Normally I would berate a game for being about an agenda for feminism, or communism or Zionism but this game has none of that and in-fact is kind of the best zombie survival simulator. Obviously it lacks certain features like NPCs, a fleshed out wild-life and other nuances that will make it even better like a storyline or tasks but for what's there it's definitely worth the asking price. And to help you out on the GOG version without a Steam account; here's an easy guide to getting mods: 1. Download SteamCMD - https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD When prompted type Login Anonymous No steam account needed, obviously 2. Find mods you want on the Steam Workshop website for Project Zomboid - https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=108600&browsesort=toprated&section=readytouseitems 3. Plug in those URLs into - https://steamworkshopdownloader.io/ 4. Copy and Paste the URLs from whichever mod you'll like into Step 3's page prompts, copy the code URL and put that into the prompt, it will download to the folder you have your SteamCMD in and you can Copy and Paste it from there into your C:Users/(Username)/Zomboid/mods folder. 5. Activate the mods on the title screen of Project Zomboid through GOG and never regret not needing Steam.
This game is a love letter to Margaret Sanger, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Antony Flew, Anton Szandor LaVey, and Albert Pike. I'm likely missing quite a few worth mentioning but those are the forefathers of ideology being presented on the western world and seeing as the Dyrwood can be boiled down to America in a lot of ways you have to congratulate the creators for being so meta, albeit evil, in their goal to overtake western society's ideology through music, entertainment, movies, television, and video-games among other mediums. I've read the second game is even worse in that goal, so I can't wait to dive in. If you felt my review was overly harsh, I highly recommend you research the above characters in our society and the effect they've truly had on it and then play the game, you will not be disappointed that you're beginning to see a pattern in the way these people work; careful nudging across all mediums until a populace attains the prescribed belief you seek. If you can get past the above I would say it's a 3/5. It's a mechanically good game but suffers from many bug issues, notwithstanding the ever constant degenerative throws at cultural ideologies. (I couldn't and felt the need to ackowledge it) Don't stop trying to learn that which makes you uncomfortable, keep seeing patterns, don't let your growth be stunted by bias. An intelligent population is a dangerous one. Understand this truly and you can see why ours is so inadaquate. Have a great day
It's not a terrible game if you can get passed the LGBTQ+ pandering/propaganda and over-sexualization, (Which is common in media and entertainment nowadays because of the intent to desensitize audiences to degenerative immoral content while pretending that it's not cringe af). The story is passable so far, the dialogue could be better, the companions could be better, the writing in-general could be better or more intelligent and less about social justice that we see in today's world. (Inequality and racism are the primary and 'only' themes that are as common as sexualization or pride virtue signaling, because if we aren't pushing real-world politics into a game, what are we really doing?) But the reason I am shocked it's over-hyped and overrated is the near constant game-breaking bugs. I have too many to list and it keeps growing: Characters getting stuck then warping across the map and ultimately disappearing. NPCs being unable to initiate dialogue with. (I'm looking at Dammon as a great example preventing you from completing a certain companion's questline) Turns in combat where the round starts for that character with their action point already spent. (Has happened to me so far at least 5 times) Abilities not firing off yet still consuming your action point. Attempting to move in-combat but being completely stuck, yet it still consumes the entire movement bar. (Specifically while not being snared or rooted) NPCs disappearing completely and reappearing after a save game reload. Physics engine wonkiness after after killing an enemy sometimes reaching Bethesda hilarity. Sometimes healing potions don't work, especially when thrown, sometimes they do despite 'missing' Sometimes combat is started for one character despite all companions being grouped up and within a short distance of each other Issues with stat-distribution after re-specializing a character Memory leak issues causing noticeable slow-down the longer the game is played.
Buy it for the Diamond Edition which is a 10/10. Enhanced Edition is a dumpster fire filled with so many changes from Diamond not listed anywhere it'll make your head spin. (Specifically just in-game I lost count by the time I hit chapter two in the OC; jiggle physics removed because I guess we're super political in a game meant to be fun, cloaks going from acceptable auburns to hot pinks, other armor color changes that seem awkward compared to the artistic direction of the original) The in-game engines are another thing entirely: I have a very updated rig with an RTX 2060 Super and Ryzen 7 3700x as well as an M.2 NVMe SSD and 16gigs of ram. I know you don't care; but what you SHOULD care about is that this fairly decent rig stutters like fuggin crazy when you play this game compared to another game I own and the Diamond version. I play games on Ultra and have gotten accustomed to a 120 frame lifestyle so I was pretty unsurprised when I saw others had said similar stories. Also; the movement does not feel nearly as smooth at all when using WASD compared to Diamond, it's like my character is stop-motion captured in the Enhanced version whereas my character smoothly turns in the OG. The mouse and inventory management feels worlds faster on the OG as well. The strange input lag? is gone and sound matches up as well with Diamond when dropping potions in and pulling them out compared to Enhanced. It's just super duper sloppy and the political stuff is just really evil if you ask me. Only evil people try to sway others' opinion for some benefit and there really isn't any grey about it, good folk leave well enough alone.
I mean, sure it's playable, sure it has a story; but is any of it good? Not really, unless rushed and incomplete dot your best experiences, I doubt you'd want to jump into this half-finished experience any time soon. For the short list of in-game mechanics, nearly every other Open-world or RPG title is deeper, has a more creative draw, (I.E. attempted to introduce new or unique mechanical systems to the game to alter their title from the competition), or plain better implemented gameplay mechanics. And I mean this, it's almost as if they checked off boxes for features necessary but never adjusted the mechanics so the entire game feels like a rough-draft where every few minutes something is clearly missing from the equation. For all it's ability to want to suck me in, it couldn't because it still had it's flesh and bones showing through the textures and clearly cut content within the world. I understand for example, you couldn't make wall-running a thing, yet you left the mechanic test asset in the world? (A very fun billboard if you come across it) Dual-wield pistols look great on Jackie, it's just a shame that was also cut content. That montage was another wasted opportunity of clearly cut content, but barely managed to be more than a slap in the face to story-telling and instead slipped into a weird realm of uncomfortable exposition. (The list goes on) There is nothing here but a linear rollar-coaster where you coast along realizing that this isn't really an RPG or an Open-world game, it's just attempting to look like one to mask that it's actually just an interactive movie about Johnny Mnemonic...err...sorry Silverhand. (The plots are so similar I can barely discern the two) Had they delivered a game that did everything every other open-world RPG does as a baseline, (Despite my grievances with the lackluster story), it would have be a killer product that modders would return to for years. (Like Bethesda titles) But they delivered an empty, so... :c
