• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

ZombiU |OT| Zombi Emergency! WiiU WiiU WiiU WiiU

A couple of quick, dumb things:

How do you store loot in your safe house? I haven't been arsed to figure this out yet and it's becoming evident I need to figure it out soon. That last death stung HARD.

Yeah, I only tried once so far right after saving my game and I ended up deleting a molotov cocktail.
 
Ugh. One big annoying bug kinda late in the game:

After you get the upgrade for your scanner that unlocks doors, you can go get the guy's eye needed for the retinal scanner. This allows you to open a door, you shouldn't be allowed to open until after you have found all the letters. Or maybe it was just the fact that I could run through fire that should've killed me, I don't remember.

After you open the Queen's flat, all seems fine, and you start adventuring. Then eventually you drop through an air vent and there is a door that is barred, and no way to get back up to the air vent. Luckily the game doesn't have autosave otherwise I would've been fucked. it was a big waste of 20 minutes though.
 

d0c_zaius

Member
got a chance to play this finally last night. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if not for a couple puzzling design decisions (which center around the combat mechanics and visual filters).

I really hate the melee (cricket bat) bland combat, and having to hold LT then push RT for a slugging swing. Give me more options next time please.
 
so, what would you guys want from a sequel?
what new ideas do you think should be integrated?

More melee weapons, but have them retain their own specific animation. Similar to the cricket bat in that its the same swing every time, but make some melee weapons stronger or weaker. Like a fast dagger type weapon or something heavy and slower but does tons of damage.

I love the way the city and environments are set up. You can't interact with too many things but I feel like the development team did this on purpose. No jump button, etc. it would break the way the game is meant to be played. Similar to resident evil, you can only climb on top of certain objects. You can't jump around all over the place. The game forces you to figure out its inner workings and you have to literally adapt and overcome. I've really never played anything like it.

That being said though, I'd love to see even bigger set pieces, larger environments and whatnot. A sequel has the potential to be like RE2, where in that the first game in the series is incredible but the sequel just blows the doors off it and blows people away. At the same time though, ZombiU has such a great variety of environments. A few come to mind that are so incredibly frightening. Going back through them for a 2nd time is just as scary. Sometimes even more because you have no clue what's waiting for you around the corner.

It really is a damn shame that some reviewers have judged it so harshly. I honestly feel like they weren't playing the game in the way the developers intended. Yes there are things wrong within the game but they are honestly few and far between. The game does a lot of things right and it's these things that set the game apart.

This game really is that good.

Edit-

Lets remember too that bigger is not always better.

Look at where the Resident Evil series wandered off to, wallowing in obscurity and marketed towards god knows who.

ZombiU is so stripped down that many gamers who weren't around for the PSX survival horror era will find themselves confused and frustrated. Claiming the game is broken because they've never played a true old school survival horror.

Those of us who remember those days fondly have every reason to play ZombiU.
 
the game setting is always nigh time?

I think the "nexgen" aspect of it, besides the controller immersion is definitely melee combat. It's fight or flight the entire way through and fighting with the cricket bat is so intense. It's really cinematic is how it looks and plays, but it's entirely up to the player to survive. It's extremely well done. Some reviews call it boring or repetitive, I call it balls to the wall, "holy shit how the hell am I going to live through this??" It's exhilarating for sure.

dont get me wrong but how one of the worst aspects of the game ( melee fighting ) its next gen? what separate this melee from the ones of dead island ( way more depth on that regard)
 
the game setting is always nigh time?



dont get me wrong but how one of the worst aspects of the game ( melee fighting ) its next gen? what separate this melee from the ones of dead island ( way more depth on that regard)

The way it's done. The camera, screen filters and music. The heaviness of the hits that land. the zombie AI and their movements, etc. It's more cinematic without taking control out of the players hands. Uncharted and Assassin's Creed look like blockbusters but many times the melee combat feels so scripted in those games. Me personally, I don't like that type of gameplay. There were many times where my brother watching me play was saying, "omg, omg, omg, run, run!! That was fucking insane!!"

Learn how the game works. It's not going to get any easier and mastering the cricket bat is key if you want to survive.

As for more depth in dead island.

I don't agree with that at all. I found dead island to be pretty juvenile.
 

Hiltz

Member
For those who are playing or have finished the game, how is the upgrade system ? Do the guns become faster to aim and reload with and offer less recoil the more you use them while surviving with the same character ? Does the cricket bat also get better ? Are the upgraded weapons that you can forge at base camp worthwhile ? Just curious since most reviews do not seem to have mentiond much of this stuff.
 
As for more depth in dead island.

I don't agree with that at all. I found dead island to be pretty juvenile.

im talking about the depth of the melee fighting,how many melee movements and weapons zombie u have? because dead island got that right,weapons,movement ( also free movement) weapons break,etc etc
 

hatchx

Banned
The reviews made me so skeptical, but GAF, you just convinced me to go buy this game. It looks like the raw style of gameplay I've been missing in my life.
 
im talking about the depth of the melee fighting,how many melee movements and weapons zombie u have? because dead island got that right,weapons,movement ( also free movement) weapons break,etc etc

I dunno, I felt like dead island was making up for sloppy combat by letting you collect tons of weapons and whatnot.

I honestly don't feel like the combat is sloppy at all in zombiU. It has to be played in a specific way and if you figure it out, it's simply brilliant. Every move you make you have to be completely dedicated to because death can come quick.

I know I'm praising the game to no end but I really feel like this is one of the best games to come out in years.
 
For those who are playing or have finished the game, how is the upgrade system ? Do the guns become faster to aim and reload with and offer less recoil the more you use them while surviving with the same character ? Does the cricket bat also get better ? Are the upgraded weapons that you can forge at base camp worthwhile ? Just curious since most reviews do not seem to have mentiond much of this stuff.

You upgrade your survivor's firearm stats by killing zombies with them. If that character dies though you lose all that progress (it's not as important as you'd think).

You can upgrade firearms themselves by collecting power ups (firepower, accuracy, spread, capacity, etc). Those can be used at workbenches within safehouses. Those are the upgrades that stack from survivor to survivor. However, if you have lots of firearms on you when your character dies and you fail to recover them, they're gone. The only firearm you're guaranteed when you respawn is the handgun.

As for the cricket bat, it can't be upgraded.
 
The upgrade mechanic in Dead Island felt incredibly stupid after a couple hours. Once you had a decent machete with the hot rod mod you were almost invincible. The zombies weren't something to fear, they were fodder for your series of outlandish, OP melee franken-weapons. DI was boring after about 2 hours, there was no challenge.
 
I dunno, I felt like dead island was making up for sloppy combat by letting you collect tons of weapons and whatnot.

I honestly don't feel like the combat is sloppy at all in zombiU. It has to be played in a specific way and if you figure it out, it's simply brilliant. Every move you make you have to be completely dedicated to because death can come quick.

I know I'm praising the game to no end but I really feel like this is one of the best games to come out in years.

So far I'd have to agree. It makes playing WORTH something. WORTH surviving. I felt this in the souls games, but for some reason it feels even more so here. I've never had a zombie game make me question my approach to a situation or scenario like ZombiU. It's fun, terrifiying, nerve bitting, and exhilirating.
 

Tangeroo

Member
You upgrade your survivor's firearm stats by killing zombies with them. If that character dies though you lose all that progress (it's not as important as you'd think).

You can upgrade firearms themselves by collecting power ups (firepower, accuracy, spread, capacity, etc). Those can be used at workbenches within safehouses. Those are the upgrades that stack from survivor to survivor. However, if you have lots of firearms on you when your character dies and you fail to recover them, they're gone. The only firearm you're guaranteed when you respawn is the handgun.

As for the cricket bat, it can't be upgraded.

I learned about losing all of my weapons the hard way. Do you know if there is any way of getting them back? Even just the non-upgraded versions? I shudder to think of trying to beat the game with just a pistol.

I lost the
Carbine, Crossbow, 2-barrel Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and AK-47
:(
 
I learned about losing all of my weapons the hard way. Do you know if there is any way of getting them back? Even just the non-upgraded versions? I shudder to think of trying to beat the game with just a pistol.

I lost the
Carbine, Crossbow, 2-barrel Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and AK-47
:(

Well I stupidly lost my carbine RIGHT AFTER picking it up. Haven't seen once since :( Was wondering the same thing.
 

eXistor

Member
The reviews made me so skeptical, but GAF, you just convinced me to go buy this game. It looks like the raw style of gameplay I've been missing in my life.
Mind you, I haven't played the game yet (stupid Europe...), but I think this is exactly the kind of game you should be ignoring reviews on (not that reviews matter for the most part). Look up gameplay on the game and if you like what you see, you're probably gonna like the end result.

I know I'm expecting some roughness in the game, but the game's fundementals are rock-solid and exactly what I want to see in this type of game, so I'll take the bad with the good. Risen 2 got pretty shit reviews and the combat in that game was terrible, absolutely shit, but it was obviously not the selling point of the game, the exploration was and they nailed that aspect.

I expect the same with ZombiU; there'll be shit to wade through, but the game has the right idea and it makes its point clear enough for the bad to not influence its core too much.

Don't worry so much about polish, not with bold new attempts at gameplay like this. Games that dare to be different need to be applauded.
 

Hiltz

Member
You upgrade your survivor's firearm stats by killing zombies with them. If that character dies though you lose all that progress (it's not as important as you'd think).

You can upgrade firearms themselves by collecting power ups (firepower, accuracy, spread, capacity, etc). Those can be used at workbenches within safehouses. Those are the upgrades that stack from survivor to survivor. However, if you have lots of firearms on you when your character dies and you fail to recover them, they're gone. The only firearm you're guaranteed when you respawn is the handgun.

As for the cricket bat, it can't be upgraded.

Thanks for the info.

Ubisoft twitter comment on player stat progress of ZombiU:

Only 15 people finished #ZombiU in normal mode to date. The fastest in 8hrs, the slowest in 15hrs ... and for the moment no one finished the survivor mode.

Also, twitter confirmation from Ubisoft's Florent Sacre' of ZombiU sequel if the first game is a commercial success.

http://nintendoeverything.com/106209/zombiu-sequel-depends-on-first-games-sales-as-expected/
 
I know it's too early to tell but do you guys think this game will sell well enough that a sequel will be in the cards???

I notice on Miiverse that it's fairly popular.

I'm pretty confident we'll see a sequel, and we'll probably see DLC before that too.

I predicted a while back that ZombiU will sell over a million before Christmas.
 
watch the cctv's weapons seem to spawn once in a great while

Ohh that brings up a good question of mine. So once the cameras are active, that temrinal basically showcases items in that area. So if I see there is a healthkit, I can go find it in that area, correct? Just making sure since I didn't remember the game explaining that menu very wwell.
 
im talking about the depth of the melee fighting,how many melee movements and weapons zombie u have? because dead island got that right,weapons,movement ( also free movement) weapons break,etc etc

It bears repeating that Dead Island has basically nothing in common with Zombi U besides the enemies being zombies and it being first person. One of them is a first person Diablo clone and the other one is a survival horror game. Dead Island isn't trying to create any tension in combat and its resource management mechanics are so far removed from what Zombi U uses them for that you might as well forget about even comparing them.
 
I learned about losing all of my weapons the hard way. Do you know if there is any way of getting them back? Even just the non-upgraded versions? I shudder to think of trying to beat the game with just a pistol.

I lost the
Carbine, Crossbow, 2-barrel Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and AK-47
:(

Thankfully I always managed to recover my items each time I died. There were a few times when I ran into a miiverse survivor and they had tons of loot on them. I'm not sure if they were carrying any weapons that I could take though.

I shudder to think on losing all my weapons. That would royally suck.
 
Just beat it. Great game. Made me terrified the whole entire time. Ending was kinda disappointing gameplay-wise.
Having the tunnels under lockdown was just tedious, and annoying. When the rest of the game is open, it makes little sense why they chose to lock it down for the last few hours.
 

Prax

Member
Haha.. my boyfriend was one of the people who beat the game recently, then! Makes me proud of him. lol
But he said he did it on a glitch (or died by some zombie's finishing blow right when the ending cinema started playing, so he technically won anyway..).

He's encountered a couple of zombies that he thinks are glitches since they don't react to bullets/attacks (making him waste 5 shots on one late in the game while being stalked by other zombies) and don't seem to be "there" even though they appear around.

He was wondering if there were more than one ending to the game or not.
 

ikioi

Banned
how are the graphics in this game?

Given it's one of the few exclusive Wii U launch games, and from a 3rd party, can anyone tell me if it matches the graphical quality we've seen from late gen Xbox 360 and PS3 titles?
 
They're advertising the Wii U with this game a lot during The Walking Dead. (FOX Portugal)
It's actually sponsoring the show.

That's good to hear, I suspect that ZombiU is one of the third party titles that Nintendo are matching marketing dollars with which has helped to secure such an expensive slot.

Have they done the same in the States or other parts of Europe..?

Publishers really annoyed me last gen by releasing quality titles on the Wii without any sort of marketing at all. They just seemed to stealth-release everything.
 
how are the graphics in this game?

Given it's one of the few exclusive Wii U launch games, and from a 3rd party, can anyone tell me if it matches the graphical quality we've seen from late gen Xbox 360 and PS3 titles?

It's hard to explain... on the one hand there are occasional ugly textures and character models. On the other had, they absolutely nailed their art direction, plus it has gobs of post processing effects and some super nice lighting effects. What I'll say is that this is pretty clearly a low-mid budget game, but it blows away other titles with similar resources assigned to them due to it nailing the intended target if that makes sense.

Basically I don't think you'd be giving it a fair shake if you compared it to Halo 4, the game has maybe 25% of the budget and a 10th of the expected sales.
 

Sanctuary

Member
the game setting is always nigh time?



dont get me wrong but how one of the worst aspects of the game ( melee fighting ) its next gen? what separate this melee from the ones of dead island ( way more depth on that regard)

It's kind of funny how earlier in this thread I said that I hope that this game doesn't turn out to just be Dead Island lite, and was emphatically told that it's nothing like Dead Island!

For the most part no, but the combat is horrible in this game and does play like a very crappy Dead Island. No, I didn't buy the game for the combat, and also no need to lecture me about what makes up Survival Horror games. I've been playing what the genre offered ever since Alone in the Dark.

There's a difference between depth, strategy and monotony. There's also a difference between a "realistic" game and a "fun" game. I love hardcore games, but they don't have to feel so archaic in execution to be hardcore. That's just a sloppy excuse.

how are the graphics in this game?

Given it's one of the few exclusive Wii U launch games, and from a 3rd party, can anyone tell me if it matches the graphical quality we've seen from late gen Xbox 360 and PS3 titles?

It depends on your tolerance levels. In all honesty, it looks about like a first gen 360 game done by a developer still learning how to program for the system. It's quite poor by today's standards and often barely looks better than a small step above the Wii (aside from aliasing of course). The filter that they stick over everything for the cinematic look actually makes it look pretty ugly more often than it does to grant a better atmosphere and you'll see a lot of washed out textures and dithering. This game was never really about it's graphics, but it really feels undercooked even with that not being the focus. I wouldn't have so much of a problem with that if the shadows actually looked like shadows instead of a compressed mess of black and dark grey.

The Wii U may have stepped up to the "HD" video formats, but it still doesn't actually look visually impressive yet in anything other than 2D. Hopefully it's just a typical first gen software problem and not completely a system flaw.
 

ElRenoRaven

Member
Oh man. Just spent a bit with it now and I'm in heaven. I can already tell I'm going to love the game. The only real complaint I have right now is that inverse sticks don't affect the aiming when scanning. I picked inverse for a reason damn it.
 
It's kind of funny how earlier in this thread I said that I hope that this game doesn't turn out to just be Dead Island lite, and was emphatically told that it's nothing like Dead Island!

For the most part no, but the combat is horrible in this game and does play like a very crappy Dead Island.

If you're intending a sideways swipe at me it didn't fall on deaf ears. I disagree that this game is anything like Dead Island. Strongly so. If you're using melee in any other situation than a one on one fight which is maybe 25% of the time you WILL have a bad time playing the game. Let's just leave it at that.
 

Sanctuary

Member
If you're intending a sideways swipe at me it didn't fall on deaf ears. I disagree that this game is anything like Dead Island. Strongly so. If you're using melee in any other situation than a one on one fight which is maybe 25% of the time you WILL have a bad time playing the game. Let's just leave it at that.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44527770&postcount=1899

Regardless, it only concerns the combat of this game. The combat, not the running or avoidance. When you actually have to fight something, you spend much more than 25% of the time using the bat. It's closer to 75% of the time. I mean, I'm only ten hours in, so maybe there's going to be this explosion of zombies and the game is going to radically change. Kind of doubt it though. I'm not even arguing that it's a bad game because of it's combat or anything like that--it is however pretty bad in that regard, and the critical complaints about it are warranted. Most people on this forum that praise the hell out of this game and slam the critics are just typically Gaffing it up. Does the game deserve a 4.5? Definitely no way in hell. Does it deserve the 9.0+ scores? Definitely no way in hell.

It is however mostly fun, which is the most important factor.
 

SephCast

Brotherhood of Shipley's
Just played the first hour. This game is stellar and scary in the non-cheap way. Love it and losing your items is great consequence for dying.
 

oatmeal

Banned
If they do a sequel I hope there's online multiplayer.

The amount of shit you could do with a partner (parts where one person has to do something and watch the back fo the other...etc.)

Could be very cool. Just having that companion. It would have to have a good idea for if one dies...perhaps it spawns them as a new person far off in the distance, and you have to link up?
 
I need some help if anyone on here can.

I clicked the radio tower icon on the left-middle side of the gamepad, and accidentally said no to what it asked (apparently, something about the online functionality, miiverse, notifications and so on). So now, whenever I click on the radio tower icon, it shows me a "Notifications" screen that is always empty.

I'm wondering if there's any way for me to change this setting. I've even started a new save file to no avail.
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=44527770&postcount=1899

Regardless, it only concerns the combat of this game. The combat, not the running or avoidance. When you actually have to fight something, you spend much more than 25% of the time using the bat. It's closer to 75% of the time. I mean, I'm only ten hours in, so maybe there's going to be this explosion of zombies and the game is going to radically change. Kind of doubt it though. I'm not even arguing that it's a bad game because of it's combat or anything like that--it is however pretty bad in that regard, and the critical complaints about it are warranted. Most people on this forum that praise the hell out of this game and slam the critics are just typically Gaffing it up. Does the game deserve a 4.5? Definitely no way in hell. Does it deserve the 9.0+ scores? Definitely no way in hell.

It is however mostly fun, which is the most important factor.

Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification. My run through hasn't resembled that in any way though, generally I'm being more deliberate than that. 1 enemy? Bat time. 2 or 3? A couple bat swings (mostly for armored dudes) and guns to finish them. More than 4? Even the odds by creating a choke point/trap of some sort, run away or use a flair. + explosive combo.

I've been enjoying the game thoroughly thus far, sorry to hear the experience isn't as enjoyable for you.
 

ElRenoRaven

Member
If they do a sequel I hope there's online multiplayer.

The amount of shit you could do with a partner (parts where one person has to do something and watch the back fo the other...etc.)

Could be very cool. Just having that companion. It would have to have a good idea for if one dies...perhaps it spawns them as a new person far off in the distance, and you have to link up?

Oh I could see that and think that would be kind of cool. I really am loving the game. I can see why the combat may not be some people's bag. I myself like it. It reminds me somewhat of Condemned. Sure it's not as varied but I think it's a good start. In the sequel I'd love to see more weapons and a little more fluidity. They have a very good base with this game though.
 
I need some help if anyone on here can.

I clicked the radio tower icon on the left-middle side of the gamepad, and accidentally said no to what it asked (apparently, something about the online functionality, miiverse, notifications and so on). So now, whenever I click on the radio tower icon, it shows me a "Notifications" screen that is always empty.

I'm wondering if there's any way for me to change this setting. I've even started a new save file to no avail.

Yeah I'd like to know this as well.
 

Sanctuary

Member
I've been enjoying the game thoroughly thus far, sorry to hear the experience isn't as enjoyable for you.

Heh, I don't particularly care much for the "action" parts of this game due to how clunky they feel (the game was compared to a first person original Resident Evil, but even that was better to me), but I have been jonesing so long for a true survival horror (loved the hell out of Dead Space/2 but it's still just an action game with great atmosphere) game, that the good parts of ZombiU definitely more than make up for what I consider the weak.

Still doesn't prevent me from contemplating the "what if?" scenarios though. You know, just like with Xenoblade?
 
Top Bottom