Know what’s big right now? Kale salads and ironically paying attention to former teenage heart-throb Aaron Carter. Also Vine’s taking off in a big way. I guess we’re into the show Girls too. In games, though? We’re into Strategy RPGs and Zombies. To that end, here’s Dead State. It’s a game that’s come along with a little bit of both. The developer’s released a video that’s showing off some of the core mechanics.
It’s brief, but it’s exciting. Things are controlled in a very similar way to an original Fallout, and seemingly the same level of randomisation is also in place. You’ll need to scavenge for equipment in order to survive in the world, visiting areas that are overrun with shambling corpses in order to risk your life so that you can continue to sustain it.
The demo showed your character and an NPC trying to loot a selection of buldings and tried to show off the disparity of usefulness in certain actions. Each action and each item used carries it’s own positives and negatives. Bladed weapons aren’t particularly effective against zombies because they don’t bleed, whereas blunt weapons are more effective at destroying brains. Guns are useful but the ammo is scarce and they’re loud. Bashing a lock open isn’t very technical, but it’s loud, picking the lock requires the knowledge to do so but is quiet.
Mentioned, but not shown, was the idea that certain characters might have AI quirks that make them more scared of zombies and potentially less effective against them. That’s a pretty cool touch! We’re interested in seeing more
