I wanted to like this game and I don't want to be harsh towards it, but it just isn't good. When hearing the name Deadcraft, one might naturally assume that it's a survival game about crafting zombies somehow, and it is partially that, but the core gameplay loop is actually a rather oldschool-style ARPG. While crafting does exist, the main focus of the game is fetch quests. So many fetch quests and so much running back and forth in a shockingly tiny game world. Talk to Vernon, who tells you to go talk to Mike, who then tells you to go back to Vernon again. Every once in a while, you can craft a new upgrade station that allows you to craft a new weapon and that's it. Then it's back to running between Mike and vernon again for many hours, while occasionally stepping out into the previously mentioned tiny game world to go kill the, like, 10 zombies that are hanging out in the "wasteland" between cities. Then back to running errands for NPCs.
I was kind of enjoying this despite it's repetitive simplicity, if for no other reason than the fact that unlock and upgrade systems can be addictive, but the game really started to drag about halfway through and I stopped having fun. This game is 5 hours worth of content stretched over what is looking to be more like 30 hours of gameplay, all of it filled out with fetch quests and running errands. In that time, there have only been 2 or 3 boss fights to break up the monotony of fetch questing and farming the same 10 zombies for materials. I was far past the point of feeling done with the game when I unlocked a whole new area, a frustrating car and the most irritating enemies I may have possibly seen in a game and that's when I felt like calling it. I've put 20 hours into a 5-hour game that got boring long ago and these new frog zombie enemies are so annoying that I just powered off my console in the middle of a fight. (I went back and played more after that rage quit and I did end up finishing the game.)
On top of that, there are so many other problems... The combat doesn't really feel smooth because nothing can cancel anything else, including the incredibly slow knockdown animation that triggers constantly in the late game since every enemy attack is a knockdown attack at that point. Quality of life is very low considering you have to enter the menu constantly, and the menu also has this little delay after loading and before you can actually use it. There is a quick-select menu, but it only allows one item and doing stuff like watering your plants changes the equipped quick slot item, so you just end up giving up on trying to keep the stuff you actually want equipped and just default to opening the full menu to do everything. Combat is too simple with only one attack and the whole zombie system feeling like it really doesn't matter and doesn't add very much at all, since you have to maintain your zombe/human status by eating certain things and you're not going to kill the momentum of combat by struggling with the slow menus and lack of proper quick-select in order to juggle like 5 different foods to maintain the correct level of zombiehood. That's just not something you end up doing and the whole zombie system ends up being pointless.
The zombie-growing system doesn't really amount to much either. You can really only grow three types of zombies and merging them in the chapel really only seems to rarely give them a great weapon out of the ones you can craft yourself, and you won't be creating any cool mutants or anything.
It's too bad, because this one could've been special. Post-apocalyptic zombie ARPG with fast combat and crafting? Should've been a winner for me, but the extremely repetitive nature, the miniscule world, the dull quests and lack of any especially compelling content makes this game much duller than it should be. It's not insufferable, and this review is overly harsh, but the game is just not as much fun as it could and should be. At least it was an easy platinum trophy.
I was kind of enjoying this despite it's repetitive simplicity, if for no other reason than the fact that unlock and upgrade systems can be addictive, but the game really started to drag about halfway through and I stopped having fun. This game is 5 hours worth of content stretched over what is looking to be more like 30 hours of gameplay, all of it filled out with fetch quests and running errands. In that time, there have only been 2 or 3 boss fights to break up the monotony of fetch questing and farming the same 10 zombies for materials. I was far past the point of feeling done with the game when I unlocked a whole new area, a frustrating car and the most irritating enemies I may have possibly seen in a game and that's when I felt like calling it. I've put 20 hours into a 5-hour game that got boring long ago and these new frog zombie enemies are so annoying that I just powered off my console in the middle of a fight. (I went back and played more after that rage quit and I did end up finishing the game.)
On top of that, there are so many other problems... The combat doesn't really feel smooth because nothing can cancel anything else, including the incredibly slow knockdown animation that triggers constantly in the late game since every enemy attack is a knockdown attack at that point. Quality of life is very low considering you have to enter the menu constantly, and the menu also has this little delay after loading and before you can actually use it. There is a quick-select menu, but it only allows one item and doing stuff like watering your plants changes the equipped quick slot item, so you just end up giving up on trying to keep the stuff you actually want equipped and just default to opening the full menu to do everything. Combat is too simple with only one attack and the whole zombie system feeling like it really doesn't matter and doesn't add very much at all, since you have to maintain your zombe/human status by eating certain things and you're not going to kill the momentum of combat by struggling with the slow menus and lack of proper quick-select in order to juggle like 5 different foods to maintain the correct level of zombiehood. That's just not something you end up doing and the whole zombie system ends up being pointless.
The zombie-growing system doesn't really amount to much either. You can really only grow three types of zombies and merging them in the chapel really only seems to rarely give them a great weapon out of the ones you can craft yourself, and you won't be creating any cool mutants or anything.
It's too bad, because this one could've been special. Post-apocalyptic zombie ARPG with fast combat and crafting? Should've been a winner for me, but the extremely repetitive nature, the miniscule world, the dull quests and lack of any especially compelling content makes this game much duller than it should be. It's not insufferable, and this review is overly harsh, but the game is just not as much fun as it could and should be. At least it was an easy platinum trophy.