War Z - Buyer Beware

Hello everyone,



Just wanted to make an honest post about this game, for those gamers looking at purchasing War Z via Steam. The game has been for sale since August from the main site. The War Z community that has purchased and followed the game already, is divided. There are those who still support the game and Hammerpoint(the developers) through their mishaps and poor choices. The other side of the community feels cheated, lied to, and believes that this game has been a scam.



There is a massive population who would enjoy playing a true Zombie Survivial MMO. Unfortunately this game falls short in all 3 of those words.



◇ Zombie. There are zombies in the game, and is probably the highest selling point for this game. Unfortunately the zombies are pointless in the game. One would think in a Zombie Survival game, your biggest fear would be zombies. This is untrue. Players are your worst enemy, and zombies are there to be filler and annoying at most.



◇ Survival. Yes they added food and water to the game, and you have to find supplies to keep your health replenished. However, your not trying to survive against zombies. Your trying to survive from other players. Simply put. Please don't let the game fool you. This is the truth. You will find that your lured into towns in order to get supplies, but that's where the other people are as well. You'll find that there are campers, server hoppers, and highest of all a high population of hackers.



◇ MMO. Don't let the 100 players fool you as well. Right now the servers sport a MAX population of 50 per server. Battlefield 3 has more than this. This game is far from being an MMO, so beware. You won' t be in a HUGE world with hundreds of people. Instead a map that has 50 people.



◇ Two modes of Play: Normal and Hardcore

- - - False. Hardcore does not work and is not implemented.

◇ Meld of PVE(Player versus Environment) and PVP (Player versus Player)

- - - False. No PVE content. This game will force you into PVP, and there is no PVE. You are looting and scavenging to stay alive against other players. Simple as that.

◇ Up to 100 Players per Game Server

- - - False. MAX right now is 50. If they raise it further, game is over crowded. They already tried this before putting the game on steam.

◇ Dedicated Public Servers as well as Private Servers

- - - False. This feature isn't even in the game yet.



Here is a break down of the topics listed on their main site. It's up to you to decide if you wish to purchase the game to find all of this out.. or not. If you enjoy PVP, you'll probably enjoy it, if you can get past the fact the game is overrun with hackers.



◇ FIRST ZOMBIE MMO



I have a hard time accepting that this game could even be considered an MMO. In the current state, the Colorado map supports 70 players, and you have 200 plus game servers. This is in no way massive multiplayer. Look at the Battlefield series, and it supporting 64 players, and rented game servers. You don't see Battlefield being called an MMOFPS, and why? Because it's not. I think Hammerpoint should re-evaluate this statement, as the only thing that separates it from any regular FPS game, is that there's random items that spawn on the ground that you need to "survive", food/water meter, an inventory, and random low populated zombies in cities. This could be added to any FPS and boom, you have War Z. Do those features make it an MMO?



Don't get me wrong, I understand they state in the FAQ and interviews, that the other maps can handle much more people, in fact up to a maximum of 250 people per the FAQ. However one has to wonder, if the game engine can literally support those size of maps, that amount of players, and that much random items and AI, geometry, etc, in the world. If Colorado can only support 70 players, and that map is 80% plus made up of only forest and trees with nothing in those areas, are the new maps truly going to be able to support that high amount of players at once? Especially the urban maps such as based on a major city? That type of map should be able to house 250 people with how much areas you should be able to explore in a city such as that, however I don't think it could support it. This is just a thought of course, but it has to make you wonder.





◇ NEW GENERATION OF MMO



Now this topic falls into the first one right away, about it not being a true MMO. I think the heavy usage of the term MMO for this game, definitely feels more like bait. Who wouldn't like to play a Zombie MMO? A real Zombie MMO? That's why we all visited War Z, is it not? However continuing, the engine does look good in most aspects, though falls short of a AAA game. There are things that make you bang your head, such as the animations. What's with the crawling animation in 3rd person? The animations definitely need work and to be made for fluid and natural. Also, where's the furniture, and just overall detail in the maps? To say it is a new generation game, and does not include basic features and also a high level of detail - I wonder how in fact it is considered new gen? New or Next Generation to me, means that the game is pushing the limits on the current capabilities, and I have a hard time in understanding how War Z is doing so. The engine is not nothing new, like CryEngine 3 or FrostBite. The graphics are decent, but no where near AAA quality.





◇ HUGE PERSISTENT WORLD



The current map, Colorado, I do admit does feel quite decent in size. To consider it HUGE, no. MMO huge, definitely not. Also when vehicles are added, the map will feel extremely small. The reason it feels so vast right now, is because traveling is slow. I do feel that vehicles would ruin this game, just for that reason, but that's just an opinion. I would like to get around a bit faster, especially when trying to get with friends, however to have vehicles? I'd personally pass on those for more sprint. Or an idea would be to allow energy drinks to make your stamina last longer for duration (boost). Just an idea. Also I have a concern about how they stated the middle paragraph. "As more worlds become available, just switch between them at anytime, without loosing your data or paying world transfer fees". It's stated, to sound like there are massive single shard servers, and you can travel between the different worlds. It's not really based on worlds, it should state you can switch servers at anytime that will be running different maps. This is the same concept as Battlefield or most FPS games, nothing new, so why word it as so.





◇ NO CLASSES, NO LEVELS, AND LEVEL CAPS



This statement for the most part is legit, and there's not much to say. Of course the skills are not yet in the game, and I do hope that if and when the game does "officially release", that they remove this as a listed feature, and mention it in some other section such as upcoming features. Since it's not truly an actual feature of the game, until implemented. Until then, it's simply an idea. Also there's no victory to surviving the longest, but sounds good.





◇ EXPLORE, SCAVENGE, KILL, SURVIVE



I personally enjoy exploration, finding new gear, and also some PVP. However being a huge fan of exploration, I do feel that the statement is false for this game. At first, there is a level of exploration as you check out the different areas of the map. However once you've explored everything, what then? It seems the next step is to simply farm for gear and weapons, because zombies is the least of your worries in this game. In fact, zombies are annoying and seem like filler. They are more like player radar instead. See some zombies running, must be a player around! It's pretty sad honestly, when the whole point of the game, is Zombie Survival. The game overall feels like a FPS deathmatch and free for all, and there just so happens to be random zombies in the game. I also feel that because there is no exploration, aka empty forests, and there's no true reason to explore after a certain point, that it simply promotes camping and farming. Because honestly, what you gonna do? Waste time wandering empty forests and fields that you have had to travel tons of times to get from point A to B? It does sadden me, because I purchased this game based on exploration, scavenging, and more importantly zombies. It seems to be lacking in areas that should be it's strong points. Straight up.





◇ PLAY WITH FRIENDS



Now it's definitely nice clans are finally implemented, it was needed badly. So cheers to them for that. I do hope that they implement a friend system, and if being released on Steam possibly it could be based on that. However which ever way they choose to go, this should be a feature that's added prior to any official release on Steam and hope it's done as so. If you meet someone awesome, who is friendly and you enjoyed playing with, it would be awesome to add them to a friends list, so you can message them and say ' Wanna play?'.

Now the rent servers, I think it's needed for this type of game. But again, I don't think it fits if this game holds the name, MMO. These custom servers add more ways that actually split up the populations even further. Instead of mashing people together on larger servers, your spreading them out.



If you purchase War Z, I do hope you enjoy the game. For those of you who do not, cheers to you and save your money for something else.