die! get it? die! marketing!
Once upon a time, someone at Stunlock Studios ("We make innovative and competitive online games. It's pretty cool") said "People love MOBAS! People love zombies! Let's make a MOBA with zombies in it and call it a ZOMBA!" and everyone cheered and hugged each other as the best idea for a game rang forth. Another MOBA to compete along with League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, etc.? It doesn't matter, silly! Adding zombies to the mix makes a whole new genre! ZOMBAS! The new way of the future! ZOMFPS! ZOMTS! MMOZOMPG! The possibilities are endless!
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So after I got over the fact that the developers or someone in marketing wanted to call Dead Island: Epidemic a "ZOMBA," I decided to take a look at the game. My good friend Hongda sent beta keys (Thanks!) and I'll admit, the game looked pretty interesting at first. That view soured quickly in the first hour of gameplay.
I've never played Dead Island myself, but I can deduce several things: it was a shooter, had zombies in it, and from what I hear, was mediocre at best. Playable? Sure. Enjoyable? Not so much. This same pattern is repeated in its ZOMBA manifestation. The game has you going through the basics of a MOBA: movement, attacking, skills, etc. but at the same time, the game has done so much to distance its self away from a MOBA. Keyboard movement, no last hitting, no concept of mana- the game feels more on par with an Action-RPG more than anything.
The first hour felt like the biggest waste of time I've encountered in a video game in a long time. The introductory mission and subsequent co-op mode is such a tedious grind.
the game looks pretty at least
You pick a hero, party up with some people, head into the game; okay fair enough. Now bash everything by clicking on things over and over again. Skills don't use mana, so you might as well use them as soon as you can to maximize DPS, which is all that the co-op mode cares about. The supposedly unique PvPvPvE mode doesn't become unlocked until you grind yourself through a slow and uninspired set of levels. Also, there are no shops to buy any items because there's no last hitting- just bash away at zombies over and over again. After you figure out the level boss' pattern and bash him to death by clicking on him over and over again, you are rewarded with various materials that you use to craft weapons which carry over throughout your games.
It becomes immediately apparent that Stunlock was hoping to involve a bigger audience by watering down traditional MOBA characteristics. League of Legends did this very well with the original Dota, but Dead Island: Epidemic is just a shell of a game. The claims that the game is unique and innovative are just plain wrong. The game has high production values and the game is playable- heck, you might even enjoy the first twenty or so minutes- but after that, the game has very little in store. There is little incentive for players to actually get further involved in the game as any strategy and cooperation requirements are burned to a minimum.
sort of like a wow raid boss
Dead Island: Epidemic tries to be everything at once and ends up being mediocre at everything. The game claims to be some kind of MOBA, but in reality it plays more like a shoddy ARPG reinterpretation of a Left 4 Dead game or Alien Swarm, both of which deliver team cooperation, strategy, action, and overall enjoyment much better. The first hour is a crucial period in which you have to hook the players in, not repel them. If the game can't do that, it's failed its purpose. After playing three co-op matches, I had no desire of learning strategy or theory crafting compositions or anything of the sort. I just wanted to be done with the co-op mode.
The game is going to be released as a free-to-play, so expect microtransactions. Lot's of it. I wasn't sure if they were headed the right direction the second I saw that you had to purchase consumable health kits with in-game currency coupled with the option to buy more of the in-game currency with real world money. One can only hope that they handle it well in the future.
press the same keys over and over again
Dead Island: Epidemic is a finger-numbing and mediocre experience which offers little to the table in terms of gameplay. Everything the game tries to hype up with fanfare ends up becoming a tedious grind to some arbitrary reward with you sitting and thinking "was this really worth my time." But it's okay: Stunlock has their target audience figured out very well. They don't need to take $1,000 from one person; they only need to take $1 from 1000 people.
Of course, none of this is set in stone- this is only a beta after all. Major changes and tweaks can happen, but this beta alone has convinced me that Dead Island: Epidemic is not worth anyone's time. If you're looking for a game to play every once in awhile, maybe look at this game. However, I feel that any long-term investment in this game is going to be tragic and regretful in the future. The game might have gotten off the hook easier (and compete in an easier market) if it wasn't so bombastic in stating to the world that it shall be forever known as a "ZOMBA." Fuck that.
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