This game is sort of a gem.. wrapped in a plain old gum wrapper... it doesn't seem like it'll be much of a game but it is a lot more complex than the graphics would indicate. A skill system, a farming mechanic, a crafting system, drivable vehicles, FLYING vehicles, and assorted melee and ranged weaponry. It's a game that a 8 or 9 year old could sit down and play and not get upset about the complexity.. and an older player that wishes for the lack of complexity to return to games will enjoy... So...

The Set up
I was bored of all the games I normally play. Games I own and don't play didn't look appealing to me at the moment and then... I saw this. "Sure... let me just download it. It's a small size and I'm bored as I can be."

I laughed at myself for picking what appeared to be a game with crude graphics and not much other information to go on. I play games. I like to know what I'm getting ready to play... I was not prepared...

The first loading of the game
After the game was installed, I clicked on the play button and waited for some cut scene, trailer, teaser type of thing that was going to try to make this look awesome... instead, a quick pan in through a hay loft window into a barn with some crates sitting there.. and a patch/update information window. Huh.. air drops were added... very quaint. I did not expect anything at this point from this game... maybe an hour of amusement and more frustration by game engine limitations or bad controls... something was going to be wrong or buggy or super annoying... I had no idea what I was getting into...

I set up my character. Pretty routine. Some basic hair styles, a basic face style. It's a voxel game. It's what you get... nothing fancy or detailed... just something to customize yourself so you look like 1 of 10 or 12 possible people. I notice things are locked down... need to buy the 'gold' package. Not sure I want to spend $4.99usd on this, so I skip it and move on..

I pick singleplayer, normal difficulty, and PEI as my map.. just because the difficulty and map are the default things...

Playing the game
I load into the map and start to go around and gather clothing and gear... The inventory system seemed a bit odd. Each garment has an inventory grid associated with it. I kept quickly filling up with stuff... so I started breaking things down: most clothing to cloth, metal things to metal plates, then food to seeds.

I noticed I kept getting experience every time I picked some berries, cut down a tree, or killed a zombie. I found it odd until... I actually looked closer and noticed a 'skills' tab in the inventory and crafting page. SKILLS?! Awesome, probably nothing good... A combat tab, a defense tab, a survival tab. Looking them over, the skills are simple, but provide some real game altering buffs the longer you survive and invest... a level of detail I was NOT expecting.

So time goes on, I finding things, gaining experience and putting it into my skills. I die occasionally as I get too cocky and careless. I discover that I lose experience when I die... that skills lose points as well. I slow my play down even more to avoid losing the experience.

So, time goes on and I set up a bed roll with 9 pieces of clothing, plant the seeds and start to wonder around more. I find berries that make me trip out for a while. They cause my controls to reverse themselves and the screen does this color shifting wavy thing for a few minutes... not enough to make the game unplayable, but difficult to do things. I make a few boxes using a saw I found and start pack ratting stuff.

Then.. I find it... a chopper... on a military base. I sneak up to it figuring it'll have stuff I can loot out of it... I get close enough and.. WHAT?!.. I can FLY THIS THING?!

I hop in, power it, get the rotors going.. and promptly take off and go sideways... slamming into the barracks and killing myself and blowing the chopper up..

I go back, collect my gear, lament the loss of the chopper and hope to find one another day. I run around and collect more things... I need a base at this point to make storage a bit neater... so, I begin chopping logs down with a camp axe I'd found.

Crops are growing well, I'm investing skill points all over. I have a nice little compound now.

The shock of time passing
I look at my clock.. I downloaded it around 7pm. I realize.. I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I have to go to the bathroom. Work at 6am is only 2 hours away... it's 4am already. I log off, and go to work an hour early...

I've had the game for about a week now and I've put 53 hours into the game. I've learned how to host my own private server for my friends to play on as well. The game is a lot of fun and we're all loving it.

I felt so bad about the game being so much fun and not being charged for the base game... I decided to pay the $4.99 USD for the DLC just to fund the makers. It has microtransactions, but they seem to be mostly cosmetic things for your survivors, so not needed. I'm definitely going to be hooked on this game for a while...