in this style, so much so that when I started Deadside, after a few minutes I was remembering the initial stages from Rust, so I can say that the game's success or failure will only depend on the developers, who can deliver a great game in its full version, or a total disappointment. But I hope that with small and constant updates, they will add improvements and refinements during the development process.
The developers promise for the final version a map 10x larger than the current one, reaching 225km2 (currently 25km2), dozens of weapons, some vehicles and several improvements, settlements and cities. But with the amount of work you have to do to deliver everything, I don't think it's a quick job, and the full version may take a long time to be released.
Deadside is a very interesting and also very promising game, but at the current stage there is still a long way to go. The sensation is that of having a whole pizza, and eating only the edges, waiting for the best part of the filling but not being able to eat it. That's why I say that Deadside may have been released too soon, but it still makes you want to take a few walks through the game's forest, after something you haven't seen.
For now I recommend Deadside for those like me who like the style and don't care about bugs, or the "lack" of simple features already known in other games, and who simply like the hardcore survival experience provided at this stage of development. So I warn you that it is not a game for everyone.
This analysis I did in partnership with our partner Mens Club, who gave me the game key. If you don't know him visit your page, and discover one of the greatest curators on Steam.
Programmer, Game Developer, Indie Games, Arts and Anime enthusiast.
I created the site as a hobby to post interesting and random content that I see around.
