“Night of the Dead” is a confused open world zombie survival game. Empty world, forced generic story, every night, a relentless wave of zombies assaults your base. While the base defence mechanic adds a thrilling aspect to the game, it also exposes several significant flaws that hinder the overall experience.

The core gameplay loop is familiar to fans of the genre: collect resources, craft gear, and venture further into the world. However, most resources end up being thrown into base building rather than upgrading equipment. On that note, the best gear is usually found by looting zombies and exploring structures rather than crafting.

Base defence is the only part of the game that stands out and it delivers a genuinely tense experience. Of course many games have done a similar premise, the likes of 7 days to die comes to mind, “Night of the dead” switches it up a little. Each night brings a new challenge, and without proper fortifications and strategies, your base can be quickly overrun. This nightly onslaught can be overwhelming but is also the most engaging aspect of the game. You can really delve into creating intricate corridors of traps to fight against an oncoming horde of the undead. The day night cycle is longer than I have experienced in any game and for the first day it definitely dragged as I was not aware just how bad the night gets but after my initial wave I realised I made a grave mistake by not taking the base defence seriously and spent half the next day collecting resources, the second half rectifying my mistake.

Unfortunately, the first half of day 2 was not very exciting as the game’s world is bland and uninspired. The environment consists mostly of ruined buildings in remote areas or small cities, with little variation or standout locations. Buildings often feature repetitive, copy-paste interiors, of oversized props which makes exploration feel monotonous. The world design lacks the care and creativity needed to make it truly immersive, relying heavily on generic asset store items that are poorly integrated. With that in mind , the game is heavily ‘inspired’ by other games in the zombie survival genre. the character creator is a typical MMO screen with body sliders and the likes but then you into picking traits and flaws. sound familiar?

When this screen popped up I felt a bit sad because to so blatantly take the idea from project Zomboid that made creating every character a mini puzzles to figure out which flaws are bearable and worth the risk of taking to accommodate for the traits you deem necessary. in “Night of the Dead” this mechanic is butchered as there is no weight behind it. My character has 5 high level traits without the need of a single flaw. I had a look through and realised, the traits I have is all I need so why would a bother with picking a flaw? And so i began my adventure.

The play wakes up in a lab stasis pod of sorts and is greeted with a quick tutorial. basic movement, attacks and a couple interactions with containers later you are let out into the world. While there is a story that guides you from location to location, it is very much secondary to the gameplay. The narrative feels more like an afterthought, providing minimal context and motivation for your actions. If you’re looking for a deep, engaging story, you’ll be disappointed. It doesn’t help that the game is poorly translated, for example, where the word ‘confirm’ should be is instead replaced with ‘decision’. I personally don’t have an issue with that and it does add some charm to the whole ordeal but for a story that’s already so neglected I would rather not waste my time and skip the dialog all-together which renders the ‘main quest’ an annoying text box telling you which direction to head.

Now I mentioned the base defence with crazy traps but what about the overall open world encounters with zombies, blowing heads off the undead is why we’re here after all. well the combat in “Night of the Dead” is a major let down. The animations for swinging weapons and tools feel awkward and unnatural, breaking immersion. Zombie reactions to hits are inconsistent; they either get stun-locked or completely ignore your attacks as if you’re wielding a toy. The game also introduces a companion early on, which adds another layer of frustration. Companion-friendly fire means that her kicks can stagger you, leaving you vulnerable to zombie attacks and making it difficult to protect her. Later on I decided it would be a good idea to give ‘Anna’ a shield . Imagine my surprise when sprinted to save her from being overrun, I leaped in and swung my fiery axe from hell at the zombie horde, and ‘Anna’ parried my attack, leaving me staggered and almost dead. It sure gave me a chuckle but when it happened multiple times in tight corridors I decided she’s better off with just a machete.

Before I get into my final thoughts I have to bring up the monetisation, has been in early access for 4 years. Now in full release being more expensive most 10/1 indie titles that have been popping up. And yet “night of the Dead” has a costume DLC that is almost the same price as the game. I think the price should be reflective of the product itself and when a your final product is only slightly more expensive than a cosmetic DLC it tells you a lot about the final product.

“Night of the Dead” had potential, especially with its base defence mechanics and the nightly zombie waves that keep you on your toes. However, after 4 years it’s still hampered by un inspired world design, poor combat mechanics, and a weak story. The game might be enjoyable with a few friends if you can get it at a steep discount, but at its current price, it’s hard to recommend.

In summary, if you’re a die-hard fan of zombie survival games and can overlook significant flaws for the thrill of defending your base night after night, you might find some enjoyment here. For everyone else, just play 7 days to die.

“Night of the Dead” had a full release on 31st May on Steam.

The awaited sequel to the indie game Cyber Manhunt is here. Cyber Manhunt 2: New World is a point-and-click game focusing on hacking. You play as an AI who is tasked by a tech corporation boss, Ashley Clayton, for the mega company Titan. She will ask you to deduce information from various people involved in the company to settle inner-company investigations. The game works by assigning someone for you to research and find information on to gain a further understanding of a conflict at hand. The game is primarily set on a computer screen where you have access to various apps such as emails, a messaging platform, a search engine, a password cracker, a data farmer and so on. You’ll be tasked with finding enough information that you can get to the bottom of an investigation.

Also a disclaimer, most screenshots are taken from the first chapter to avoid spoilers. Photos may give away a plot detail so if you want to experience the first chapter of this game fresh, you have been warned.

Narrative

New World’s story is immaculately delivered. What begins as a button-clicking marathon of typing in various details evolves into an intense story where every character mentioned feels important. The storytelling is fantastic it goes in so many different directions with its twists but none of them come across as something that doesn’t check out. When there has been a terrorist attack on Titan Head Quarters, it’s down to you to help uncover what’s led to this. Your opinions on a character will fluctuate objective by objective. It is a fantastically devised plot which keeps you guessing who is truly at fault. What makes this whodunnit storytelling more thrilling is the realistic nature of the conspiracies and crimes at hand in the corporate industry. All of the wrongdoings are from people driven by a lust for money or power, safety or revenge. Much like a Knives Out film you learn along the journey of finding out who a culprit is, you don’t have much of a like for any of these characters. It is quick to see the social commentary at play here. Cyber Manhunt 2: New World looks at the invasiveness of technology, the dangers of greed and lobbying in the corporate and tech industries and how perfectly honest men can become terrorists. The story is by far the most compelling aspect of this game.

Gameplay

The point-and-click nature of this game is handled very creatively. There are an array of different methods to find the information you’re looking for, going through the messaging platform, ‘hitalk’ and hacking into accounts was one I enjoyed the most as they function as a spawn of gossip. The gameplay does feel quite slow and dull to begin with, but once you become more familiar with the interface you can get through these sequences much quicker. New World feels quite repetitive at times going back and forth between the same applications and surfing through them for new information. However, the brilliance in storytelling does take this dullness away as the game goes on. Finding out a crucial bit of detail in an email can keep you on the edge of your seat as you frantically search to put these pieces together. And while the process can be quite dull, it does succeed in making your work feel very satisfying. Putting the evidence together you have farmed and coming up with a theory to solve the case from it was really cool. Normally after solving a case, you get these cool drawings and animation which will develop the story.

Most information is found by scouring various texts and compiling fact files about the characters. However, occasionally you’ll need to make an intuitive deduction about something. These moments are really rewarding and I wish we could’ve seen more. Particularly when dialogue is an option and you have to say the right thing to get the information you want from someone. To someone with experience in hacking or coding, this game might feel quite simplistic but to the average gamer, it comes across as fairly well put together and satisfying. One critique I would have for this game though is I did experience fairly frequent crashes, in particular when entering the investigative phase where you are called to make a decision on your evidence – the screen would often freeze. However, the game has a useful and regular autosave, so it doesn’t ever set you back much, aside from the time taken to restart the game.

Verdict

If you love a good whodunnit and a bit of research and puzzles in between, Cyber Manhunt 2 is an excellent game worth picking up. I have not played the first game so I can’t judge how it fairs as a sequel but I would say that I didn’t need any prior knowledge to be completely immersed into the plot of this game. This a really well-put-together game on the whole, it’s very clear a lot of thought went in writing this story and it’s a concept that could be reused again and again in different scenarios or environments– something I’m hoping the developers at Aluba Studio are planning to do.

Wuthering Waves is an open world action RPG developed by Kuro Games. It follows the same style as other gatcha games, such as Genshin Impact and Tower Of Fantasy. Wuthering Waves hopes to carve out its niche with its faster-paced combat and spin on artifacts with a creature collecting system.

The World of Solaris-3

Your character, Rover, wakes up in Solaris-3 without their memories. Rover meets various characters along their journey, which helps them become established in the world. There was an event in the past called the Lament, an apocalyptic event that created these monsters called Tacet Discords, which you fight. The story’s first act establishes the world, various factions, and connects Rover to the history of Solaris-3.

Honestly, the start of the game is a bad first impression. A lot of the initial world-building felt like information overload, which caused me to zone out of what was happening at times. To add to these woes, some of the characters’ voice-acting and writing felt one-note, bland, and inconsistent with other characters. Some character’s personalities shined; others make you want to skip through the dialogue and get to the rest of the game.

Open World

While the story is underwhelming, exploring Wuthering Waves is a fun experience. There are loads of activities for players to get Astrites, the currency needed to obtain characters and weapons on the various banners. You can solve puzzles, complete time trials where you fight enemies, and even play mini-games. There is a currency called waveplates, the time-gated currency for certain activities. You have 240 waveplates, and one waveplate regenerates every six minutes. So the idea is you can log into the game once per day and spend the waveplates leveling up your characters and weapons without spending too much time on the daily grind. Each activity costs about 40 to 60 waveplates, which felt like I had enough to grind daily.

Solaris-3 has a lot of things to explore and collect, so the game gives you options to traverse it. Unlocking teleporters around will help you fast-travel to your destinations. You have a glider and grappling hook, which allow you to traverse gaps. The most interesting thing that Wuthering Waves added is how to scale cliffs. Sprinting at walls allows you to start running up walls. This feature made me happy, as other games like this can be tedious to scale cliffs. Exploration overall is fun, and there are various environments to explore.

Gotta Catch Them All?

One of my favorite parts about Wuthering Waves is the combat. You have teams of three characters, all with different elements. You can swap between the three characters when the situation suits that character the best. Each character has a skill and an ultimate ability. You have normal attacks, heavy attacks, and plunging attacks. However, things are faster and more fluid than Genshin Impact. One thing that sets it apart is the intro/outro skills. When a character swaps, they leave behind different abilities. Sometimes, you get stat boosts; sometimes, they deal damage after leaving the field. After charging up your character, swapping will lead to an intro attack. Overall, everything feels fast and has a higher skill ceiling.

The other unique thing about Wuthering Waves is its artifact system. When you defeat monsters in the overworld, you can absorb them, and they become echoes. Echoes give you stat bonuses. Having multiple of the same echoes in an echo set can grant bonus effects such as bonus elemental damage and other powerful effects. You have a data bank where you can record the echoes you collect, which will increase your stamina and get better echoes as you progress deeper into the game. While you can only collect all the echoes in your world once a day, you can visit other people’s worlds to continue the echo hunt. The downside is that you need a resource called tuners to roll substats, which can turn into the grindy, RNG-dependent nature of gatcha games. I enjoy that you are incentivized to go to other people’s worlds and co-op the game. I also like that you have more chances of getting a desired main stat for the echoes, but you’re still praying to get good substats for the characters.

It’s A Gatcha Game, After All

After collecting enough Astrites, you can spend them on various character and weapon banners to have a chance of getting the characters you want. The game starts with a beginner banner, which gives you a 5-star character and other goodies. From there, the game gives you the choice of a 5-star character to pull on, which will guarantee you that character. There is also the standard banner and a limited event banner, which rotates characters. You need about 1600 Astrites to pull ten times on normal banners. For event banners, you have a 50/50 chance of getting that event character. If you lose your 50/50 shot, you are guaranteed the event character the next time you pull a 5-star character. The maximum number of rolls you need to pull a 5-star event character is 80, less than Genshin Impact’s 90 pulls.

For transparency, I think my luck on the gatcha was pretty good. I obtained the best healer from my beginner banner, and thanks to some in-game mail, I could grab the best DPS at the start of the game. Each account will be different, and it’s important to gatcha responsibly. While I think this game is generous with rewarding you at the start of the game, I think it will still be a grind for free-to-play players to build up resources. Expect to plan carefully for future banners. I cannot predict the future, so while the rewards I got while playing the game are generous, I do not know if this will continue into the future.

A Long-Term Investment

Wuthering Waves is a free-to-play gatcha game. They want you to spend your time in their world and hopefully spend money on it. So, is Wuthering Waves worth playing? I think long-term, it is. Its combat is very solid, and the exploration aspect is also fun. Its biggest faults are the story, which is very weak, and the voice acting of some characters is subpar. To Kuro Games’ credit, they are working to address these issues. The game has been patched constantly since I started playing, and they are working to address the voice acting. If you’re looking for a fast-paced action game and a deep, open world, I recommend Wuthering Waves. If you’re more of a story person, maybe wait to see if the story improves.