Recent reviews by teleamachus

bought all the things to support a dev who releases their full game for free - i honestly didn't really care about the benefits, nor are they all THAT significant. big props for that, and the game is very enjoyable too. gets complicated fast, and while some aspects start slow, the way the game evolves is very engaging and fun. honestly not a bad call to spend the money on the boosts if you're considering it, but the game is completely free to play in full

Tried the demo, played through just the tutorial alone for nearly 2 hours and decided to buy the game as soon as i completed it. this game was introduced to me as an evolution of the elder scrolls, and i think that's pretty accurate, with an added benefit of my preferred aesthetic. giant statues everywhere, angel/demon type stuff, giant hands, blood lake, zombies, skeletons, bones everywhere... pretty cool. im at 13 hours now and thought i had nearly beaten the game just moments ago but was elated to find a whole lot more content to explore. i have no clue how far through this game i am in its current state, but i've definitely gotten my money's worth already.

i saw some reviews talking about the combat, and frankly, skill issue. stealth archery is easymode, magic is fluid, fun, and challenging, and melee is quite satisfying. early game is difficult for combat and i don't know that you can at any point take on large groups of enemies without risking death, but i was just able to fight a group of four simultaneously in melee range as an archer without stealth just using maneuverability. once you learn your enemies, combat is very engaging and entertaining. i also have been using melee throughout my playthrough and have had a mixed experience with it, because some enemies have a lot of variance in their patterns, and some weapons have a lot of variance in range and speed, which makes dodging very difficult, but also engaging and fun. i never really found much success with blocking or parrying because they would just drain too much stamina and stall my regen until i died, but now that i'm a higher level and more experienced i could probably make a heavy armor +shield loadout work, albeit with some practice.

my only real complaint so far is that crafting is pretty bland, but even then, there are exciting things like relics to modify gear that keep crafting on the table for me (i dont really cook or do potions anymore though because i die in one hit to pretty much everything now since i have nearly no armor values at level 25). i'm looking forward to finding more spells and weapons to use. armor upgrade would be nice too because i just went back to gear i found at level 1 since it was the only magic gear i've found so far, but i did start utilizing defensive magic more which has helped a bit. still dying pretty often to random pot shots from ranged enemies i didn't spot though, which has been rage inducing.

love this game, love the way it looks, fun to play, minimal glitches which are mostly just getting stuck and there's an unstuck button, my only real complaint is that those damn cobwebs are a pain to find. dont blame you for waiting to buy if you want a more polished product, but this game rocks even without the polish.
f5 to quicksave

played initial release and many various patches, rough start with lots of crashes and glitches but that was easily made up for by the rapid efforts from the modding community. used a few qol mods for a while but the current game needs none - once you understand certain aspects of the game, like the strength of entire nations crushing your hopes at sieges without your own nation to back you up, or that you can't max more than a few skills, this game is an extremely fun experience.

this playthrough i started out as a mercenary and graduated to a vassal, and at no point really felt lulls or boredom pursuing various objectives. if i had to gripe about anything right now it would be the conspiracy questline after assembling the dragon banner because of how short notice + time you get (20 days from what i can tell for each of the various quest types), and how far apart the locations are it sends you to (vladian vassal being sent to the OPPOSITE side of the empire quite often). impossible to fight a war and manage the conspiracy at the same time when its sending you across the empire you're at war with as you march around with 500+ troops. just something to keep in mind if you're usurping the empire. i'm going to start a new game today and try the empire route this time because legionaries are cool

as is, this game is top tier now. at first, wasn't perfect, but scratched the mount and blade itch with a nice facelift. now it does that in addition to providing a stellar medieval warfare experience, both from tactical and third person/first person combat perspectives. and, if you're hell bent on leveling every skill, there's a mod for that. mods allow you to optimize pretty much every aspect of the game. for a super fun experience try dismemberment and cut through everyone mods, but they may be outdated and require a rollback from the current version of the game

here are some tips if anyone needs them:
blacksmithing is a crazy good moneymaker at higher levels
companions are the easiest way to optimize party roles (assigned in the clan menu) - find one for every role and your party will become a force to be reckoned with
parties from your own clan cost 0 influence to bring into an army, and cost 0 influence to increase cohesion - easiest way to get big armies early on
joining kingdoms and earning influence is the easiest way to get fiefs (castles and towns), but when obtained this way tend to lack loyalty due to being taken from opposing cultures - slightly mitigated by a governor of the same culture
it's pretty much impossible to be a one man army without cheats or mods, but a decent tactician can easily win outnumbered fights and earn consistent and substantial renown and influence
try not to focus on more than two attributes per character
nogand is op

I'll be praising this game for a very long time, i think. as is, it's more fun to look at and be immersed with than anything, which is ironic since i found that the need for menial labor really stresses your patience and puts you at a constant risk of losing immersion. thankfully, if that bothers you like it did me, you can quickly remake a game before you get too far progressed and tweak the values now (i dont believe this was an apparent option when i first played). accelerating progression made this game significantly more interesting to me, but my first playthrough was extremely fun with the vanilla, slow paced game

the game really sells you on its beauty. sadly, interactions tend not to be beautiful, as you somewhat unnaturally hunt predictable game with no real variation between what you kill aside from hostility, size, and location. seeing some more detailed logic in play during hunting would make the task much more enjoyable, leaving great relief in finally being able to automate it. thankfully, "hunting" is one of the first things you can automate, and it's also not even that important later on in the game - worth noting, it remains one of the easiest ways to feed your dynasty throughout the game, if you're in a hurry

there are some things i wish the game provided more direction with, or didn't force you to trudge through quests to learn about, such as caves - available from the start of the game, if you deal with or sneak around the bears. they provided me some of the best loot i've gotten from random events, and the ores can be fast cash depending on where you're at in the game , but even when it does, if you are interested and immersed, it's so very enjoyable to just run your little town

i do wish there was the option for self-sufficiency, but in reality the antagonist of the economic game being taxes is perfect. what i love about the tax system is how much i hate it, to be honest, because if taxes are my biggest concern then i'm living a peaceful and/or powerful life, much like any good protagonist should. this game is, in many ways, a survival game last, and a colony building game first. taxes, food, water, and warmth are all that keep you from exploring the beautiful lands you're allowed to live in, and once those needs are satisfied, this little valley is one of the easiest places on earth to call your home

if for nothing else, i'd be telling people to buy this game just so they could see how quaint the world can be, and at least take a hike. open game environments like these rarely convey the natural beauty our real world shares, and many of us scarcely see, due to how daunting a task can be. i think this came captures that aspect of nature perfectly, a praise i don't think i can give to any other game. the sun shafts, ambiance, shadows, water flowing, weather systems, smoking chimneys, skittish animals, birds everywhere - this little plot of woodland we get to explore has it all. combined with the medieval lifestyle your player character leads, immersion is nearly impossible to lack until you later remember it's only a game and your stupid colonists will starve if you don't tell them to dry meat and fill water buckets

pretty difficult game for me. once you get past the initial hurdles it gets much much easier, but also the sandbox nature of the game makes it feel pretty aimless unless you've got some kind of ambition like restoring a structure or building a home. i enjoyed disassembling vehicles and using vehicle frames as well as all kinds of furniture to build walls.

i'll admit, it's been a while since i've played, because i lost my longest lived character after i slept on top of some corpses in a vehicle and died as soon as i woke up. that really kind of ruined my experience, because i was probably over 50 hours into that character, but it also taught me a lesson about where to sleep. i guess that's ultimately what makes dying special in zomboid, is that you can learn from every death.

there's a special place in my library where pz will always be, just because it's a really unique and easy to love experience. i dont normally like to keep games that make me want to punch my monitor, but this is the exception

this is a great game, super simple and lightweight. runs smooth, gameplay gets repetitive but each level is different (some patterns repeat between levels but there are hundreds of levels so it's not a big deal at all). the fact that this thing is free is what's awesome about it. i'm definitely supporting the devs and buying their dlcs. i've spent most of my day off today sitting here with youtube videos on while i play and i don't feel like it's been wasted a bit

learning curve is tedious and a lot of actions require patience to do properly like alchemy and picking up a lot of objects from surfaces (rather than containers) but if you can handle that then you're in for a good time. pro tip though, if you're having a hard time with combat, train alchemy and get a load of potions, and with decent gear you can take on any number of enemies. also, boiling steps are completely optional when brewing.

multiple tiddy mods are finally a reality

Wake up naked with some water, a can of chili, and a torch - check
Punch bushes and grass, pick up rocks, make an axe - check
Get lucky and find a chainsaw on the first car you search - check
Explode zombie heads via chucking excess rocks - check
Harvest a metric ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of resources, decimating the landscape - check
Set up a base near a house with a forge in it for some reason - check
Upgrade, scavenge nearby buildings, find a city, kill some dogs - check
Baby's first gun from a cop (the first one that didn't explode) - check
Day 7 approaches, hole up
2 am, my ancestors are singing their war songs from beneath their graves
I hear them calling to me, begging me to bring them honor once more
Shallow breathing, heart racing... this is it.
Amidst growling and howling surrounding this measly hovel, those looking upon me now from the afterlife smile as multitudes of undead drones sprint towards my fortitudes, clawing their way through metal and wood alike. They know what must be done.



Craft dynamite - check
Pond within jumping distance from roof - check
Blow the place up whilst jumping into said pond gracefully enough to bring a tear to the eye of Michael Bay - check
Day 8
T-bag feral zombie corpses - check

Edit: as of 16.3, I've found that I never did encouter a feral zombie until recently... will update again once I have successfully found a feral corpse to t-bag. Also, zombie bear spawned on day 14 right outside my base and I assumed it was a normal bear... whoops.