Info about Decision: Red Daze: Official game description: Decision: Red Daze is an isometric action RPG with a unique spin on survival and tower defense mechanics. The Dust Bowl, once a ‘thriving’ society of corrupt politicians, rich property barons and everyday people who work for them ‘100% willingly’, has been overtaken by a mysterious phenomenon only known by survivors as the Red Daze. As the illness takes hold of the survivors and turns them into crazed and _EXTREMELY_ dangerous mutated creatures, the worlds’ governments are running around like headless chickens. It falls to the few who remain to fend off the monsters in hopes of finding a way to eradicate the Red Daze once and for all. PLAY AS ANYONE -------------- Even the lowliest survivor you find has the potential to lead his own squad, explore, make the wasteland safe, and shape their own destiny. It’s up to you to upgrade and specialize any survivor you find in the wasteland any way you see fit. EXPLORE, LOOT AND CAPTURE ------------------------- While most of the buildings of the Dust Bowl are long abandoned and taken over by the undead, the loot and potential shelter is coveted by most survivors. During your exploration missions you’ll come across various farmsteads, factories and military installations full to the brim with monsters, loot, and most importantly, foundations that hold the potential to turn the long abandoned structures into sprawling and heavily fortified settlements. YOUR OWN SAFE HAVEN ------------------- With survivors from all over the wasteland pouring into your settlements for safety, it’s smart to keep them occupied. Assign them to build factories to make food, fabricate resources or make useful goods to barter with, put up and upgrade defenses, and in the event of an attack, task your best soldiers to protect your settlements while you’re away or join the battle yourself and help push back the monsters coming to take what’s yours! SCOUT OUT YOUR COMPETITION -------------------------- The packs of monsters always have a leader. Plan ahead, strategically assemble your squad of specialists to maximize your odds of survival, and head out on exploration and scouting missions. Gather vital intelligence on the monsters’ movements to better defend your settlements, or find and eliminate the bosses to stop the attacks altogether. Release date: 19 May, 2022 Categories: Action RPG, Survival, Tower Defense, Base Building, Squad Management, Resource Management, Exploration, Real-time Combat - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Mix of base-building and strategy (weight 0.34): The game blends base-building, strategy, RPG, and tower defense elements, offering a dynamic and engaging experience. Players enjoy managing resources, capturing territory, upgrading bases, and fighting off hordes of zombies and mutants. The game is often compared to titles like State of Decay and Kenshi due to its post-apocalyptic setting and survival mechanics. - Improved sequel to flash games (weight 0.33): The game is seen as a worthy successor and improvement over previous installments in the series, particularly the flash games. Reviewers appreciate the updated graphics, expanded mechanics, and new features that enhance the original formula while retaining the series' core feel and evoking nostalgia. - Satisfying zombie combat and gore (weight 0.18): Shooting zombies is a highlight, with satisfying dismemberment and gory explosions. Players enjoy the arcade-like combat, especially when playing with a full squad, and appreciate the well-made 3D models of zombies, towers, and guns. The combination of zombies, survival, management, and community elements contributes to the game's appeal. - Variety of actions and equipment (weight 0.14): The game offers a variety of actions, goals, and a wide array of weapons and equipment. Players can scavenge, craft, loot, and trade gear to improve their stats, and upgrade storage capacity. The game also features a rich equipment and cosmetic system. - Squad customization and management (weight 0.14): Players can form squads of survivors, equip them with gear, and upgrade bases. The game allows recruiting survivors with different classes and stats, and downed teammates can be revived by switching to another character. Customization of squads and settlement survivors is a key feature. - Good concept, needs refinement (weight 0.13): The game has a nice concept, good graphics, and shows effort from the developers. However, it needs more time and work to fully realize its potential. The premise of the game is good and the mechanics are decent. - Playable, fulfills expectations (weight 0.09): The game fulfilled the reviewer's expectations and is considered completely playable despite some bugs. The reviewer disputes claims of the game being very bad, suggesting potential malicious intent behind negative reviews, indicating possible review bombing. - Ongoing updates and improvements (weight 0.08): The developers have been actively improving the game through updates and patches, addressing issues and adding new content. The game is now considered fixed and playable from start to finish, indicating a commitment to ongoing support and refinement. - Adjustable difficulty, forgiving death (weight 0.06): The difficulty is adjustable at any time. Combat is fun initially, especially with a squad of 6 companions + mercenaries + survivors and decent equipment, making the player feel powerful. The game almost eliminates the possibility of permanent death, as teammates can be revived repeatedly unless the player sleeps. - Satisfying settlement progression system (weight 0.05): Liberating settlements, upgrading outposts, and taking over areas to establish communities provides a satisfying sense of progression. Players enjoy upgrading the towns and seeing their influence expand across the game world. - Few bugs, easy achievements (weight 0.05): The game has almost no bugs and all achievements were obtainable without extreme difficulty. Achievements are easy to obtain with enough time investment. - Diverse NPCs and enemies (weight 0.05): The game features a diverse group of NPCs with varied genders, races, backstories, and voices, with hardly any appearing exactly the same. Diverse enemies with their own strengths and weaknesses. - Storyline and detailed characters (weight 0.04): The game includes a storyline, more detailed character models with backstories, and an opening cinematic, which is uncommon for games of this scale. - Mid-game self-sufficiency (weight 0.04): Having a factory and shelter in the mid-game allows for self-sufficiency. The flamethrower and machine gun are effective in the mid-game. Ammo is an issue only at the start; production at a factory provides more than enough later on. - Unconventional leveling methods (weight 0.04): The reviewer found it effective to level up endurance by letting low-level enemies attack while wearing armor. The reviewer leveled up by rolling around on the ground. The reviewer leveled up strength by walking around with maxed-out loot. Common complaints: - Repetitive, tedious gameplay loop (weight 0.95): The game suffers from significant repetition in its gameplay loop, level design, and objectives, leading to a monotonous experience. Resource management is tedious due to rapidly depleting stamina and sleep meters, forcing constant micromanagement and hindering exploration. This repetition and tedium diminish the game's replay value and overall enjoyment. - Poor companion AI, resource drain (weight 0.57): NPC companions suffer from poor AI, making them ineffective in combat and a drain on resources. They lack self-preservation, require constant babysitting, and offer little strategic value, often hindering the player's progress. - Clunky, frustrating inventory management (weight 0.25): The game's inventory management system is clunky, cumbersome, and frustrating to use. Limited storage space, unwieldy interfaces, and the lack of quality-of-life features like bulk actions make managing items a tedious chore. - Numerous bugs, lack of polish (weight 0.24): The game is plagued with numerous bugs, some of which can be game-breaking or significantly impact the player experience. These issues, combined with a lack of recent updates, suggest a lack of polish and potential developer abandonment. - Clunky, slow movement and combat (weight 0.13): Character movement and combat feel clunky and slow, making the game feel less fluid and responsive than its predecessors. Unwieldy controls and a lack of noticeable speed boosts contribute to a sluggish and frustrating experience. - Fails to capture series' charm (weight 0.13): The game fails to capture the fun and engaging elements of previous titles in the series, particularly the original flash games. It lacks the same atmosphere, drive, and enjoyable combat, leading to disappointment for long-time fans. - Unbalanced enemy encounters (weight 0.1): The game features sudden, overwhelming enemy hordes and enemies with excessive health, leading to frustrating combat encounters. This can make the game feel unbalanced and unfair. - Lacking weapon variety, depth (weight 0.09): The game suffers from a lack of weapon variety and depth, making combat feel less engaging. Limited options and a clunky weapon system contribute to a sense of uninspired gameplay. - Poorly implemented design choices (weight 0.08): Several aspects of the game's design, such as the auto-equip function and ammo management, are poorly implemented and frustrating. These issues detract from the overall combat experience and create unnecessary micromanagement. - Camera and control issues (weight 0.07): The game suffers from camera and control issues, such as a camera that is too close to the character and too many unnecessary button assignments. These issues make the game feel clunky and difficult to control. - Confusing, restrictive settlement system (weight 0.07): The settlement system is confusing and restrictive, with unclear mechanics and limitations on storage and construction. This hinders player progression and makes base management a frustrating experience. - NPCs randomly disappear, hindering progress (weight 0.07): Key NPCs frequently disappear due to glitches or poor AI, disrupting quests and hindering player progress. This unreliability makes it difficult to rely on NPCs for essential functions like trading or completing objectives. - Poorly implemented sleep mechanic (weight 0.07): The sleep mechanic is poorly implemented and adds unnecessary frustration to the game. It depletes too quickly, interferes with combat, and can lead to unplayable states, making it a major flaw in the game's design. Gameplay feedback: - Core gameplay: survival, base-building (weight 0.51): The core gameplay loop combines zombie combat, base management, and resource scavenging in an open-world environment. Players must defend settlements, manage survivors, and gather resources to expand their territory and upgrade their bases. The game blends elements of zombie survival, tower defense, RPG, and base-building genres. - Squad-based combat, team management (weight 0.22): The game emphasizes squad-based combat and team management, shifting the focus from individual heroism to collectivism. Players recruit, manage, and upgrade team members, sharing resources and working together to overcome challenges. The game allows playing as any character, but the team size is limited. - Stamina, sleep survival mechanics (weight 0.11): The game incorporates survival mechanics such as life, stamina, and sleep, impacting player actions and exploration. Depleted stamina requires frequent eating and sleeping, adding a layer of resource management and risk to gameplay. The sleep and stamina system becomes advantageous in the mid-game. - Predictable settlement attacks (weight 0.05): Settlement attacks are predictable, with advance notice given to the player. Eliminating bosses ends settlement attacks in the respective region, reducing the number of attacks to expect. Settlements allow building defensive towers or production buildings on designated slots. - Flawed squad storage system (weight 0.04): The squad storage system is flawed, leading to characters becoming encumbered due to weight limit changes. Auto-equipment and auto-supply options are useless, forcing players to manually manage inventory. This adds unnecessary micromanagement to the gameplay. Performance notes: - V-sync performance issues (weight 0.04): Vertical sync causes severe freezes, but setting V-sync at 25% provides the best performance. This indicates that the game's V-sync implementation is flawed and needs to be fixed. - Character disappearing bug (weight 0.03): A sliding green circle bug causes the character to disappear, and only the green circle teleports to the right corner of the map. This bug completely breaks the game and makes it unplayable. - Ghosting through walls bug (weight 0.03): An old bug allows players to become a ghost and pass through city walls using dash. This bug can break the game and allow players to access unintended areas. - Fast travel stamina bug (weight 0.03): Fast travel incorrectly depletes all stamina instead of half as indicated. This bug punishes players for using fast travel and makes exploration more tedious. - Lacks ultrawide resolution support (weight 0.02): The game lacks support for ultrawide resolutions (21:9 and 32:9), limiting the visual experience for players with those monitors. This can be a significant drawback for players who prefer or require ultrawide support for immersive gameplay. - Excessive particle count (weight 0.02): The number of particles in the red daze clouds is too high, even on low graphics settings. This can cause performance issues and make the game unplayable for players with low-end hardware. - Significant loading issues (weight 0.02): Players have experienced significant loading issues. This can be a major annoyance and disrupt the flow of the game. - No technical problems experienced (weight 0.02): Some players experienced no technical problems during gameplay. This suggests that the technical issues are not universal and may be related to specific hardware or software configurations. Recommendations: - Needs polish and improvements (weight 0.8): A common sentiment is that the game needs more polish and improvements to its mechanics. Specific issues mentioned include the sleep system, loot respawning, and a general lack of quality of life features. Some reviewers are hopeful that future updates will address these issues. - Overpriced for current state (weight 0.79): Many reviewers feel the game's full price is too high for the current quality and content. They suggest purchasing it on sale or waiting for further development. Some even compare the price to other similar games, suggesting it is overpriced compared to the content offered. - Good for casual play (weight 0.54): Some reviewers find the game suitable for casual play, such as while listening to audiobooks or podcasts. This suggests that the game may not require intense focus or engagement, making it a good option for relaxed gaming sessions. - Strongly negative, refund recommended (weight 0.46): Some reviewers express strong negative opinions, even suggesting refunding the game or spending money elsewhere. These reviews often lack specific details and may be influenced by frustration, indicating potential review bombing. - Falls short of predecessors (weight 0.18): Some reviewers express disappointment with how the game compares to previous entries in the series, particularly the flash games. They feel that the developers have strayed too far from what made the earlier games enjoyable, and recommend those instead. - Good for genre enthusiasts (weight 0.16): The game is recommended for fans of the zombie survival, base-building genre, especially those who enjoy games like State of Decay. Reviewers highlight the town-building and RPG elements as positive aspects, making it a worthwhile experience for players interested in these mechanics. - More content and features needed (weight 0.11): Reviewers suggest adding more content, such as new maps, difficulty levels, and achievements, to enhance the gameplay experience. They also propose specific improvements like assigning recruits to man turrets and factories to provide bonuses based on their stats. - Adjust inventory and drop rates (weight 0.04): Some reviewers feel that the warehouse inventory and zombie drop rates should be adjusted to improve the gameplay balance. This suggests that the current resource management and progression systems may be too restrictive or unbalanced. - Avoid adding battle pass (weight 0.02): One reviewer specifically expresses a desire for the game to avoid adding a battle pass. This suggests a concern about potential monetization strategies that could negatively impact the gameplay experience. Other player notes: - Simple, generic flash game (weight 0.12): The game is considered simple and generic, resembling a typical flash or mobile tower defense game. It lacks outstanding features and offers a general, rather than unique, experience. - Random loot, merchant reliance (weight 0.04): Loot is randomly distributed, with the best gear often found at merchants scattered across the map. This system may encourage exploration but could also lead to frustration if desired items are elusive. - Few bugs reported (weight 0.03): The game is reported to have very few bugs. This suggests a stable and polished gameplay experience. - Developers responsive to feedback (weight 0.03): The developers are actively responding to player feedback. This indicates a commitment to improving the game based on player input. - 30-35 hour completion time (weight 0.02): The main story takes approximately 30-35 hours to complete, depending on playstyle. This provides a reasonable estimate of the game's length for potential buyers. - Intelligent, weapon-wielding ghoul enemies (weight 0.02): Enemies are described as intelligent, weapon-wielding ghouls that swarm, rather than traditional zombies. This unique enemy design could impact combat strategies and overall gameplay experience. - Addicting despite flaws (weight 0.02): Despite its flaws, the game is strangely addicting. This suggests that the game has some compelling qualities that keep players engaged, even if it's not perfect. Emotions: No emotions}