Info about SurrounDead: Official game description: Roadmap ======= **Miscellaneous Updates:** * More map updates * Remove trash objects * Reworked tutorial * Translations * Archery system * Improved FPS camera * Controller support * More difficulty options * Farming & more * And more... About the Game ============== 5 years have passed since civilization fought against the virus, but nothing has changed. The world lays in pieces, with no one to lead us to a brighter future fighting back against the zombies, people have fallen back to a dark life style. With few remnants of civilization left, you are left to your own devices to survive in an unforgiving landscape. **Current Features:** --------------------- * Open World Zombie Survival Game for many to explore and survive. * Travel through a devastated post apocalyptic landscape. * Fight zombies, human survivors and more. * Vehicles that you need to manage and maintain. Also to use as portable storage. * Find many different firearms, melee weapons, clothing and different types of equipment. * Trade with survivors in trader hideouts or safe zones to get that one piece of equipment you need. * Barricade buildings or find your self somewhere in the wilderness to escape to. * Weather and day/night cycles, be careful. * From doing current activities, improve your ability to do them and unlock new abilities in the skill tree. * Ability to customise the game's difficulty and mechanics. **Planned Features:** --------------------- * Online multiplayer survival with player run servers. * Quest and bounty system. * Story system linking into the quests. Find out more about The Valley. * Vehicle customisation. * Farming system. * More maps and traversal system. * And more. **Stay Tuned.** Release date: 24 Jun, 2022 Categories: Survival, Open-World Exploration, Base Building, Crafting, Inventory Management, Character Progression, Weapon Customization, Single-player - 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: - Engaging & Addictive Survival Loop (weight 0.99): Players consistently praise the game's core gameplay loop of scavenging, building, and progression, finding it incredibly fun, relaxing, and addictive. Many reviewers highlight its exceptional value for money, especially as an Early Access title, making it a highly rewarding experience. - Impressive Solo Developer Efforts (weight 0.35): The game stands out for its remarkable polish, smooth performance, and consistent, meaningful updates, all attributed to a passionate solo developer. Players are impressed by the game's current state and its promising roadmap, often noting it surpasses many AAA titles. - Optimized Low-Poly Aesthetics (weight 0.23): Despite its low-poly art style, the game is lauded for its excellent optimization, running smoothly on a wide range of hardware, including older PCs. The stylized graphics, combined with impressive lighting and weather effects, are seen as charming and contribute positively to immersion. - Rich Open-World Exploration (weight 0.22): The game offers a large, diverse, and dynamic open world filled with numerous Points of Interest (POIs) and rewarding loot. Players appreciate the freedom to explore, scavenge, and discover new areas, which consistently keeps the gameplay engaging and fresh. - Extensive Gameplay Customization (weight 0.13): A highly praised feature is the deep customization of difficulty and game parameters. Players can fine-tune almost every aspect, from zombie and loot spawn rates to survival mechanics, allowing for tailored experiences ranging from casual exploration to hardcore survival challenges. - Innovative Inventory Management (weight 0.09): The game's inventory system, particularly the 'bags within bags' or 'Tetris-style' nesting, is highly popular among players. This unique mechanic allows for extensive hoarding and efficient organization, making looting and resource management a satisfying activity. - Diverse Weapon Arsenal (weight 0.08): Players enjoy the wide variety of weapons available, including numerous firearms, melee options, and extensive attachments for customization. The diverse arsenal ensures varied combat experiences and a rewarding loot hunt for better gear. - Fresh Take on Zombie Survival (weight 0.06): Reviewers frequently note that the game successfully blends and often improves upon mechanics from popular titles like DayZ, Project Zomboid, and 7 Days to Die. It offers a single-player, more 'chill' alternative that removes common frustrations found in PvP-heavy survival games. - Flexible Base-Building System (weight 0.06): The base-building system is appreciated for its flexibility, allowing players to establish and customize bases almost anywhere, including taking over existing structures. This feature adds a rewarding sense of progression and personalization to the survival experience. - Tense & Atmospheric Encounters (weight 0.05): The game effectively creates a tense and immersive atmosphere, especially during dark nights and encounters with diverse zombie types and hordes. Players find the combat satisfying and the constant threat keeps them on edge, contributing to a genuine survival horror feeling. Common complaints: - Game lacks polish and content (weight 0.19): Many players feel the game is barebones, unpolished, and repetitive after a few hours, lacking a clear story, engaging quests, diverse environments, and overall content depth. This leads to boredom and a sense of shallowness, with some comparing it to an early Xbox 360 title or a solo-developer project. - Zombie AI and combat exploitable (weight 0.17): Zombie AI is widely criticized for being easily cheesed, often by climbing onto objects like cars where they cannot reach the player, or by lacking proper pathfinding and responsiveness. While some find zombies too easy, others struggle with unfair speed or stealth, highlighting inconsistent and unpolished enemy behavior that detracts from challenging combat and encourages exploits. - Loot system unbalanced and repetitive (weight 0.13): The loot system is described as overly abundant and random, allowing players to quickly acquire high-tier gear, which diminishes the sense of progression and renders further exploration and merchants pointless. This leads to a repetitive cycle of collecting unused items, reducing the core survival challenge and long-term motivation. - Essential multiplayer missing (weight 0.12): A significant number of players express disappointment over the complete absence of multiplayer or co-op modes, feeling it would greatly enhance engagement and reduce monotony. Many consider this a critical missing feature for long-term enjoyment and replayability, with some noting its low priority on the developer roadmap. - Critical save game issues (weight 0.08): Players frequently report severe bugs related to saving and loading, including cleared enemies and loot respawning, map markers disappearing, and corrupted save files. These issues often lead to significant loss of progress, base destruction, and an overall unreliable game experience. - Poor audio design and bugs (weight 0.08): The game suffers from significant audio issues, including unbalanced volumes, missing sound effects (e.g., footsteps), repetitive music, and poor spatialization. These problems detract from immersion and can lead to unexpected encounters due to unheard enemies, impacting gameplay and atmosphere. - Barebones base building lacks purpose (weight 0.07): The base building system is considered rudimentary, offering limited items and functional utility. Players feel there's little reason to invest in elaborate bases as there are no threats like zombie raids or wandering hordes, effectively reducing bases to mere storage facilities rather than defensive strongholds. - Melee combat feels clunky (weight 0.05): Melee combat is consistently described as clunky, floaty, and unsatisfying, with janky animations, inconsistent hit registration, and a lack of impactful feedback. The control scheme for melee attacks is also cited as unintuitive, making close-quarters engagements less enjoyable and often leading players to avoid it. - Inconsistent difficulty scaling (weight 0.04): The game's difficulty is widely perceived as unbalanced, often being extremely challenging and frustrating in the early game but quickly becoming too easy once players acquire basic gear. This steep drop-off in challenge, even on 'hard' settings, leaves players feeling unfulfilled and reliant on manual setting tweaks. - Limited NPC interaction and quests (weight 0.03): Players note a significant lack of meaningful interaction with NPCs, who primarily serve as basic traders with no quests, dialogue, or dynamic behaviors. This absence of engaging NPC content and a coherent story reduces immersion and motivation to explore or interact with the world, leaving it feeling empty. - Permadeath mode frustrating due to bugs (weight 0.03): Players find the permadeath mode particularly frustrating due to susceptibility to unfair deaths caused by various bugs, such as unexpected zombie spawns, getting stuck in environments, or losing progress due to crashes. This undermines the integrity of high-stakes gameplay and can lead to significant player dissatisfaction. - Clunky weapon reloading system (weight 0.03): The weapon reloading and ammunition management system is criticized for being unintuitive and tedious. Players find the manual magazine loading, inventory management during reloads (often dropping mags), and the process of switching weapons disruptive to combat flow, especially for controller users. - Camera and aiming issues (weight 0.03): Both first-person and third-person camera perspectives are described as unpolished, leading to difficulties with aiming, especially in close combat. Issues like horizontal camera offset, janky view switching, and non-functional ADS in first-person detract from combat effectiveness and immersion. Gameplay feedback: - Open World Sandbox Gameplay (weight 0.15): The game offers a rich open-world zombie survival experience with a strong sandbox focus, allowing players immense freedom in exploration, objective setting, and character progression. Its extensive customizability, including difficulty and world parameters, enables diverse playstyles from casual to hardcore. - Diverse Zombie & Human Threats (weight 0.14): Players encounter a wide range of zombie types, from common shamblers to specialized sprinters, exploders, and powerful boss zombies, as well as hostile human factions like bandits and military. These enemies provide varied combat scenarios, which can be further customized through extensive difficulty settings. While early encounters can be tough, the overall zombie threat often scales with player progression. - Mix of Survival Game Elements (weight 0.12): The game draws heavily from popular survival titles such as DayZ, Project Zomboid, Unturned, and State of Decay, incorporating elements like open-world exploration, base building, and a detailed inventory system reminiscent of Escape from Tarkov. This blend resonates with players familiar with the genre, though some suggest clearer differentiation or specific development paths. - Extensive Difficulty Customization (weight 0.11): The game provides highly granular difficulty settings, allowing players to tailor nearly every aspect of the experience, from zombie spawn rates and damage to loot scarcity and the inclusion of permadeath. This flexibility caters to both casual and hardcore players, though the perceived balance of default settings varies among reviewers. - Detailed Looting & Inventory System (weight 0.11): Looting is a core gameplay pillar, with players constantly scavenging for weapons, armor, resources, and survival items. The intricate inventory system, including the 'bag-in-bag' mechanic, provides vast storage options but can also be customized or self-limited for a greater challenge. Weapon reloading often involves managing individual magazines, adding tactical depth. - Crafting and Base Building (weight 0.09): Crafting and base building are integral components, enabling players to construct equipment, utilize workbenches, and establish custom bases or fortify existing structures with modular elements. This system supports long-term survival and gear storage, though some players express a desire for more depth or have yet to fully explore its capabilities. Performance notes: - Game runs smoothly on varied hardware. (weight 0.07): Many players report excellent performance, high FPS, and smooth gameplay across a wide range of hardware, from high-end rigs to older PCs, laptops, and even the Steam Deck. It is generally well-optimized for its early access stage, has low system demands, and features almost instant save and load times. - Frequent crashes and freezes occur. (weight 0.04): A significant number of players experience frequent crashes, often after short periods of play, with some reporting it occurring after patches. There are also reports of freezes, especially when not on an M2 SSD during specific encounters. Crashes are reported with both DX11 and DX12. - Minor bugs and jankiness present. (weight 0.03): While not game-breaking, players have noted various minor bugs, UI glitches, and general jankiness. These include issues like a buggy enemy spawn system, an invincible zombie, and occasional out-of-bounds spawning, though bugs are generally considered rare by some. - FPS drops in specific scenarios. (weight 0.01): Players note that FPS can drop during intense moments, such as when many zombies are on screen, during heavy rain, when human AI shoot, or when aiming down sights. Setting an FPS limit to 60 in settings can help mitigate some performance heaviness for those experiencing issues. - Unbalanced and low audio volume. (weight 0.01): Multiple players report significant issues with sound design, particularly unbalanced volumes across different elements and generally low ambient noises requiring high speaker volume. There is also a noted lack of audio occlusion for footsteps and zombie grunts. - Settings application and UI quirks. (weight 0.01): Some players experienced issues with game settings not applying correctly until an update. Other minor UI quirks include losing the mouse pointer and initial mouse sensitivity being excessively high. - Basic UE5 visuals, DLSS helps. (weight 0.01): The game utilizes Unreal Engine 5, and its visuals are generally described as basic or low-poly. NVIDIA users can improve visual quality and potentially performance by updating the game's DLSS. - Poor vehicle physics and collisions. (weight 0.01): Feedback indicates that vehicle damage modeling is poor, collision models are inconsistent, and the overall vehicle physics can feel 'weird,' impacting the driving experience. - Zombie AI pathfinding is poor. (weight 0.01): Players report that zombie AI struggles with pathfinding, particularly around obstacles, often getting stuck on roofs and debris. This can impact the challenge and immersion of zombie encounters. Recommendations: - Highly Recommended Early Access Game (weight 0.43): Players overwhelmingly recommend the game in its current state, citing an enjoyable single-player experience and significant future potential. There is widespread excitement for upcoming updates and a strong willingness to support the solo developer. - Excellent Value for Price (weight 0.41): Many players consider the game an excellent value for its price, especially when on sale, and express willingness to pay more. They feel the content and experience offered far exceed the cost, encouraging others to purchase it to support the developer. - Great for Survival Genre Fans (weight 0.36): The game is highly recommended for enthusiasts of survival, zombie, and looter-shooter genres. It is often compared favorably to titles like DayZ, Project Zomboid, and State of Decay, offering a unique blend of exploration, resource management, and tense atmosphere. - Co-op/Multiplayer is Crucial (weight 0.16): A significant portion of players emphasize that implementing co-op or multiplayer functionality is critical for the game's long-term success and popularity. Many are eagerly awaiting this feature, believing it will elevate the game to compete with top survival titles. - Expand Core Mechanics and Content (weight 0.05): Players suggest expanding various game systems, including deeper skill trees, more dynamic zombie behaviors (e.g., climbing, specific attacks), and additional content like new guns and diverse enemy types. Improved vehicle physics, character models, and procedural map generation are also requested. - Low-Poly Graphics Misleading (weight 0.02): Some players initially found the low-poly graphics off-putting but highly recommend giving the game a chance. They emphasize that the engaging gameplay experience far outweighs any initial visual reservations, urging others not to be deterred. Other player notes: - Urgent Demand for Multiplayer (weight 0.34): A significant number of players are eagerly awaiting multiplayer and co-op modes, believing it will be a 'game-changer' that greatly enhances replayability, social interaction, and overall enjoyment. Many express a desire for specific types of multiplayer, including PVE co-op, PVP, and self-hosted servers, with some even purchasing the game specifically for this promised feature. - High Future Potential Anticipated (weight 0.32): Players are overwhelmingly optimistic about the game's future, frequently citing the clear roadmap and the solo developer's dedication and responsiveness as key factors. Despite its Early Access status and current incompleteness, there's strong anticipation for continued updates, new content, and the game reaching its full potential. - Distinct Genre Identity & Value (weight 0.14): The game is frequently compared to popular survival titles like Unturned, Project Zomboid, and State of Decay, positioning it as a unique blend within the genre, despite its low-poly art style. Players appreciate its highly affordable price point, especially on sale, considering it a strong value proposition for the content already available in Early Access. - Desired Gameplay & Content Expansion (weight 0.11): Players are seeking deeper and more dynamic gameplay experiences. Key suggestions include improved zombie AI with varied types and horde events, more robust base building mechanics (e.g., base raids, cleaner environments), diverse vehicle options and functionality, companion/NPC systems with interaction and recruitment, and a more expansive world with dynamic events, quests, and lore. - Inventory Management Needs QoL (weight 0.02): Players desire quality-of-life improvements for inventory management, such as auto-sorting, the ability to rename storage containers, color-coding for items, and more efficient item transfer mechanisms. The current system can lead to frustration and time spent organizing. Emotions: - Satisfaction (weight 0.28): Players feel satisfied due to the game's excellent value for its price and extensive customization options, particularly for difficulty and world settings. The engaging core gameplay loop involving survival, looting, crafting, base building, exploration, and fluid combat mechanics provides a deeply rewarding and often relaxing experience. Many appreciate the game's solid performance, immersive atmosphere, and robust feature set, often noting its superiority to similar titles. - Excitement (weight 0.12): Players are excited by the game's significant future potential, particularly the anticipation of upcoming updates, new content, and especially the planned multiplayer/co-op mode. The addictive core gameplay loop, thrilling combat encounters, and rewarding exploration of its world also generate strong positive anticipation. Many are impressed by the game's current quality, especially considering it's an early access title from a solo developer. - Frustration (weight 0.11): Frustration stems primarily from numerous bugs, including game-breaking issues, save corruption, and flawed AI behavior. Players also experience annoyance with unintuitive UI, tedious inventory management, and a perceived lack of depth or repetition in content after initial hours. Unbalanced difficulty, performance problems like crashes, and missing expected features like proper localization further contribute to negative experiences. - Hope (weight 0.07): Players express hope for the game's future development, specifically desiring bug fixes, better optimization, and a consistent stream of new content. A major source of hope is the strong desire for multiplayer or co-op functionality to enhance social play. Many believe the game has significant potential to become a top-tier title in its genre with continued developer commitment. - Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Enjoyment comes from the game's highly fun and addictive gameplay loop, which often leads to losing track of time. Players appreciate the freedom in exploration, rewarding looting, satisfying combat, and extensive base-building mechanics. The game's immersive atmosphere and customizable difficulty settings also contribute to a universally appealing and often relaxing, yet strategic, survival experience. - Disappointment (weight 0.05): Disappointment arises from the current absence of multiplayer, which many players desire for a more engaging experience. The game is also criticized for lacking depth, offering repetitive end-game content, and having unpolished features or shallow systems. Many feel the game has unfulfilled potential due to its unfinished state, unimpressive AI, or the absence of a compelling story or quests. - Joy (weight 0.04): Joy is expressed through a deep affection for the game's features, including its graphics, expansive map, and diverse weapons. Players find immense satisfaction in its addictive nature and the immersive experience, often feeling it fulfills a long-standing desire for a specific type of zombie survival game. The game's ability to provide unexpected fun and a consistent sense of wonder also generates strong positive emotional responses. - Admiration (weight 0.03): Admiration is overwhelmingly directed towards the solo developer's remarkable achievement in creating a game of such high quality and depth. Players are impressed by the continuous updates, attention to detail, and active engagement with the community. Many view the game as a standout indie title, often surpassing expectations set by larger productions due to the developer's clear passion and dedication. - Desire (weight 0.03): Players express a strong desire for the implementation of multiplayer or co-op modes to enhance social interaction and replayability. There's also a consistent wish for more content, including additional quests, deeper story elements, increased item variety, and companion NPCs. Quality-of-life improvements, such as cloud save syncing and more flexible building options, are also frequently requested. - Anticipation (weight 0.03): Anticipation is high for future updates, particularly the eagerly awaited multiplayer/co-op mode and new content additions like quests and maps. Players are keen to see how the game evolves throughout its early access period and are looking forward to the eventual full release, often guided by a promising developer roadmap. - Appreciation (weight 0.02): Players appreciate the developer's diligent work, active engagement, and consistent updates, recognizing the game's high quality and value, especially for an indie title. Specific design choices like the unique art style, smart inventory systems, and detailed weapon models are frequently highlighted. The overall responsiveness and passion shown by the developer also foster strong appreciation. - Love (weight 0.02): Players express deep love for the game due to its overall immersive and addictive experience, which often fulfills a specific niche desire for zombie survival. The game's atmosphere, compelling gameplay loop, and well-implemented mechanics like weapon systems and exploration contribute to a strong personal connection. Many find themselves engrossed, highlighting their passion for the game despite any minor flaws. - Surprise (weight 0.02): Players are surprised by the game's unexpected high quality, depth, and fun factor, often exceeding initial low expectations based on its graphics or early access status. The exceptional value for money, especially considering it's a solo developer project, is a common source of surprise. Unforeseen gameplay moments or the game's ability to quickly engross players also contribute to this emotion. - Optimism (weight 0.01): Optimism stems from the strong belief in the game's potential for future improvement, with many seeing its early access status as an opportunity for growth. Players are confident that future updates, including bug fixes, new features, and potential mod support, will enhance the game significantly. The active and responsive developer further fuels this positive outlook for the game's long-term success. - Addiction (weight 0.01): Players describe the game as highly addictive due to its exceptionally engaging and replayable gameplay loop. This often leads to losing track of time, playing for many hours straight, and an inability to stop exploring, collecting, and pursuing in-game objectives. The core mechanics are so compelling that they create a strong, persistent desire to continue playing. - Amusement (weight 0.01): Amusement arises from humorous bugs, quirky gameplay mechanics like excessive item stacking, and the ability to exploit AI weaknesses. Players also find entertainment in the unexpected or silly situations that occur during gameplay, or through the humorous tone used in some reviews to describe their struggles or exploits. - Enthusiasm (weight 0.01): Enthusiasm for the game is driven by its high replayability, the freedom it offers in playstyle, and its overall quality, which many consider a 'masterpiece'. Players are very eager to recommend the game, highlighting its addictive nature, engaging atmosphere, and robust customization options as key factors for a highly positive experience. - Amazement (weight 0.01): Players express amazement at successfully overcoming the game's challenging elements and are deeply impressed by its high quality, especially considering its early access status, low price, or solo development. The game's unexpected depth and ability to stand out among similar titles also contribute to a strong sense of wonder and positive surprise. - Engagement (weight 0.01): Engagement is characterized by the game's ability to fully immerse players, often leading to them losing track of time due to its compelling gameplay loop. The abundance of activities, strategic challenges presented by zombies, and an immersive world collectively draw players in, creating a deep and continuous connection to the game. - Anger (weight 0.01): Anger stems from perceived unfair game mechanics, such as magically appearing zombies, and critical bugs that lead to loss of progress or render the game unplayable. Players are also frustrated by missing essential features, like proper footstep sounds, or by what they perceive as poorly prioritized development, hindering their ability to enjoy the game.}