Overview:

Rebuild 3 is a survivalist management simulation set in the midst of a zombie apocalypse in the pacific northwest. The game involves reclaiming enough parts of cities to manage the menace of zombies while dealing with factions you can either ally with or destroy. Sometimes you'll be able to work towards finding the cure for the zombiism in a city, which means you shouldn't be too anxious to get out of town and take your most liked survivalists with you. The main gameplay of cities involes clearing zed out of unclaimed city blocks, then building a wall around pacified blocks, and then scavenging for food and supplies (either within parts of your own territory, or in unclaimed blocks with some risk to the scavenger/s), recruiting new survivalists, diplomacy with outside factions, and trade with either an outside caravan or other factions, and that ever-elusive goal of building up food production so that your community can not only survive, but also thrive into a bigger community capable of sustaining more people to do whatever it is that their specialty dictates. (Steam has caps on review lengths, so I'm cannot describe the roles of solders, scavengers, builders, engineers, and leaders.) And once you've met all of the goals, it's time to go to the next city... Unless you want to stick around for a bit longer to earn more achievements to proudly show off to your friends.

Graphics and Sound:

The graphics aren't the best, but I do find them aesthetically pleasing, and that's the most important thing. The main issue about grahpics, is that the wall around your territory is built all the way around (and underneath) bridges... The game even tells you that zombies cannot swim!
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=980486315

The sound is nothing special by and large. I do enjoy the sound the game makes whenever zombie hordes attack your city, and it does create that feeling that scores of undead are coming to eat your brains. The main issue I have with the music in Rebuild 3, is that I either like a song, but it sounds out of place, or the song fits perfectly, but I don't like it. The main exception would have to be the song "Flicker The Light," which is not only my personal favorite in Rebuild 3's soundtrack, and it does help create a sense of urgency. Fortunately, Rebuild 3 is the sort of game you can enjoy with the sound down. So go ahead and defend your turf while you're playing the theme to the schlock movie Raiders of the Living Dead.

Positives:

I am impressed by the game's storyline. It's a lot more than just endless zombie killing, and the use of real life geographical locations also provides a nice feel to Rebuild 3. (The player can rename cities as they wish.) While not exactly River City Ransom, the game does have a sense of humor absent from most games, and rather than just saturate the player in jokes and hope that one of them makes the player laugh, the humor is judiciously used, and something funny will come up when the player least expects to be humored.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1075311590

Scavenging is always a nice bit of pot luck, because you don't know if the supplies you're going to find will be building materials or ammunition. You might even be lucky enough to find a weapon or item to give to one of your survivalists in order for them to get the most out of their skills.

While skills can be improved upon for survivalists, fortunately a survivalist does not have to have any skill to do something outside of their specialty, which is good because with few people in your community to start each city, you're going to have everyone scouting, fighting, and building. Some people might even have everyone scavenging, but I prefer to leave scavenging to my scavengers. (Especially if they have the hoarder trait, which can result in more building materials.) And if you find yourself with too many survivalists with the same skill? You can either build or reclaim a school, and have a survivalist gain a new skill! (While retaining their original skill level in their former specialty.)

I also enjoy the system for traits. Every so often, you will get a dialogue bubble next to a survivalist's picture, and you can let them talk about their backstory, which allows you to pick a trait that you can apply to that survivalist. The main character can also gain new (and much better) traits than the other survivalists as time goes by.

Rebuild 3 also has a technology tree that you're free to research. And while not normally mandatory, it does add to the challenge of how to best use the engineers in your community. (Or just a place to put engineers to work for whatever reason.) Research can lead to all sorts of things that either provide macro benefits to one's community, or allows engineers to craft new types of items in workshops.

The large number of weapons and items also makes Rebuild 3 an enjoyable game. The best part is that some weapons have non-combat applications (sledgehammers can be used for construction as well combat), while some items (particularly hammers and crowbars) can be used to help a survivalist in combat in addition to their usual non-combat function.. If a survivalist has a vehicle, they can use that to make jobs far away from one's zone of control safer to achieve, or at some random occasion in combat, vehicles can be used for running over zombies foolish enough to attack you.

Negatives:

Mixed use of masculine and feminine pronouns. This screams amateurization at it's loudest. I can only presume that Rebuild 3 was play-tested because I don't have any issue with the game crashing. But you can expect to see people called "he" and "she" in the same encounter.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1090975936

Rebuild 3 also lacks a safety feature for going back to the main menu. The game asks if you're sure if you want to delete saved games, yet if you click on the "main menu" button by accident (and it's a mistake I've made many times), you get taken straight to the main menu.

The paradox of going too slow and too fast isn't something I enjoy about Rebuild 3. The game takes points off of your score the longer you stay in a city, and there's even an achievement for being able to finish a city within 50 days. But if you rush through a city which contains events needed to find a cure, and you leave before you find them, then tough luck, sucker!

Conclusion:

I got Rebuild 3 while it was on sale, and I would recommend this game at it's sale price. I'd like to think that you could get a better game for the same price, only I cannot think of any better games than Rebuild 3 at a comparable price. Rebuild 3 is good, addictive fun. It's the type of game, which if it's in your niche, takes over everything and puts life on hold while you go through the motions of surviving and then thriving all while trying to set up your territory to stop other factions from claiming buildings that you might want for yourself (power plants and water treatment plants are personal favorites of mine), so you'll be enjoying Rebuild 3 to the point to where you won't be playing any other games on the side with your free time. One nice feature of Rebuild 3, is that there's multiple endings, so that automatically gives the game replay value. I know I'll play Rebuild 3 again some day, but just not soon. (There was something I overlooked in one of the cities.) Not only is Rebuild 3 a one of a kind game, but it's also a great one at that you will be playing for a long time. (At least on your first playthrough.)

Overview: Rebuild 3 is a survivalist management simulation set in the midst of a zombie apocalypse in the pacific northwest. The game involves reclaiming enough parts of cities to manage the menace of zombies while dealing with factions you can either ally with or destroy. Sometimes you'll be able to work towards finding the cure for the zombiism in a city, which means you shouldn't be too anxious to get out of town and take your most liked survivalists with you. The main gameplay of cities involes clearing zed out of unclaimed city blocks, then building a wall around pacified blocks, and then scavenging for food and supplies (either within parts of your own territory, or in unclaimed blocks with some risk to the scavenger/s), recruiting new survivalists, diplomacy with outside factions, and trade with either an outside caravan or other factions, and that ever-elusive goal of building up food production so that your community can not only survive, but also thrive into a bigger community capable of sustaining more people to do whatever it is that their specialty dictates. (Steam has caps on review lengths, so I'm cannot describe the roles of solders, scavengers, builders, engineers, and leaders.) And once you've met all of the goals, it's time to go to the next city... Unless you want to stick around for a bit longer to earn more achievements to proudly show off to your friends. Graphics and Sound: The graphics aren't the best, but I do find them aesthetically pleasing, and that's the most important thing. The main issue about grahpics, is that the wall around your territory is built all the way around (and underneath) bridges... The game even tells you that zombies cannot swim! http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=980486315 The sound is nothing special by and large. I do enjoy the sound the game makes whenever zombie hordes attack your city, and it does create that feeling that scores of undead are coming to eat your brains. The main issue I have with the music in Rebuild 3, is that I either like a song, but it sounds out of place, or the song fits perfectly, but I don't like it. The main exception would have to be the song "Flicker The Light," which is not only my personal favorite in Rebuild 3's soundtrack, and it does help create a sense of urgency. Fortunately, Rebuild 3 is the sort of game you can enjoy with the sound down. So go ahead and defend your turf while you're playing the theme to the schlock movie Raiders of the Living Dead. Positives: I am impressed by the game's storyline. It's a lot more than just endless zombie killing, and the use of real life geographical locations also provides a nice feel to Rebuild 3. (The player can rename cities as they wish.) While not exactly River City Ransom, the game does have a sense of humor absent from most games, and rather than just saturate the player in jokes and hope that one of them makes the player laugh, the humor is judiciously used, and something funny will come up when the player least expects to be humored. http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1075311590 Scavenging is always a nice bit of pot luck, because you don't know if the supplies you're going to find will be building materials or ammunition. You might even be lucky enough to find a weapon or item to give to one of your survivalists in order for them to get the most out of their skills. While skills can be improved upon for survivalists, fortunately a survivalist does not have to have any skill to do something outside of their specialty, which is good because with few people in your community to start each city, you're going to have everyone scouting, fighting, and building. Some people might even have everyone scavenging, but I prefer to leave scavenging to my scavengers. (Especially if they have the hoarder trait, which can result in more building materials.) And if you find yourself with too many survivalists with the same skill? You can either build or reclaim a school, and have a survivalist gain a new skill! (While retaining their original skill level in their former specialty.) I also enjoy the system for traits. Every so often, you will get a dialogue bubble next to a survivalist's picture, and you can let them talk about their backstory, which allows you to pick a trait that you can apply to that survivalist. The main character can also gain new (and much better) traits than the other survivalists as time goes by. Rebuild 3 also has a technology tree that you're free to research. And while not normally mandatory, it does add to the challenge of how to best use the engineers in your community. (Or just a place to put engineers to work for whatever reason.) Research can lead to all sorts of things that either provide macro benefits to one's community, or allows engineers to craft new types of items in workshops. The large number of weapons and items also makes Rebuild 3 an enjoyable game. The best part is that some weapons have non-combat applications (sledgehammers can be used for construction as well combat), while some items (particularly hammers and crowbars) can be used to help a survivalist in combat in addition to their usual non-combat function.. If a survivalist has a vehicle, they can use that to make jobs far away from one's zone of control safer to achieve, or at some random occasion in combat, vehicles can be used for running over zombies foolish enough to attack you. Negatives: Mixed use of masculine and feminine pronouns. This screams amateurization at it's loudest. I can only presume that Rebuild 3 was play-tested because I don't have any issue with the game crashing. But you can expect to see people called "he" and "she" in the same encounter. http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1090975936 Rebuild 3 also lacks a safety feature for going back to the main menu. The game asks if you're sure if you want to delete saved games, yet if you click on the "main menu" button by accident (and it's a mistake I've made many times), you get taken straight to the main menu. The paradox of going too slow and too fast isn't something I enjoy about Rebuild 3. The game takes points off of your score the longer you stay in a city, and there's even an achievement for being able to finish a city within 50 days. But if you rush through a city which contains events needed to find a cure, and you leave before you find them, then tough luck, sucker! Conclusion: I got Rebuild 3 while it was on sale, and I would recommend this game at it's sale price. I'd like to think that you could get a better game for the same price, only I cannot think of any better games than Rebuild 3 at a comparable price. Rebuild 3 is good, addictive fun. It's the type of game, which if it's in your niche, takes over everything and puts life on hold while you go through the motions of surviving and then thriving all while trying to set up your territory to stop other factions from claiming buildings that you might want for yourself (power plants and water treatment plants are personal favorites of mine), so you'll be enjoying Rebuild 3 to the point to where you won't be playing any other games on the side with your free time. One nice feature of Rebuild 3, is that there's multiple endings, so that automatically gives the game replay value. I know I'll play Rebuild 3 again some day, but just not soon. (There was something I overlooked in one of the cities.) Not only is Rebuild 3 a one of a kind game, but it's also a great one at that you will be playing for a long time. (At least on your first playthrough.)