- Engaging gameplay loop and high replayability.
- Immersive atmosphere with car as central element.
- Extensive car customization options available.
- Core loop: drive, loot, and upgrade car.
- Fragile car requires tedious maintenance.
- Repetitive environments; not open world.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 86% · Negative 14%. Score: 14 / 100
Positives:
- The game offers a satisfying and engaging gameplay loop centered around exploration, resource management, and strategic decision-making. Players can adjust the difficulty to suit their preferences, allowing for both relaxed exploration and challenging survival experiences. The game respects the player's time and offers a unique and rewarding experience.
- The game excels in its immersive atmosphere, featuring stunning visuals, dynamic weather, and eerie sound design. This creates a captivating and tense experience, drawing players into a strange and hostile world. The atmosphere is consistently praised as a major strength.
- The car is central to the gameplay, serving as a mobile base, shield, and companion. Players develop a strong bond with their vehicle through constant maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. This creates a unique and engaging survival experience.
- The game offers extensive car customization options, allowing players to personalize their vehicles with a wide array of parts and upgrades. This system provides a rewarding sense of progression and allows for diverse builds and playstyles.
- The game features excellent sound design and a well-integrated soundtrack that enhances the atmosphere and creates a sense of immersion. The music and sound effects contribute to the tension, mystery, and overall enjoyment of the game.
Negatives:
- The car is fragile and requires constant maintenance, repairs, and resource gathering, which disrupts the flow of driving and becomes a tedious grind. The damage system is illogical, with minor impacts causing excessive damage.
- The game is not a true open world, consisting of small maps with frequent fast travel, making it feel more like a rogue-like. The world feels soulless and sterile, with repetitive environments and a lack of unique events or interesting locations.
- The game lacks challenge and becomes too easy once the player understands the mechanics, with anomalies becoming more of an annoyance than a threat. The gameplay lacks evolution, and the same tricks used early on are sufficient throughout the entire game.
- The car upgrades feel ineffective and don't significantly impact the driving experience, with many upgrades being useless or providing only marginal benefits. The car handling feels unrealistic, and the controls are clunky and unintuitive.
- The story is unengaging, confusing, and poorly integrated with the gameplay, with excessive dialogue and an underwhelming ending. The narrative is delivered during intense driving moments, making it difficult to follow, and the characters lack depth.
Gameplay:
- The game features detailed car physics, quirks, and customization options. Driving is simulation-based, with terrain and weather affecting handling. Car quirks introduce unexpected behaviors that players must diagnose and resolve, adding variety to the gameplay.
- Resource gathering involves exploring the environment, scavenging for materials, and using tools to extract them. Players must balance risk and reward when venturing out to collect resources amidst dangers. The crafting system allows players to create new items, repair tools, and upgrade their car and base.
- The core gameplay loop revolves around venturing out in a car to gather resources, upgrading both the car and the garage, and repeating. The car serves as the player's primary means of transportation, protection, and resource storage. This loop is central to the game's progression and survival mechanics.
- The car requires constant maintenance, repairs, and upgrades to survive the harsh environment. Players must manage fuel, battery, and individual car components, adding a layer of depth to the gameplay. Progression is tied to improving the car's capabilities.
- The game world features dangerous anomalies that players must avoid or adapt to. Anomalies distort reality, create obstacles, and present new challenges. Evasion is prioritized over combat, requiring players to equip their car and drive skillfully to survive.
Performance:
- Many players report experiencing significant performance issues, including low frame rates, stuttering, and crashes, even on high-end hardware. Some users found that lowering graphics settings (especially shadows and mirrors) or using DLSS helped, while others had issues regardless of settings. Some players reported no issues, indicating inconsistent optimization.
- Several reviewers reported crashes, sometimes related to specific actions like switching levels or validating game files. Some crashes were accompanied by error reports from the game engine or video card, while others caused loss of progress. Switching to DirectX 11 helped some users resolve crashing issues.
- The game's visuals are stylized and evocative, with some reviewers comparing them to "PS4 era" graphics. While some found the graphics vibrant and visually appealing, others felt that the frame rate was low relative to the game's visual style. The game prioritizes atmosphere and particle effects over hyper-realism.
- The game expects mid-tier PC specifications, with RTX 4090s suitable for running at higher settings. Some reviewers experienced smooth performance on both 3070 and 4070 Super graphics cards. This suggests that the game is optimized for a range of hardware configurations.
- Some players experienced significant FPS drops when specific effects were active or when encountering anomalies. These drops could severely impact gameplay, reducing frame rates to unplayable levels when looking in certain directions or during specific events. This suggests that certain visual elements or game mechanics are not well-optimized.
Recommendations:
- The game receives overwhelmingly positive recommendations, with many reviewers suggesting a purchase, especially if on sale. Reviewers highlight the enjoyable experience and responsive developers, with some even considering it a game of the year contender. The game is considered solid and in an excellent state.
- Some reviewers caution that the game may not be for everyone, citing potential issues with repetitive gameplay, performance, or a lack of a satisfying story payoff. They suggest that the game is best enjoyed in shorter sessions or by players who appreciate a specific niche of survival gameplay.
- Many reviewers suggest purchasing the game on sale, indicating that while the game is enjoyable, the full price may not be justified. This recommendation often comes with the acknowledgement of flaws, suggesting the discounted price makes the game's unique qualities more appealing.
- Some reviewers caution about performance issues, particularly for players with configurations near or below the minimum requirements. They recommend checking if your PC can handle the game before playing and suggest waiting for performance improvements before purchasing.
- Some reviewers rated the game with extremely high scores (10/10, 11/10, 12/12) and hyperbolic statements such as "best game ever". These reviews lack specific details and constructive feedback, suggesting potential review bombing.
Miscellaneous:
- The game features a unique art style that blends realistic elements with cartoonish animations, creating a distinctive and atmospheric visual experience. The setting and overall vibe have been compared to titles like Half-Life 2 and X-Files, contributing to a sense of mystery and intrigue.
- The game's save system is unconventional, with autosaves occurring at loading screens and no manual saving within the Zone. This, combined with a lack of clear in-game explanations and an inadequate tutorial, can lead to frustration and the need to consult external resources to understand basic mechanics.
- Some reviewers feel that the game suffers from an identity crisis, pulled in too many directions and stretched thin. This may be due to conflicting design goals or the inclusion of extraneous elements.
- The game is set in the Pacific Northwest, specifically the Olympic Peninsula, and captures the region's atmosphere with its tall trees, fog, and local radio songs. Players familiar with the area will likely appreciate the authentic representation of the environment.
- The game is inspired by titles like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Roadside Picnic, featuring a closed-off research zone filled with supernatural anomalies. The player's goal is to explore this dangerous zone, scavenge for resources, and ultimately escape using their car.
