Yes the zombie genre is overdone in just about every aspect of media these days, from TV to movies to video games, but it's something I'm willing to check out as I'm a fan of the genre. Recently out of no where came Ubisoft's Watch Dogs: Legion of the Dead (Alpha). I initially laughed when I heard about the Alpha, thinking how are they going to integrate zombies in a game like Watch Dogs and in what manner. Well me being the zombie fan that I am, I installed the Alpha (around 30 GBs), played it a few times during a two week period in early June and I've gathered my thoughts and listed them in this blog post.
What is this game?
Before I get to my feedback, first we must ask just what the heck is Watch Dogs: Legion of the Dead? Well it looks to be a survive-loot-extract type of game in the world of the latest Watch Dogs game. There is no inventory or building systems, you just run around, grab "loot" and try to extract while trying to stay alive vs zombies, AI-controlled humans and other real players.
According to Ubisoft's post when the Alpha was released on PC:
You and your team of survivors need to make it out alive by reaching the extraction point with as many stolen supplies as possible.
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Each successful run will reward you with "Z-Creds" and you will earn more credits for any supplies above the minimum requirement. Z-Creds can then be used to prepare for your next supply run, allowing you to purchase powerful gadgets and weapons, some of which are only available for credits and cannot be looted as supplies.
I understand that this is an Alpha but I'm sharing my thoughts as I hope Ubisoft builds on this game. I also created a video with some footage from my time playing which is further down the page.
My feedback: the good
- The night map in an apocalyptic UK setting/environment is great and definitely gives the feel it is trying to. There are sections with empty streets and broken down cars that really set the tone.
- The zombies are the slow type, but if they get close to you they will semi-run at you, grab you and hurt you.
- Shooting zombies feels good.
- There are a few cars on the map that work and I have to admit, running over zombies is fun.
- The zombies look good but there is no dismemberment.
My feedback: the ok
- The zombies do stop chasing you after you get a certain amount of distance away from them, but it actually doesn't take that far for you to be from them to make them give up, which I found a little weird.
- The player's footsteps while running are really loud, especially if your character is wearing shoes/heels. Footsteps OP, nerf please.
- Apparently there are ammunition boxes around the map, but during my rounds I did not find any ammo boxes. This is most likely a user issue on my part.
My feedback: the bad
- If you are close to a zombie they will get you in a "grapple" kind of state where you can't move and there is no indication of what to do. I spammed the dodge key (space) but sometimes you aren't able to get away from them and there's no indicator telling you how long to spam it. Sometimes it feels like the dodge doesn't work. If you get hit by zombies too much they will take you down and it's game over man. One strategy is to just keep running, as there is no stamina in this game and you can outrun the zombies as long as you aren't too close to them so they can't grab you.
- Suggestion: Add a "push away" mechanic so players can defend themselves from zombies grabbing you.
- The animation for the zombie "grapple" (grab/attack/whatever you want to call it) on you needs some work. Sometimes it looks like they're not even touching you.
- Hitting zombies with cars is fun but the "fall" animations need some work.
- Sometimes you hear zombie growls that make it seem as if a zombie is right behind you, but they're actually across the street a good distance from you.
- I had no idea what my character's health was while playing. Please add a health bar on the screen somewhere.
Questions
After playing this game, I came away asking what is this game trying to be? What is the purpose of playing this game? Is it just a test or is it actually trying to be a game? The Ubisoft blog post (linked to above) says we're basically going in, looting "supplies" and then extracting. You get "creds" for successful extractions to use for your next run which will get you more powerful items.
There has to be something more though, right? Do you level up your character and customize their gear/clothes/skills? Nope. You don't even use the same character, you use a random character each time you play. Do any rewards come over to the main Watch Dogs Legion game? Nope.
It would be nice if you could use one of your team members you recruited in the Watch Dogs Legion game's campaign but that's not possible. At the very least, let players create a character once that they can customize and let players use them for these rounds.
Final thoughts
I am excited to see a "Triple-A" game company working on a zombie game, as we see lots of smaller studios try it, some succeed but a lot fail. So I am interested to see what Ubisoft can accomplish with this as I think there's potential here. I am worried though, as seeing that they haven't released many updates tells me that this is maybe a tech test or a test to measure how interested people are in this type of game. Or maybe this is Ubisoft "testing the waters" for a future free-to-play zombie game? They have said recently that they are going to focus more on free-to-play games in the future (Source: PC Gamer).
For now, I have uninstalled Watch Dogs Legion of the Dead. Make me reinstall your game Ubisoft, I dare you! LOL