#Full Thoughts on Update #5

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grand lagoon
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After Spill Zone, I was pretty interested to see how survivor side missions would be executed, in addition to the new duo. Come update #5 I tested this new content, and it was overall pretty good. But there have been some bumps. I won't talk about multiple saves as I feel like that feature was pretty self-explanatory on what it did. I'll talk about the new duo first then move on to the side missions.

The New Starting Pair: Hao and Mei

  • Hao: A great addition. His martial arts ability is super useful in situations were you weapon breaks, and you don't have enough time to switch. Hao's cuisine is nice too in situations were rest may be a problem amongst your survivors. My issue with him, however, is that he doesn't actually do increased damage or at least he doesn't do increased damage all the time. You certainly don't feel he has increased damaged either. As psnail clarified later (thank you) it's more so a range of damage he can do, although kicks will certainly deal more damage. While I do understand this is for balance reasons, I still think it would be beneficial to either change the description to "increased attack speed" rather than damage, or just to buff his damage range a little (not too much obviously) so it still feels like Hao can pack a punch (no pun intended).

  • Mei: Pretty okay character tbh. I feel like her Engineering ability ability would be better if she could produce more of a random, mechanical items after a given phase in the communal area (2 or 3 axes, 3 pipe bombs, 3 makeshift timers, 10 firearm parts, 3 components, 5 electrical or 10 screws), and/or say produces more of a item that requires metal and screws to make. This is also an issue I have with the "Forager" ability on Christine as well (should be around 10 after a given phase, instead of 1 or 2, and the ability in general could be somewhat reworked). Her other positive is nice, and negative is a cool idea for the kind of personality she has.

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Overall, the duo is a decent addition to the game that could use some improvement. Onto the missions.

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Full Thoughts on Update #5

grand lagoon
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The Survivor Side Missions:

They are a great way to experience the story of this game on a more personal level and get a nice trait (or loss of a negative trait) when completed. I'll start with Seb's first:

  • Sebastian: Not much to say about this mission, it's a treat to experience for his character. Though I wish we could have the option to convince Brooks, and have him be a recruitable character, especially after having to go through the trouble of clearing all those zombies.

  • Kayla: Her mission was easily the best mission of the bunch, the small but sweet interactions between Kayla and Taylor being the highlight of the mission. One complaint I do have about the mission though is that having the player fight a Brick isn't really fitting to Kayla as a "sneaky" character. It would be much better if the final section, was an expanded and much more horror and stealth based section. Taylor could guide Kayla through security camera's, and maybe even a stealth-based undead boss could be added for the section? Afterwards we can then get that final interaction near the surface, introducing each other, between the two.

  • Hao: It's my least favorite of the 3, though mainly cause of the boss fight. It is honestly so annoying to have to deal with Garret's barrage of combo attacks, and not be able to do anything about them in the slightest. It's pretty much a gamble on whether he even does the combo attacks in abundance. It would be better if a way to dodge while the combo attacks are happening, or if there was a much more distinguishable way of telling his combo attacks apart. A minor nitpick I do also have is that the "Paulie" zombie could don a unique look instead of looking like any other zombie.

So, the survivors side missions are pretty great. Though I have heard suggestions (like from apoc_now) on improving the missions that I do think would be interesting to explore.

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One other thing I do want to talk about shortly are the increase in bugs and glitches with both combat and zombies this update. They were definitely annoying to deal with (potentially even playing a part in the frustration of Garret's fight), and I hope they are resolved swiftly.

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So, the final rating for this update is 8/10. Could use improvement, but a good update nevertheless.

Have a great rest of your day (or evening if you are in North America). 🙂

round lintel
# grand lagoon After Spill Zone, I was pretty interested to see how survivor side missions woul...

You're right about Hao's melee combat skill there's not really damage increase, but the kick can at least give you some breathing room as it pushes the zombies/hostile survivors back. It still takes about 6-8 (Mostly 7) attacks to knock a zombie/hostile survivor down (Not Fat Zombies/Army Zombies). Hao's attack speed is faster than the normal attacks that survivors usually use so this is another factor that's neat about him. The punches don't deal the extra damage or the extra push back on enemies, as it's just a faster attack to use. His kick however does deal damage, pushes enemies back, and can be the killing blow.

Mei's first skill is mixed as the items she can create is random, as you don't get a notification as you would have to check the inventory every time if she did craft an item. If you're planning on just using 3 characters then you won't have to worry about the negative trait, but it seems like most players will have more than 3 characters in their group, only way to mitigate is to either leave her at the communal area or give her pure alcohol, crude moonshine (if you ever found any), and lastly six pack of beer to fix the morale issue. You can also hope for positive curveballs that help out with her morale in this situation. Both of Hao's first two skills are very useful and great. The combat advantage and the cooking skill for reducing a bit of rest when eating that dish.

Hao's negative trait just doubles the morale loss for grief (as this only kicks in if another character in the group were to die). This one isn't that bad as you just have to avoid or trying not to get someone in your group killed. If this does happen, then either use crude moonshine (if you somehow found it), pure alcohol, six pack of beer, and the communal area is for getting rid of the state and gaining morale. Mei doesn't need to eat much at least with her second trait. Overall, I'm sure the devs will make changes along the way for characters regardless.

native locust
grand lagoon
round lintel