izigame.me

As an avid L4D2 player, I thought this game would be a breath of fresh air from the dark and gloomy zombie killing I was used to. In some ways, it is. My first impressions of the game were actually rather positive, feeling as though there’s a good level of entertainment to be had. However, the longer I played, those feelings just plateaued and I started picking up on things that simply limited my overall enjoyment of the game.

Positives:

+ Most of the special enemies are reminiscent of L4D’s special infected, but I have to give credit to the unique outliers that I haven’t seen before. The Flasher for example, is a simple but effective deterrent on the survivors because it’s basically a living, walking, flashbang. The spawner is a special enemy that spawns little minions to attack the players from a distance. And the “Egg” which is the equivalent of L4D’s Witch but less deadly and yet somehow 10x more annoying. Nevertheless, a pretty imaginative idea.
+ A wide assortment of throwables to play with. You have the usual equivalents of molotovs, pipe bombs, or regular frag grenades. But there are a few that go beyond just the norm. There are things that will freeze enemies in place, suck them into a vortex or even just slow them down. They’re extra tools for the players to deter enemies and it opens up possibilities for players to come up with different strategies and combinations of grenades to give them an advantage
+ Matter compiling system is a simple and effective way to buff your characters as you progress through a map. It’s much more fun and interesting than just picking up a more powerful weapon. The buff choices are also randomly generated each time so it gives a bit of variance between your loadouts in each playthrough
+ The "pulse" system is an interesting take on the "bash" or "shove" mechanic you'd find in L4D or B4B. The Pulse is a more complicated mechanic but one thing I find is that you have to learn to be less reliant on it here compared to the other two games due to it's more aggressive cool down. The mechanic as a whole is a unique twist but definitely serviceable once you get used to it
+ Nailed the visual aesthetic of the environment and characters. The music, like the ones during crescendo events and victory screens, is upbeat and fits the tone of the retro futuristic aesthetic well.
+ Steam Workshop support is always a welcomed sight. Although currently there are very few workshop items made for the game so it’s a little underwhelming at the moment.

Problems/Bugs:

- Game runs very poorly during high activity moments, aka hordes. During quieter times I can get 90 - 100 fps but the moment a horde arrives, it goes down to sub 30fps drastically. The range of performance is pretty wide here. I understand that it only makes sense for the performance to dip when there's a lot happening but such a drastic difference is unbearable at times. I feel that a somewhat cartoonish looking game such as this should run much better.
- The general audio could use work. The whole game just lacks… sound. It’s very difficult to feel immersed when the “battlefield” is almost completely quiet outside of the actual shooting. There’s a complete lack of ambient noise (maybe it’s because we’re in space). Gunshots are not impactful and sound unsatisfying and weak. Some gunshots from a distance literally sound like “whoosh”. You only hear your own footsteps and no one else’s. It’s all pretty unimpressive sounding. The characters' dialog is often drowned out in the mix of gunshots so they're difficult to hear and understand. Even without other noises, they’re still too soft in my opinion. I could be standing next to one of them and they sound like they’re talking from 10 meters away. This is with all volume sliders maxed. Even in the opening cutscenes for campaign levels, you can hardly hear what they're saying over the music and I don't see any reason why they couldn't be made louder. The music isn’t even loud. The voices are just ridiculously soft. Thank god there are subtitles, even if they do show up out of sync with what is being said. The audio mix really needs work.
Update 49: Supposedly the update that was going to improve the audio as a whole but I couldn't actually find almost any improvements from it
Update 51: Finally, the update that makes promise on improved audio. Character's voices are much more audible though in some parts they might've gone a bit too far with the volume boost. However, still remarkably better than not being able to hear them. Ambient noises are present as well which is nice. And the voices in campaigns' intro scenes are finally audible and actually intelligible
- Map designs lack a bit of originality from one another, especially the indoor parts. I get that the whole game takes place on the same ship but there could just be a few more unique areas to make them stand out more. The most unique thing I’ve seen is that “outdoor” area of the first campaign. As a result, it's very easy to lose your bearings in the campaign maps and not have a clue where to go next. The fact that the game literally starts pointing you where to go after a while shows that this is a widespread problem.
- These so-called "private lobbies" you create are only really private if you're alone in your party when you start the lobby. If you start a "private lobby" with a friend in your party, it's not private at all. Any random player can and will still join your game. It's L4D2's not so private "private lobbies" all over again. BUT I did find a way around it. While you’re alone in the lobby, start the game, then give the party code to your friend for them to join while the game has already started
Supposedly fixed
- Small problems with the matter compiler buffs not working as per their description. For example: there was a buff to triple the pistol's magazine capacity but in reality it was only doubled. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more small inaccuracies in the same realm. It's hard to tell whether it's the descriptions that are wrong, or the buffs that are wrong. Either way, they should correspond correctly

Nitpickery:

- Hit markers work inconsistently. Most of the time when I join a game, they work perfectly fine. But some games I join, they would only be present for about 5% of the shots I hit, and it would remain like that the whole match (yes, I made sure I was undoubtedly hitting my shots and they still weren't showing up)
- When you run and jump, your footsteps still continue to play even while you're in mid air. The footsteps just continue as if you were continually walking


Conclusion

A part of me still believes this game has potential. Current content the game has right now could probably have you spending around 6 - 8 hours playing the 3 (+1 incomplete) campaign levels and trying out other modes before you probably get bored. My experience playing was mediocre to say the least. I understand that the game isn’t fully released and is a ways away from being completed. So as long as they keep the updates coming, I will be open to having a change of heart.
Updated Conclusion:
I can see that the devs are truly putting their all into making this game the best it can be. I've seen and feel the improvements. Especially since Update 51, the screwy audio has always hindered my ability to enjoy the game. But it's now something serviceable and has made the game markedly more enjoyable. Other small issues have been fixed along the way as well and I can now see this game being a pretty decent pick if you want a new flavour of the co-op horde game genre. Right now, I hope to see more content being rolled out and improved optimisation.