The Dead Linger - open-world survival FPP game

[Burning Bridges]

Might torrent it when it comes out, but meh... zombie apocalypse as a setting doesn't do anything for me. It's just boring.

IF it comes out.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Which raises a question: is there anything else which can / has been used instead of zombies? Something slow, stupid and numerous as fuck?

Why does it have to be slow, stupid and numerous? Why can't it be one fast and intelligent being? If it was a hunter by nature then that would give you incentive to move around as often as possible so that it doesn't catch up with you.

Because they make for a good setting. They give you reason to settle somewhere but still be afraid to go out and make your presence known, which in turn is indispensible for gathering supplies. The zombie apocalypse is not bad per se, it's just been used over and over and, most of the time, in the least creative and gratifying possible ways.

Not that a clever, fast hunter wouldn't work too, within reason. My initial quick overview on that idea is it's either fast enough I'd need to stay indoors or it's clever enough that I need to stay on the move. One possibility could be similar to the Dead State kind of survival game, the other more for a run of the mill FPS or a driving game of some sort, raiding towns on your way to escape the predator for as long as you can.

The funny thing is, I never even played a zombie game. Because I am still waiting for a really god one where you barricade yourself in a shelter as in I Am Legend / The Omega Man (although that were actually vampires) With lots of exploration in an empty town, cool items, inventory/base management, RPG elements and combat tactics.
So the zombie setting is not even an issue for me. There are many zombie games but they have all failed to provide the most obvious type of gameplay.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

guerrilla resistance rpg

bros I'm also up for BEING the monster itself, and I don't mean the occupying force

no like alex mercer in prototype, I mean a mysterious supernatural being of legend

perhaps the gameplay could move on from the dawn of time and then epoch to epoch and finally in the end you're hiding from nano-enhanced hunter-killer squads or mutant survivors of the apocalypse etc

too lazy to try and flesh it out but the gist is that you either survive 'in the open' as a free monster with a den, camouflage, regularly killing lone stragglers of humanity etc, venturing out stealthily, or you adopt a persona fitting of the era and try to go incognito amongst the sheep while having to give in every so often into a bloodbath, spate of killings etc

could probably do with different requirements of feeding and survival needs, abilities etc for each playthrough

 

[JarlFrank]

So basically a sandbox Vampire/Werewolf game? Sounds cool. Should be shitloads of work though to implement all the different eras.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

So basically a sandbox Vampire/Werewolf game? Sounds cool. Should be shitloads of work though to implement all the different eras.

yeah, I've been wanting x-com except versus gantzish supernatural beings for ages, this kind of got me thinking the other way plus I remembered that serial killer roguelike troll

it could be designed as a trilogy with 3 eras per installment and savegame transfer like the mass effect series invented, with an ending that has you dying and everyone becoming part monster in the end, I think that would be heartwarming

 

[almondblight]

That would be interesting. Also if it included some kind of generational gameplay - you spawn some kind of creature that starts out at level one again when it awakens, but has stats based on your growth (maybe).

The Mist (somewhat "meh" movie) would make for a decent setting. Military experiment gone awry opens the door to another dimension and all manner of nasty creatures come out. People start to break apart.

A Terminator future war strategy game would also be awesome, playing as the human resistance having to perform hit and run attacks against a superior enemy.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

serial killer roguelike troll

That was so goddamn disappointing.

 

[JarlFrank]

A Terminator future war strategy game would also be awesome, playing as the human resistance having to perform hit and run attacks against a superior enemy.

Exactly. Shit like this would interest me infinitely more than zombie survival - your enemies would actually be smart, there'd be more of a threat from them than just from their sheer mass, you'd actually have to fight an intelligent enemy that searches for you actively by other things than just smell or whatever zombies go after. And it would be an enemy that is so much more fun to fight against than zombies.

 

[Kz3r0]

guerrilla resistance rpg

bros I'm also up for BEING the monster itself, and I don't mean the occupying force

no like alex mercer in prototype, I mean a mysterious supernatural being of legend

perhaps the gameplay could move on from the dawn of time and then epoch to epoch and finally in the end you're hiding from nano-enhanced hunter-killer squads or mutant survivors of the apocalypse etc

too lazy to try and flesh it out but the gist is that you either survive 'in the open' as a free monster with a den, camouflage, regularly killing lone stragglers of humanity etc, venturing out stealthily, or you adopt a persona fitting of the era and try to go incognito amongst the sheep while having to give in every so often into a bloodbath, spate of killings etc

could probably do with different requirements of feeding and survival needs, abilities etc for each playthrough

The problem with this idea, gameplay wise, is that in almost every game you are legend, mowing down hundreds, if not thousands of enemy, resources and skills management aside being the monster would not be that different from being the hero.
People here didn't say that the setting is irrelevant by the way?

 

[sgc_meltdown]

resources and skills management aside being the monster would not be that different from being the hero.

A fair point

I think dynamic response escalation from the gameworld + the constant threat of being hunted by specialist teams, the need to keep your kills extremely covert and space out to prevent the former, and territorial conflict with other beings of similar power should make it feel newish enough, or you could just run into special people who can see you and you'll have to deal with it on the spot, etc

like a delta greenish mindfuck version of Stalker in monster form, except world map scope and god-game adjustable viewpoint, the emphasis on controlling something wholly alien with strange survival needs and not the usual need for loot and gold and quest exp

an example fragment would be a hunting method like the weeping angels from doctor who, weird weaknesses like not being able to enter a house while people are talking, etc

just the different approach to ordinary situations alone would be refreshing, at the very least
like how in prototype you'll be switching forms immediately when a helicopter misses sight of you and then when it turns around you'll be able to take it over. Or how every infected or human is a walking potion on wheels, every vehicle chassis is a missile, etc etc.

not exactly talking about making skyrim II here, and I didn't say I was inventing a new game genre by any means

also yes I am disappointed in how the Overlord series did 'evil'

People here didn't say that the setting is irrelevant by the way?

is this still a response to my post
I don't think I mentioned a specific setting at all

 

[Kz3r0]

People here didn't say that the setting is irrelevant by the way?

is this still a response to my post
I don't think I mentioned a specific setting at all

Just a random consideration of mine, feel free to ignore it.

 

[villain of the story]

I'd much prefer a game where instead of zombies, you have to fight humans

That's the entire point of zombie genre, mang. Props for not getting it at all.

 

[Luzur]

what about furries?

 

[Spectacle]

This sounds like that thing Cleve was talking about.

 

[CorpseZeb]

Exactly. Shit like this would interest me infinitely more than zombie survival - your enemies would actually be smart, there'd be more of a threat from them than just from their sheer mass, you'd actually have to fight an intelligent enemy that searches for you actively by other things than just smell or whatever zombies go after. And it would be an enemy that is so much more fun to fight against than zombies.

Hm. That sounds like Stalker to me. Groups of stalkers, concurrently, constantly sweeps map, searching for weapons and artefact's (AI model used in the CoP, supposedly). But zombies bring another kind of factor to the game. Yes, they dumb, yes, their pure mass are weapon, so if you fail, you cant blame them.
It's like playing chess with yourself. Or Simcity. Or poker - your strategy tells a lot about you. Your success is not depending on outsmarts of AI (because there's none of it, null, zero).

All Zombies games are based on that simple promise - everything is static - only player moves. That said, only time will tell, if simple and fun zombie concepts like that one from L4D, married with "resource management", brings any sensible form of challenge. I'm afraid, "management resources" being a rather random mix of player intelligence and game design, can destroy a fragile symbiosis between player (as only and primary "first mover") and a static zombie world (as "they" can now take an initiative).

 

[Emily]

Guys is there any game that actualy tries to do survival zombie apokalipse with low supplies base etc???
I can't seam to find any, other then Fort Zombie.
Why is everyone saying this is done to death? : S

 

[Kz3r0]

Project funded, in case someone cares.

 

[Burning Bridges]

All Zombies games are based on that simple promise - everything is static - only player moves. That said, only time will tell, if simple and fun zombie concepts like that one from L4D, married with "resource management", brings any sensible form of challenge. I'm afraid, "management resources" being a rather random mix of player intelligence and game design, can destroy a fragile symbiosis between player (as only and primary "first mover") and a static zombie world (as "they" can now take an initiative).

I don't get it. If I am a lone survivor in a zombie infested world, why should I not be allowed to use strategy?

 

[CorpseZeb]

I don't get it. If I am a lone survivor in a zombie infested world, why should I not be allowed to use strategy?

You are "allowed", zombies aren't. By "zombies strategy" I mean - a hypothetical game design - that "simulates" intelligent behavior of zombies (or at least "unpredictable" behavior), thus creating somewhat un-zombie feeling.

 

[someone else]

Anyone trying out the released alpha builds?