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Dazzyman · Dec 4, 2012

slasher_thrasher21 said:
Yeah it says you upload it. To where? I still haven't figured that out!

Same here mate, me and the wife want to put ours on facebook hehe.

I've sat and watched Viki play it all day for 10hrs now, not like me at all but been happy to

gorgeous game and some of the review scores what were low are way off. She's bloody loving it

Mistle · Dec 4, 2012

Odd. I died in Palace Underground, and before I got back a notification said "the infected Eliza Butler in Palace Underground has been killed by xxxxx after killing 0 players", so I thought damn, somebody got there before me and took my stuff!
But then when I got there Eliza was still alive, AND a Zombi called "Mistle" (me) which is especially strange, because when you see your own previous survivor, it doesn't have your NNID?
Then to get more confusing, about 5-6 people went on to kill Eliza, according to notifications. Either I don't really know how the system works yet, or something screwed up a little. Not that it matters, got heaps of loot

Also, the upgraded radar that constantly beeps is a bit annoying...

derFeef · Dec 4, 2012

Time to use what I have, no matter what I guess, I die too often... I kinda like that the normal zombies are quite fast in this, you can't just outrun them and line up shots safely etc.

Nihilistic Monk · Dec 4, 2012

derFeef said:
Time to use what I have, no matter what I guess, I die too often... I kinda like that the normal zombies are quite fast in this, you can't just outrun them and line up shots safely etc.

It sounds like you have the same attitude I had that was forcing me to die a lot. Don't worry about the stuff. Use it. Always. Any time you have more than one zombie facing you, then it's time to put the bat away and think of a strategy involving your items instead. If you run through an area again you can get enough stuff to scrape through in my playthrough. Using a flare a molotov and a grenade and keeping your survivor is better than dying and doing a loot run.

Buckingham Palace I lost like 4 survivors in a row, grabbing their items each time. I had two zombies on my at once. A SWAT zombie and a standard royal guard zombie, and I was hitting them with the bat, and doing ok until my swing was just that little bit out of the rhythm & I got bit. I should have backed off, done a flare, rifle, handgun, anything, and I would have survived the encounter.

That's what I'm loving about this game and what it throws at you. Each time I've died, I know how I've cocked up and can learn from it. I hear the game gets a little cheaper later on, but for now, It's a great experience. Tough but fair.

Also, I am loving the audio work on this game. The sound work is superb. Atmospherics as well as voice work. Having lived in Yorkshire for a decade as well, who-ever does the preppers voice work is absolutely spot on. The line where he talks about using guns and it shouting a notice to the zombies "eeyaa dinners served, come and gerrit" is spot on. Being from the UK, It's pretty fabulous in a lot of it's atmosphere and representation. I wonder what you chaps in the US think of it?

I love how the survivors are just generic as well. No shining heroes here. I have played an ancient military captain, a young female PC, a beer bellied Taxi Driver & I've felt for them all. Poor game developer guy & his 4 minute survival time :-(

SS4Gogita · Dec 5, 2012

Welp, there goes my longest survivor. Two hours. Died at the

raid

. Really wondering how I'm going to get my stuff back, lol.

IAmtheFMan · Dec 5, 2012

Wrestlemania said:
In Buckingham Palace, there's a room with a huge fire and some scaffolding. There's one bit which has an item on in and a hole in the wall to an adjacent corridor. There doesn't seem to be any way to get on to the scaffolding on either side of the hole.
Anyone know what you're meant to do there?

It's not accesible till near the end game. That drove me crazy too and there's really nothing uniquely up there anyways.

derFeef said:
Time to use what I have, no matter what I guess, I die too often... I kinda like that the normal zombies are quite fast in this, you can't just outrun them and line up shots safely etc.

You should be using your items at a steady rate when you get them. I was still using all my stuff and I still got to the point where I couldn't even fit anything in my storage box anymore. By the end-game sequence, my survivor was looking like Neo walking into that office building.

ipukespiders · Dec 5, 2012

abstract alien said:
Just had a glitch in the

nursery

where I fell through the floor but never hit the ground. I quit, reloaded, and I'm a different survivor. Ok fine. Well, I go back to the

nursery

and suddenly see my name falling for a split second, then it's gone. I think my chick actually died AFTER I stared my new character o.o

I actually had to restart my game from scratch due to a bug like this. Couldn't retrieve a mission critical item from a previous survivor that ended up floating below a level.

John Harker · Dec 5, 2012

Finally started it. Loving it so far. Died my first time. 1.15 hours in. Evidently - and I learned this the very hard way - you can actually be killed while getting into a sewer

Stupid women zombie jumped me from behind as I was trying to tap the safe house green marker on my gamepad while I already lifted the lid of the sewer! Surprised the crap out of me since I thought I was already "in" the manhole cover and safe.

I straight up died, but heh, the Prepper thought I made it and congratulated me for making it back and warned me about the incoming attack on the safe house. As the new character was loading. Was super awkward

Nilaul · Dec 5, 2012

Heads up, my ID is "Nilaul"

Add me

BreakyBoy · Dec 5, 2012

Wondering if I should take another shot at Survival mode. I made it up to about half way through the game, and finished at #76 on the leaderboards. Maybe I'll give it another go this weekend.

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

Oh my god I could shoot someone.

end sequence. Make it all the way to the hell pad, 6 bullets left. Burn them up. 5 zombies left. 2 riot. Using ONLY the bat I kill 4. Get the last guy down to 1 hit remaining. He lunges at me and my virucide is spent - death. Literally one more blow for the best ending. I nearly broke the jcontroller. Best part, I can't even go back and redo. I had an unfortunate death post arena and lost everything, best the game with a shotty, flares and the pistol, nothing else. I stand by my earlier thoughts. End of the game tries to be something else, and without any kit it was an endurance grind. The fun was gone, it became a chore.

All that said, wow. What a game. Contender for game of the year in my eyes. Here's hoping for a sequel, minus the irritations.

Pineconn · Dec 5, 2012

Wow, the T

ower of London

was awesome. I surprisingly didn't die, but I came close twice.

First time was an exploding zombie in the waterfall/sewers area before reaching the Ravens HQ room, second time was in the action sequence near the end.

Interestingly, I had a weird glitch where after the action sequence, the

chopper

was still in the sky. I stayed around for a bit and it eventually disappeared, lol.

And yes, I had this game since November 18. I'm taking it slow.

Einhander · Dec 5, 2012

I finally got around to playing this game, despite buying it at the Wii U launch.

I played for roughly 30 minutes. I immediately was digging the gritty and gloomy atmosphere and how the GamePad screen is used as an inventory screen; the scanner is damn interesting, too--it reminds me of the scanner from Metroid Prime and now that I think about it, Heavy Rain as well. The starting weapon, a wooden bat, is a good melee weapon, but not useful for a group of zombies. Heck, even the pistol requires several shots to down a single zombie. I got killed by a horde of zombies at a certain point, then restarted at a save point and I was playing as a different character. I'm assuming this is where the roguelike element comes into play.

My question is, is your previous character permanently dead?

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

Ratchet said:
I finally got around to playing this game, despite buying it at the Wii U launch.

I played for roughly 30 minutes. I immediately was digging the gritty and gloomy atmosphere and how the GamePad screen is used as an inventory screen; the scanner is damn interesting, too--it reminds me of the scanner from Metroid Prime and now that I think about it, Heavy Rain as well. The starting weapon, a wooden bat, is a good melee weapon, but not useful for a group of zombies. Heck, even the pistol requires several shots to down a single zombie. I got killed by a horde of zombies at a certain point, then restarted at a save point and I was playing as a different character. I'm assuming this is where the roguelike element comes into play.

My question is, is your previous character permanently dead?

Yup

Einhander · Dec 5, 2012

I see. Thanks. I was confused about why I was a different character at first, then it occurred to me that this was most likely part of the roguelike genre I've heard about with this game.

Tralfamadore64 · Dec 5, 2012

Ratchet said:
I finally got around to playing this game, despite buying it at the Wii U launch.

I played for roughly 30 minutes. I immediately was digging the gritty and gloomy atmosphere and how the GamePad screen is used as an inventory screen; the scanner is damn interesting, too--it reminds me of the scanner from Metroid Prime and now that I think about it, Heavy Rain as well. The starting weapon, a wooden bat, is a good melee weapon, but not useful for a group of zombies. Heck, even the pistol requires several shots to down a single zombie. I got killed by a horde of zombies at a certain point, then restarted at a save point and I was playing as a different character. I'm assuming this is where the roguelike element comes into play.

My question is, is your previous character permanently dead?

In case it wasn't clear, I think we should also point out that you can track down your undead previous character, kill him/her, and retrieve everything they had in their backpack. If you die before you do this, all of that is lost.

Einhander · Dec 5, 2012

Ah, cool!

That's a useful tip.

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

Ratchet said:
Ah, cool!

That's a useful tip.

Be aware that if you die enroute, you'll lose everything he was carrying.

Tralfamadore64 · Dec 5, 2012

Okay, this game was a waste of $60 if it makes me too stressed out to play it. haha

I seriously can't take more than an hour at a time.

Meatvillain · Dec 5, 2012

Lost my first survivor today, and then died to the resulting powerful zombie, missing out on his backpack full of goodies.

I then lost another survivor like 5 minutes later. Sucks! Really enjoying it.

_illmatic_ · Dec 5, 2012

So did anybody else notice

In Buckingham Palace theres a Zombie playing one key over and over on the piano. Really freaked me out because I thought it was a human at first.

Had me kinda tripping for a sec.

Phife Dawg · Dec 5, 2012

So started to play this seriously yesterday. Already died. Should've listened to the prepper when he said

"Do you really want to engage that horde? It's your life"

. Also died

while defending the safe house, trapped a couple of them behind the barricades whacking like crazy but one sneaked up from behind - bugger.

Playing with cross-hairs off, haven't really get it down but feels so much better.

Really loving this game so far.

Astra · Dec 5, 2012

slasher_thrasher21 said:
Yeah it says you upload it. To where? I still haven't figured that out!

Yeah, I chose to save one, and it gave me no indication on where to find it.

HylianTom · Dec 5, 2012

I've been on a huge kick with this game lately, with something else odd going-on: my other half actually likes watching me play a video game for once!

It's also surreal seeing fellow Nintendo-GAF folks' names in the game. I've developed a goofy habit where, upon killing their zombie and looting the goodies from their BoB, I loudly yell, "thank you, {____}!"

I've pretty much decided to do a marathon session over the weekend to finally beat the game. Maybe even in survivor mode? (Seriously.. would I be missing anything in normal mode if I skipped it and went directly to survivor mode?)

I suicided another loaded character about two hours ago, so whoever found him in the car rental area of the safehouse got a whole lot of goodies.. plenty o'bullets, Molotovs, and first aid kits.

- J - D - · Dec 5, 2012

I am terrible at using the molotovs. Always set myself on fire due to panic and poor crowd control.

HylianTom · Dec 5, 2012

WonkersTHEWatilla said:
I am terrible at using the molotovs. Always set myself on fire due to panic and poor crowd control.

Before killing my latest character off, I spent a few reloads playing around with the Molotovs.. the timing of throwing them, the arcs/angles, their flame radii, burn time, etc. it definitely helped.

Ridley327 · Dec 5, 2012

WonkersTHEWatilla said:
I am terrible at using the molotovs. Always set myself on fire due to panic and poor crowd control.

Use flares to round up zombies first, then use molotovs/grenades on the group so you get them all at the same time.

I should mention that the nursery was nightmare fuel the whole way through.

EatChildren · Dec 5, 2012

Quick and dirty tips for newbies:

- Always clear rooms of corpses. Always. Go up to a corpse and swing your bat to decapitate. Corpses have a random animation variable and are strategically placed to screw over less cautious players.
- When you can, bat, don't shoot. Save ammunition for when you actually need it, and try not to waste it on lone stragglers that can easily have their brains batted.
- No matter the enemy, bat swings faster than their recovery period. It might seem like you swing slow, but if you can keep hitting infected there's no way they can attack back. Missing is what will screw you.
- Don't waste ammo on armoured infected unless it's a rifle or high powered weapon. Those will knock the helmet off with one shot, leaving one more to clean the head. Pistol takes too many rounds just to knock a helmet off. Even so, same rules apply: if you can bat instead, bat away.
- Infected take time to open doors. I found boarding up doors relatively useless. An easier tactic when pursued by a group is to keep a molotov/grenade/mine on hand, rush through a door, close it, and wait. If you have a mine, lay it in front of the door and back away. Grenade/molotov, wait until they burst open the door and throw it directly at the group. The bottleneck should destroy them all.
- Crossbow is easily one of the most effective weapons in the game if you use it intelligently, as bolts can be recovered. As soon as you spot an infected, if you're safe, scope up and aim for the head. One shot to the head will kill most, and you can recover the bolt from their corpse. Essentially gives you an unlimited super weapon. Don't waste rounds on armoured infected.
- For the love of all unholy do not swing your bat at explosive infected.
- Pistol is very effective at headshots, usually taking ~2 headshots to kill an average infected. For this reason it's a good weapon to upgrade first, especially if you tend to die. Skills are survivor specific, but weapon upgrades are universal. And since every survivor spawns with a pistol...
- Scanning a room the moment you enter is an excellent way to locate all corpses on the ground, and thus identify potential infected. Corpses yet to animate will not be pinged by your radar.

- J - D - · Dec 5, 2012

Ridley327 said:
Use flares to round up zombies first, then use molotovs/grenades on the group so you get them all at the same time.

I should mention that the nursery was nightmare fuel the whole way through.

Yeah that's how one should use them, but I always seem to have a good supply of them, and if there are at least 3 zombies aggro'ing me, I panic and the first thing I reach for is the Molotov, lol.

@eatchildren: thanks for the tips. I learned the hard way with the armored infected. Those guys take a ton of hits from the bat to take 'me down. Good thing that, at least where I am now, the game only throws one of them at you in any one encounter.

Hero · Dec 5, 2012

EatChildren said:
Quick and dirty tips for newbies:

- Always clear rooms of corpses. Always. Go up to a corpse and swing your bat to decapitate. Corpses have a random animation variable and are strategically placed to screw over less cautious players.
- When you can, bat, don't shoot. Save ammunition for when you actually need it, and try not to waste it on lone stragglers that can easily have their brains batted.
- No matter the enemy, bat swings faster than their recovery period. It might seem like you swing slow, but if you can keep hitting infected there's no way they can attack back. Missing is what will screw you.
- Don't waste ammo on armoured infected unless it's a rifle or high powered weapon. Those will knock the helmet off with one shot, leaving one more to clean the head. Pistol takes too many rounds just to knock a helmet off. Even so, same rules apply: if you can bat instead, bat away.
- Infected take time to open doors. I found boarding up doors relatively useless. An easier tactic when pursued by a group is to keep a molotov/grenade/mine on hand, rush through a door, close it, and wait. If you have a mine, lay it in front of the door and back away. Grenade/molotov, wait until they burst open the door and throw it directly at the group. The bottleneck should destroy them all.
- Crossbow is easily one of the most effective weapons in the game if you use it intelligently, as bolts can be recovered. As soon as you spot an infected, if you're safe, scope up and aim for the head. One shot to the head will kill most, and you can recover the bolt from their corpse. Essentially gives you an unlimited super weapon. Don't waste rounds on armoured infected.
- For the love of all unholy do not swing your bat at explosive infected.
- Pistol is very effective at headshots, usually taking ~2 headshots to kill an average infected. For this reason it's a good weapon to upgrade first, especially if you tend to die. Skills are survivor specific, but weapon upgrades are universal. And since every survivor spawns with a pistol...
- Scanning a room the moment you enter is an excellent way to locate all corpses on the ground, and thus identify potential infected. Corpses yet to animate will not be pinged by your radar.

Great tips right here, folks.

I would add the following:

- I liked to always have a flare + molotov/grenade in my quick weapon selection for emergencies. Quick select and throw the flare, let the zombies bunch up and use the molotov/grenade.

- Your shove (right trigger alone) can completely bully a single zombie as long as you don't miss. This extremely important for a very specific situation in the late game that can be frustrating.

- If you can lure zombies into crawling to reach you this will activate the prompt to finish them with your cricket bat.

Aostia · Dec 5, 2012

EatChildren said:
Quick and dirty tips for newbies:

- Always clear rooms of corpses. Always. Go up to a corpse and swing your bat to decapitate. Corpses have a random animation variable and are strategically placed to screw over less cautious players.
- When you can, bat, don't shoot. Save ammunition for when you actually need it, and try not to waste it on lone stragglers that can easily have their brains batted.
- No matter the enemy, bat swings faster than their recovery period. It might seem like you swing slow, but if you can keep hitting infected there's no way they can attack back. Missing is what will screw you.
- Don't waste ammo on armoured infected unless it's a rifle or high powered weapon. Those will knock the helmet off with one shot, leaving one more to clean the head. Pistol takes too many rounds just to knock a helmet off. Even so, same rules apply: if you can bat instead, bat away.
- Infected take time to open doors. I found boarding up doors relatively useless. An easier tactic when pursued by a group is to keep a molotov/grenade/mine on hand, rush through a door, close it, and wait. If you have a mine, lay it in front of the door and back away. Grenade/molotov, wait until they burst open the door and throw it directly at the group. The bottleneck should destroy them all.
- Crossbow is easily one of the most effective weapons in the game if you use it intelligently, as bolts can be recovered. As soon as you spot an infected, if you're safe, scope up and aim for the head. One shot to the head will kill most, and you can recover the bolt from their corpse. Essentially gives you an unlimited super weapon. Don't waste rounds on armoured infected.
- For the love of all unholy do not swing your bat at explosive infected.
- Pistol is very effective at headshots, usually taking ~2 headshots to kill an average infected. For this reason it's a good weapon to upgrade first, especially if you tend to die. Skills are survivor specific, but weapon upgrades are universal. And since every survivor spawns with a pistol...
- Scanning a room the moment you enter is an excellent way to locate all corpses on the ground, and thus identify potential infected. Corpses yet to animate will not be pinged by your radar.

I agree on everythong you're saying. Great analysis.
aside, after having played it for some hours (both story and multiplayer), I would like to share my general feedback:

I firmly think that ten year after Resident Evil Rebirth and Eternal Darkness, we have the new reference for survival horror games.

Pineconn · Dec 5, 2012

About to enter the n

ursery

. Fuck me.

EatChildren · Dec 5, 2012

Hero said:
- I liked to always have a flare + molotov/grenade in my quick weapon selection for emergencies. Quick select and throw the flare, let the zombies bunch up and use the molotov/grenade.

- Your shove (right trigger alone) can completely bully a single zombie as long as you don't miss. This extremely important for a very specific situation in the late game that can be frustrating.

- If you can lure zombies into crawling to reach you this will activate the prompt to finish them with your cricket bat.

All good tips too. For quick selection, if you're a panicked player, it's probably wiser to have a flair equipped over a molotov or grenade. At least the flair cant backfire and burn you to a crisp. A single flair on the touchpad gives you a quick and easy get out of jail free card. Tap, throw, run. While the infected are distracted you should have enough time to whip open your backpack and grab a molotov or grenade to finish off the distracted group.

During the latter half of the game I found it really helpful to have a medkit on the quick selection. They're instant use with no pause, and given you can still be killed by generic attacks it's handy to have an instant tap to heal yourself. Keeping your medkits in your backpack is essentially gambling on you making your way out of every encounter, even the ones that get hairy, giving you time to heal in private. Quick selection medkit heals you on the fly mid encounter.

CrisKre · Dec 5, 2012

This fuckling game! The nursery was probably my favorite section of any horror game EVER. The pacing, atmosphere, sound design and shock factor of that whole sequence is just bloody brilliant. Was squirming like a little girl all throughout.

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

The end of this game is sitting poorly with me.

i cannot get over the feeling of total failure! Most games, even the bad ending is some sort of mission complete. The bad ending in this game is utter failure, a negation of th entirety of the game, and provides you with no way of redoing it. I have never been so disappointed in myself for failing at a video game. On the one hand, this sucks majorly and I cannot shake the let down feeling. On the other, kudos for making the game have this kind of impact on me. The thing is, even if I had the time to invest in rebeating it, there is absolutely no way to guarantee I won't fail again.

Sanctuary · Dec 5, 2012

badnewsbeers said:
The end of this game is sitting poorly with me.

i cannot get over the feeling of total failure! Most games, even the bad ending is some sort of mission complete. The bad ending in this game is utter failure, a negation of th entirety of the game, and provides you with no way of redoing it. I have never been so disappointed in myself for failing at a video game. On the one hand, this sucks majorly and I cannot shake the let down feeling. On the other, kudos for making the game have this kind of impact on me. The thing is, even if I had the time to invest in rebeating it, there is absolutely no way to guarantee I won't fail again.

It doesn't negate the entirety of the game in any way. It just seems like you wanted some kind of consolation prize or something, and are upset because you didn't even get that much. I think the endings are actually fitting (what there is of an ending anyway). Why would there be some kind of "good job" or focus to someone else when the goal was

for your survivor to survive

? I guess if you don't have the time to ever replay it, that sucks; but there's more than one ending for a reason.

Having beaten the game three times now without dying, I think I'm done. I can't believe how close I came to dying on my third run too after being somewhat overconfident. I didn't carry any medpacks on the final push, and was extremely low on ammo and was only carrying two flares. I reached a point to where one more hit from anything would have killed me. The only reason I was so low on ammo is because I was trying to run around and farm zombies, to call out the frauds on the leaderboards, but Jesus Christ. Running around for an additional 10 - 15 hours just killing respawns that give you 10 points each is incredibly boring. They should have had some kind of penalty/reward point system in regards to your clear time too. It's kind of dumb when the first people to beat the game in under 9 hours get eclipsed by those who sat around for 35+.

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

Sanctuary said:
It doesn't negate the entirety of the game in any way. It just seems like you wanted some kind of consolation prize or something, and are upset because you didn't even get that much. I think the endings are actually fitting (what there is of an ending anyway). Why would there be some kind of "good job" or focus to someone else when the goal was

for your survivor to survive

? I guess if you don't have the time to ever replay it, that sucks; but there's more than one ending for a reason.

Having beaten the game three times now without dying, I think I'm done. I can't believe how close I came to dying on my third run too after being somewhat overconfident. I didn't carry any medpacks on the final push, and was extremely low on ammo and was only carrying two flares. I reached a point to where one more hit from anything would have killed me. The only reason I was so low on ammo is because I was trying to run around and farm zombies, to call out the frauds on the leaderboards, but Jesus Christ. Running around for an additional 10 - 15 hours just killing respawns that give you 10 points each is incredibly boring. They should have had some kind of penalty/reward point system in regards to your clear time too. It's kind of dumb when the first people to beat the game in under 9 hours get eclipsed by those who sat around for 35+.

How can you make that statement?

ultimately, the point of the game was to get the panacea to the helicopter to attempt to save the world. When it comes down to it, that was the overarching purpose and the only thing you did that had any lasting consequence (or could). By dying at the last possibly moment and not getting the cure out, the world ends (or so it is implied). Thus, death at the end makes the entirety of the game a blip in the large scheme of the outbreak. I don't see how anyone couldn't be disappointed in that ending. It has nothing to do with consolation,it has to do with achieving the singular goal of the game. Even a scene showing somebody picking the virus off my dead corpse at the helipad would have been fine, just give me something to show that my efforts had a purpose.

MarkMclovin · Dec 5, 2012

Loving this game. I've put in around 6 hours or so and still on my 2nd survivor (1st died just because I didn't finish the zombie off and got bit, with full health). I tend to take it slow rather than run into rooms and used my radar thing all of the time before the upgrade.

Also, I find it funny when I see a gaffer die like every 5 minutes! I've only come across 2 of them to loot though.

EatChildren · Dec 5, 2012

badnewsbeers said:
How can you make that statement?

ultimately, the point of the game was to get the panacea to the helicopter to attempt to save the world. When it comes down to it, that was the overarching purpose and the only thing you did that had any lasting consequence (or could). By dying at the last possibly moment and not getting the cure out, the world ends (or so it is implied). Thus, death at the end makes the entirety of the game a blip in the large scheme of the outbreak. I don't see how anyone couldn't be disappointed in that ending. It has nothing to do with consolation,it has to do with achieving the singular goal of the game. Even a scene showing somebody picking the virus off my dead corpse at the helipad would have been fine, just give me something to show that my efforts had a purpose.

I think that was the point though.

The narrative is secondary to the story of survival. It's an experience driven by you, the survivor, or whatever survivor you happen to be playing at the time. All the other stuff that's happening, from the arena fight and scaling the Tower of London, to hunting down Dee's letters and securing the Panacea, are simply objectives and events that your survivor, again whichever happens to be alive, gets caught in.

The idea is it's not really a story about the infected apocalypse, John Dee, the prepper, the Ravens, or the Panacea. It's a story about your survivor and their personal experience. The final post credits stretch is essentially your final moments with whatever survivor you have alive. Either they perish to the hoard, or they make it out. And even if you do make it out there's no resolution for what comes after.

I can understand maybe wanting a bit more closure, but I don't really feel the narrative was trying to push anything like that. It was always a survivor/you driven experience more than an external narrative.

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

EatChildren said:
I think that was the point though.

The narrative is secondary to the story of survival. It's an experience driven by you, the survivor, or whatever survivor you happen to be playing at the time. All the other stuff that's happening, from the arena fight and scaling the Tower of London, to hunting down Dee's letters and securing the Panacea, are simply objectives and events that your survivor, again whichever happens to be alive, gets caught in.

The idea is it's not really a story about the infected apocalypse, John Dee, the prepper, the Ravens, or the Panacea. It's a story about your survivor and their personal experience. The final post credits stretch is essentially your final moments with whatever survivor you have alive. Either they perish to the hoard, or they make it out. And even if you do make it out there's no resolution for what comes after.

I can understand maybe wanting a bit more closure, but I don't really feel the narrative was trying to push anything like that. It was always a survivor/you driven experience more than an external narrative.

Yeah, I see your point. I tend to derive a lot of my satisfaction or enjoyment from a game's plot, leaving me feeling a bit cheated. In this case I simply have no choice but to accept it for what it is.

fabricated backlash · Dec 5, 2012

badnewsbeers said:
Yeah, I see your point. I tend to derive a lot of my satisfaction or enjoyment from a game's plot, leaving me feeling a bit cheated. In this case I simply have no choice but to accept it for what it is.

I can understand that, but I think it would be unfair to fault the game over that. It is a user driven experience. All the story cues are just mere events to give context to the player experience.

Personally I loved the final stretch. I was constantly saying to myself: "Not now, don't fuck up now, don't die now! Did anyone else feel bad for the Prepper? I mean he obviously means well but is just blinded by his fanatical sociopathic views.
I wondered if there is a way of "winning" the final safehouse onslaught. I kind of wished there was a way to at least leave the Prepper on good terms, but alas my ammo was running out, and I had no intentions of dying there.

Ah yeah, and since the update this morning, usk versions are able to post screenshots to miiverse and are recognized like owners of the game.

Bjoern the Smexy · Dec 5, 2012

Pineconn said:
About to enter the n

ursery

. Fuck me.

Please don't die.

badnewsbeers · Dec 5, 2012

fabricated backlash said:
I can understand that, but I think it would be unfair to fault the game over that. It is a user driven experience. All the story cues are just mere events to give context to the player experience.

Personally I loved the final stretch. I was constantly saying to myself: "Not now, don't fuck up now, don't die now! Did anyone else feel bad for the Prepper? I mean he obviously means well but is just blinded by his fanatical sociopathic views.
I wondered if there is a way of "winning" the final safehouse onslaught. I kind of wished there was a way to at least leave the Prepper on good terms, but alas my ammo was running out, and I had no intentions of dying there.

Ah yeah, and since the update this morning, usk versions are able to post screenshots to miiverse and are recognized like owners of the game.

I used the turret and mowed down most of the zombies and (stupidly) burned a fair chunk of ammo killing the remainder. As far as I could see, there were no more after I was done. So there is something good, at least I saved prepper. On that note, a question - can anyone explain to me a bit more about the prepper? I sort of thought he was that John guy referenced in letters but I didn't really get where he was coming from. Why was he so against the cure?

Bumhead · Dec 5, 2012

MarkMclovin said:
Loving this game. I've put in around 6 hours or so and still on my 2nd survivor (1st died just because I didn't finish the zombie off and got bit, with full health). I tend to take it slow rather than run into rooms and used my radar thing all of the time before the upgrade.

Also, I find it funny when I see a gaffer die like every 5 minutes! I've only come across 2 of them to loot though.

I have mixed feelings on the radar. On the one hand I like the added assurance of knowing what is where, especially the relief when you realise a bunch of bleeps are just rats or crows, but on the other I think I preferred the uncertainty of not knowing. I rarely used my radar before the upgrade and therefore was caught out by surprise more by zombies, and there was a dread when I could hear them scream that is lost somewhat by knowing there's something already on the radar. They're two different types of fear and tension but not sure which I prefer.

That said, the prospect of Aliens: Coloniel Marines having the Aliens radar on the GamePad screen in this same way is really exciting.

I'm probably one of the suicide Gaffers. I'm 7 hours in and am on my.. 13th survivor I think.

KittenMaster · Dec 5, 2012

To add to EatChildren's great set of tips: if you shove a blighter in the back (you can set this up by hitting or shoving them) they will fall to the ground helpless. Excellent for Riot Helmets. This works best in open areas against single blighters otherwise fight as normal.

badnewsbeers said:
I used the turret and mowed down most of the zombies and (stupidly) burned a fair chunk of ammo killing the remainder. As far as I could see, there were no more after I was done. So there is something good, at least I saved prepper. On that note, a question - can anyone explain to me a bit more about the prepper? I sort of thought he was that John guy referenced in letters but I didn't really get where he was coming from. Why was he so against the cure?

He doesn't believe it exists, he feels it's like trying to find Atlantis so to speak. He also blames scientists for developing viruses to begin with.

Bumhead · Dec 6, 2012

Ok, so I love, love, love this game. But I've just got past the

St George's Church Arena/carnival thing

, and that section is fucking bullshit. Talk about being at odds with the rest of the game design and atmosphere. Just about every single second of my time with this game up to this point has been a terrifying, intense thrill, and some of the best survival horror I've ever played. Then some chump at Ubisoft Montpellier, probably the work experience kid, decides to throw all that out of the window for 20 minutes of frustration and cheap deaths.

Terrible. I remember EatChildren bemoaning a section of the game for feeling cheap and out of place, and while I didn't read his spoiler tags at the time I'm going to assume this was it.

Thankfully the rest of the game is phenomenal and I'm hoping ZombiU has got its moment of silly nonsense out of the way so it can continue scaring the shit out of me with this otherwise fantastic game.

Hero · Dec 6, 2012

In regards to the ending and the story:

I'm happy with how they did it. The entire game has been about there are consequences to your actions (and inactions) and that death is real. I loved that about this game. Barring the arena sequence, if you died, it was your fault almost entirely because of a mistake you made. Whether it was missing a shot or swing or moving too quickly through the rooms to get swarmed you can only blame yourself. The narrative was secondary to this survival experience. Not saying I wouldn't mind if the sequel fleshed out the narrative a little bit more, but for this game I was entirely okay with how it was handled.

The post credit sequence was incredibly intense and I was constantly dreading going anywhere. I got cocky and didn't use my large health kit when I could've thinking I could take another hit but alas, it was not to be. I failed. I'm upset about it but not at the game, I'm angry at myself for not respecting the threat of death.

Also, what was the deal with the Prepper at the end? So he comes into the safe room to check up on it? One of his feet is gone obviously but was there some twist involved? He got really crazy when he found out about you working with the scientist.

Mistle · Dec 6, 2012

In the Brick Lane Markets, there's a door that needs a 4 digit passcode. I noticed when scanning through the window and aligning the markings, I find somewhat of a code... But I still can't make it out lol. I feel like I've solved the puzzle but still can't get the answer. If there's anything I'm missing, let me know D:

Ridley327 · Dec 6, 2012

Mistle said:
In the Brick Lane Markets, there's a door that needs a 4 digit passcode. I noticed when scanning through the window and aligning the markings, I find somewhat of a code... But I still can't make it out lol. I feel like I've solved the puzzle but still can't get the answer. If there's anything I'm missing, let me know D:

You'll need to get a pad upgrade in the Tower of London before you can do anything with that one.

Mistle · Dec 6, 2012

Ridley327 said:
You'll need to get a pad upgrade in the Tower of London before you can do anything with that one.

Ah ok then, that makes sense. Lucky I asked otherwise I would have been so confused as to what I'm doing wrong...

I've progressed a bit since then and I'm now finding codes on paintings, after following white markings on the ground. I assume I can't do anything with these yet either? It's a bit of a tease leading you on if you can't solve the puzzle until later D:

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