Recent reviews by Daratra

I just managed to finish my custom built submarine, and have been playing the campaign for a few hours now.
It's been pretty cool so far, although the dark water is really spooky.

I don't know why I even bothered to write this review. If you're even considering buying this, don't.

Because if you're not considering, you've already bought it and you're enjoying it. That, or you're whining with the rest of the people, which is exactly why there aren't more games like DayZ.

Sure, this game is buggy as hell. Sure, it's performance sucks ass. Sure, there isn't that much "actual content". However, I have yet to meet another game that satisfies my zombie survival needs the way DayZ does. Even though people complain (or praise) that the map is way too big, it's actually quite small once you get to know the ins and outs.

The zombies are basically just a barebones version of what has been promised. There isn't a wide pool of different weapons and mods to choose from. Hell, they even implemented tents and since then they've removed and reworked them like two times.

This is by no means meant for your usual gamer. If truly love something, in this case zombie survival games, then you're able to squeeze out all of the fun this game has to offer, and it has plenty. Just strolling through the forest, stopping by a river, chopping down a couple trees and setting up a fireplace with those matches you picked up earlier, boiling water with that kettle you found, taking a couple drinks and going on forward is the kind of enjoyment I've found.

I don't need Minecraft housebuilding or fast-paced zombie slaughter action. I don't need multiple people to micro-manage to keep my community alive. I don't need perfect gameplay mechanics and pre-set quests and objectives.

Because I can enjoy DayZ without all of those things. It's my favorite semi-realistic, post-apocalyptic, zombie survival walking simulator.

When I bought Dreadnaut and entered the game, I didn't expect much based on the trailers available. It seemed just like all those top-down squad RTS games, which there are hundreds of. It was only 10 euros, so I decided to jump it and test it out.

I immediately reached out for the character creation. I've always been one for creating my own party/character, since the game experience feels a lot more personal. The character creation has two minor bugs, which I did not realize were bugs until I read the forums for a tutorial on character creation. The bugs:

• You cannot proceed "Early Career" -phase without having at least 1 extra point.
  
• Selecting flaw Attention Seeker bugs out, so it disappears from the list, making it impossible to deselect.

Other than that, the character creating didn't seem to be that extensive, but it lets you fleck out certain bits of personality on the character. There are a certain set of different charasteristics you get to choose, if you want to spend a point on them. For example, "He likes combat, he doesn't like ruined rooms, he likes tight corridors" etc.

It took me nearly 2 hours to flesh out my squad consisting of five Deadnauts. After that, I finally got into the game. And oh boy, here comes the best part...

The game itself plants you, the "Commander" in the charge of leading your squad through those derelict ships, looking for whatever the mission is. On the way, you collect Knowledge, which is the currency in this game, from bodies, artifacts, killing enemies and simply finding new rooms. After you've finished your mission, which might be "Destroy artifacts", "recover ship's log", "eliminate all resistance" or something along those lines, you simply reach your starting room's Escape Hatch or you use any of those you might've found during your search on the ship. The combat is pretty straightforward. You say where your guys go, your guys (might not) do that, and when they reach there they shoot the baddies IF THEY SEE THEM. You better pack a scanner with you, because those damn Spectres are near invisible. You can also manually target a single enemy, which gives you a great freedom on choosing the most important target first.

Now, why should you call this creepy? Because the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ soundtrack is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ creepy. All those howls, yells, screams and growls make my hairs stand up. They sound extremely authentic. You're a commander behind a radio, giving orders to your squad, when you suddenly hear your squad firing their weapons, and you hear loud, unnatural screech. Your squad starts backing away, but on the comms, a message, "We've lost Johns!". Soon the enemy, whatever the hell it was, lies dead on the ground. Your squad makes your way through the derelict ship, completing their mission and encountering little resistance. However, when you're heading back to the escape hatch, you encounter one last enemy. Again, on the comms arrives a message. "Wait, is that Johns?" as you notice your squad starts rupturing apart like flies.

This game is minimalistic on the graphical side, although the UI with the scanners, character profiles and information screens are just like you would expect on a high-tech commander's station on a spaceship. The UI isn't that user-friendly, and takes a lot of getting used to. It is confusing at first, but when you learn how to use it, it becomes effective. Replayability on this game is a huge 10/10, since the missions are dynamically generated. The story, the enemies you encounter, the ships you go on, the stuff that happens, it's generated. Aside from the bugs on the character creation, I haven't encountered any major bugs in game. You can import your own character portraits, which is great for more personality.

My personal score for this game is 8/10, and a place for top 10 games of 2014 on my list. It isn't on the top 5 of the games, but it is still high. This game is for dedicated rogue-like fans, with lots of imagination and patience to get through the not-so-userfriendly firsthand experience.

Also, if you liked Zafehouse: Diaries, you WILL like this game.