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ZombiU - What would you like to see in the sequel?

abstract alien said:
So how would you make Zombi U the same game on another platform? Nearly everyone that has actually played it agrees that the second screen is an essential piece to the experience. How will it work and still be Zombi U without being Zombi U: Standardized Edition?
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I don't. I feel people exaggerate the gamepad / second screen so as to make the game appear more of a must have title or one that couldn't be ported without major concessions, which isn't true.

very little is done on the gamepad that can't be fully replicated just on screen.

map - mini map on screen with a button to ping.
lockpicking can easily be transferred to on screen or removed all together. it adds nothing to the experience.
entering codes - again, add this to the screen and keep the same camera angle.
inventory - again, add this in real time to the screen ala dead space.
aiming - well, it's frankly shit aiming with the gamepad, so they could cut that and no one would care.
scanning - use the scanner in first person.

there you go. the game is now good to go on any console. the usage of the second screen isn't vital to the experience.
 
Formless said:
If they do a sequel I wonder if they'll stay with the British setting.
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Eventhough I haven't played the game, it's refreshing when they're set somewhere else than NA, like RFoM was. Which is why it was a bit letdown, when the sequels were moved across the Atlantic.
 
Sethos said:
Gameplay must be lacklustre as hell if it can't be a good game without that second screen.

Probably shouldn't be multiplatform then.
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I have to agree with Sethos here, while people are saying that the gamepad features add to the experience, it shouldn't be of crucial importance that these are included to make the game what it is. I liked the game, but I wouldn't bemoan the exclusion of the gamepad mechanics.
 
N30RYU said:
this
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This is one thing I would not want to see. It's the uniqueness of the Wii U's design that drove the amazing design of this game. That and the fact that Ubisoft only had one platform to focus on. I would fear the game being limited or dumbed down in order to support other platforms with controller limitations. The Wii U's design screams this game. The other platforms even with smartglass or Vita integration would break the experience because you couldn't 100% replicate what the Wii U is doing.
 
Sethos said:
Gameplay must be lacklustre as hell if it can't be a good game without that second screen.

Probably shouldn't be multiplatform then.
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What an unfortunate statement. The gameplay is built around the gamepad. But maybe you think the DS version of SM64 works just as well as the original too? If not, must not be a good game then.
 
I would be careful with making melee better. You want to change it up so different weapons give you different options but under no circumstances should the melee be improved to the point that the game is close to being like "Dead Rising" where you can brawl with multiple enemies. It removes the tension.

Having different melee options should serve different purposes such as:
Capturing a zombie
Make a high risk attack that allows you to deal killing damage to two zombies at a time
Splitting your ability to defend yourself and perform a utility task which sucks in most situations but may just save you in those split second moments.
Sacrifice killing power for the improved ability to cripple opponents quickly.

One of my favorites is to include a chainsaw in the game, it would allow you to kill very quickly but the noise it makes simply attracts more hordes than even a gun a would.


I agree that multiplayer shouldn't be fleshed out "yet." They should build up on the potential of the single player campaign and in the third game focus heavily on multiplayer.

In the single player it would be interesting if the completely changed the campaign focus from instead of you being the survivors being assisted to the the Prepper to being a network of survivors leading others into rebuilding civilization.

So instead of having an unlimited number of lives you start out with a limited number of survivors who are in the same social network. When you start the game you can only play as one of them until that character dies. Each of you work together for to complete tasks around the country in effort to find and rescue others and build up your network.

As you gather more allies you have a small chance of increasing your limited pool of leaders.

If all of your leadership characters die before you complete all of your goals the game ends and you have to start over.

The tension comes from the codependency of your leadership team especially after each member dies forcing you to do even more tasks to complete the same objectives which increases the risk of dying even more.
 
Formless said:
If they do a sequel I wonder if they'll stay with the British setting.
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I hope so. London was a very carefully considered and very smart location choice for the game, and in my opinion contributed just as much to the games atmosphere and design as the GamePad did. In my opinion, so much of what made ZombiU interesting would be lost if you set the game in Anytown, USA, or just plucked a random European city out of the air. I think there's room to explore London more than what ZombiU did, and if they do choose to move it I hope there's a very, very logical and considered reason for them to do so.

Regarding the GamePad thing, I thought the GamePad integration improved the experience with ZombiU but wouldn't be impossible to do elsewhere. I believe those two are different things which shouldn't be confused with one another. I liked the GamePad support, and definitely felt it added to the experience, but the game is absolutely possible on platforms which don't have that second screen.
 
Some light RTS gameplay should be added. Multiple survivors hide out in bunker and you might have to send two or three out on a mission. That would give you a good excuse to use both screens.
These multiple characters should be more customizable, at least more then what was in the first. Body armour, stats and unique skills are acquired on different missions so there would be some strategy on who you send on a mission.


Keep what they have but also keep adding to the online in single player. Look towards Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls for ideas.

Hire other players characters for tougher missions, or loan out yours to gain experience and items.

Include the invasion online from Dark Souls but with a unique twist. Perhaps the invader sends multiple weaker versions of their characters (or Zombies) and controls it like the Zombie King in multiplayer.

Look towards the Metoidvania like games for the level layout and progression.
 
  • Online multiplayer including a level design tool
  • Open world, no loadings
  • More open areas
  • More melee weapons, including being able to grab makeshift weapons from the environment like they have in Condemned
  • Set in Paris so that we can get revenge, too many Brits getting killed in Ubisoft games lately lol
  • Improved textures ad general polish
  • Ubisoft to use the User Zombiefication Feature to have other people's zombiefied faces randomly appearing in games.

I don't really think there's that much of the core game I want them to change for the sequel, definitely the best game released in 2012 for me personally.
 
LOL at stealth port begging. Buy a Wii U if you want to play these. They could show up on other platforms eventually but I wouldn't count on it. Forcing you to look away from the main screen is a key ingredient of what makes the game so great.

Getting back to multi, finally some decent ideas came up. To expand on things, you could have random drop in/out online play where other players randomly appear in your game without notification. Friendly fire is always on so the option to kill them for supplies OR you help is available as well as vice-versa. As long as killing another human player is realistic where you can't just drop them in half a second and the consequences are potentially dire it could be interesting.
 
So every description of how this would work on another console that I've read removes a few vital elements that give the game some of it's unique character. Especially the diversion of your attention in two areas. Sure, you can move it to another system and it will be able to function, but you could also take the zany writing and 4th wall elements from Metal Gear and it would still function as well. It wouldn't really be a good substitute for a Metal Gear game since it loses pieces of it's personality. Throw maps on the screen and overlay menus will work, but it has it's consequences. The second screen does add to the game for nearly every person that has played it.

So unless you are going to do something with Smart Glass or Vita, I'll pass on the design theories given. Sounds like Zombi: Standard Edition indeed. A good game to be sure, but not Zombi U.
 
Sethos said:
Gameplay must be lacklustre as hell if it can't be a good game without that second screen.

Probably shouldn't be multiplatform then.
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The gameplay is great because of the second screen. Just because the game isn't suited to a traditional controller doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the gameplay. Quite the opposite in fact.
 
snowdog1971 said:
The gameplay is great because of the second screen. Just because the game isn't suited to a traditional controller doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the gameplay. Quite the opposite in fact.
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Street Fighter would be terrible without buttons, therefore, the game is terrible. Microsoft Word is horrible without a keyboard. Must be a bad program.
 
I am shocked no one has mentioned my one biggest gripe with the game.


LOAD TIMES!

The game has terrible load times. If I die and I'm trying to quickly get to a part of the city to recover my bag, I sometimes have to wait through 3-4 fairly lengthy load times.

I think they can be more clever with how they handle this. It really kills the immersion, and I hope it has more to do with rushed-design and lack of optimization than it does the Wii U's tech and slow CPU.
 
hatchx said:
I am shocked no one has mentioned my one biggest gripe with the game.


LOAD TIMES!

The game has terrible load times. If I die and I'm trying to quickly get to a part of the city to recover my bag, I sometimes have to wait through 3-4 fairly lengthy load times.

I think they can be more clever with how they handle this. It really kills the immersion, and I hope it has more to do with rushed-design and lack of optimization than it does the Wii U's tech and slow CPU.
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The load times are horrible. I'm certain it can be fixed as well, just needs some better level streaming tech. I put this under the headin of "general polish" and didn't mention it specifically because it's less interesting to talk about than how the gameplay can be expanded on.
 
abstract alien said:
I was being generically sarcastic. I'm not sure what he was doing lol
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I'm not even sure what's going on in this thread lol

I can't understand the general consensus on ZombiU. It's like everyone who has played it loves it and everyone who hasn't hates it and port begs at the same time.
 
Projectjustice said:
I dont think so, with the amount of lag PS3/Vita connection has. lol
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Have you actually tried the LBP cross-controller? Because I have, and it's just as laggy as the Wii U Gamepad.. so there is no noticeable lag at all. I don't think there's any reason this can't be done on PS3 with cross-controller compatibility. Hell, there's even the benefit of having to charge less often with the Vita. lol
But I digress - it won't happen, because making a game with ONLY cross-controller compatibility is probably a bad idea.
 
the game starts with the player character watching tv and just finding out about the zombie apocalypse, you then have to leave the house and gather supplies, as well as finding and setting up your own safe house :)
 
hodgy100 said:
the game starts with the player character watching tv and just finding out about the zombie apocalypse, you then have to leave the house and gather supplies, as well as finding and setting up your own safe house :)
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Holy shit! Are you saying the player...becomes the prepper? That would actually work, story wise.
 
Revolutionary said:
But I digress - it won't happen, because making a game with ONLY cross-controller compatibility is probably a bad idea.
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Because it would make the Vita useful for once?

I kid I kid. The Vita was never designed to be useful in the first place, it just needed to be a portable entertainment machine.

abstract alien said:
Holy shit! Are you saying the player...becomes the prepper? That would actually work, story wise.
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Gameplaywise I think it's mandatory that if the game focuses on us playing at the same level as the Prepper we should be playing with a pool of multiple characters so we have our multiple lives instead of just "one."
 
Th only thing i want is better load times and a flashlight that actually casts light not just a circle of light (BTW, the lighting in the game is superb is just the flashlight that sucks).

And maybe a way to put your zombified face on your zombie for other people to kill, just for shiggles...

Edit: And more types of characters, i wanna play as a beatle wannabe, or plumber, or prostitute, just someone that reflects their career on their look, i dont know if this was intentional but i was looking at my cousin playing and he got to play as a fat guy and i dont know if it was just me but whenever he ran, it seemed like the guy got tired faster than every character i've played, he got himself killed just because he didn't like the way his character looked, it's strange how i also got attached to certain characters more than others just based on their bio...

CO_Andy said:
Character creator
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or this, you make a character, and someone gets to play it randomly as their next survivor...
 
*i would go for different ways to accomplish the mission instead of linearity
* more melee weapons
* integrated zombifaces of friends
* zombie dogs?
* no more loadtimes
* your dead survivor keeps his stuff but your friends can also steal it
* more weapons througout the game.
* every time you die you start somewhere else
* more and powefull hordes which is impossible to kill, so running is the only way.
*i would to see a huge zombi outbreak like the ranch/ walking dead season 2.

mp is already awesome. the only thing that annoys me is the weapon detection.

overal i am still enjoying the game.
 
Mainly more variety in the melee combat department. The cricket bat gets old fast.

Also, more paths connecting different areas would be cool, creating a more integrated game world à la Metroid.
 
It would be pretty cool to have some melee weapons get stuck in the zombie when you hit them, so you would need to aim correctly as well as have a back up(cricket bat likely) incase you don't have time to pull it out.
 
Revolutionary said:
Have you actually tried the LBP cross-controller? Because I have, and it's just as laggy as the Wii U Gamepad.. so there is no noticeable lag at all. I don't think there's any reason this can't be done on PS3 with cross-controller compatibility. Hell, there's even the benefit of having to charge less often with the Vita. lol
But I digress - it won't happen, because making a game with ONLY cross-controller compatibility is probably a bad idea.
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Yea i stopped reading there.

Conor 419 said:
Uhh, by surviving?
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Good luck with your great gaming ideas.
 
Conor 419 said:
No fucking Prepper.
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:( I liked him.

I thought the ending with the prepper was a cool and surprising twist. Really brought the three factions and their competing agendas out - in retrospective. Or maybe I was just not paying enough attention because I was so preoccupied with staying the fuck alive and braving the tense atmosphere, but it's probably something they could've emphasised a bit more during the game. Instead of different people, they sometimes felt little more like interchangeable quest givers - now you're taking orders from that guy, now from this gal, now from that guy.

They could've capitalised more on the fact that they were all working towards different (and ultimately, irreconcilable) goals. I guess there's the bit where the prepper flips the fuck out towards the end, but still.

Sethos said:
Gameplay must be lacklustre as hell if it can't be a good game without that second screen.

Probably shouldn't be multiplatform then.
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That's a really weird way of looking at things. I can assure you, it's anything but lacklustre. Not sure it should be multiplatform, but I'd really like it if more people could check it out. Ubisoft Montpellier deserves their props for this one.
 
Dedication to the rogue-like nature of the game. You are a different character every time. The people in the game should treat you that way.
 
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