Played the game for a while and must say its quite impressive. Visually speaking its nothing to write home about, i mean the graphics could certainly use some polishing but its not terrible. If anything its just disappointing given what was advertised for the trailer.
When it comes to performance it begins getting more interesting. (So as a disclaimer for anyone wondering of my phone is capable of gaming, i play on a Samsung Galaxy F62. One of the more recent and certainly more effective mid ranged phones for gaming. Simply put.. my phone, while built for high end gaming, is also built to be mid ranged which means quite a few mid ranged phones can handle this game without fail. U don't need a game built from the ground up for hardcore gaming to run it properly.). With that out of the way lets get into the game. Speaking on of my personally favourite games from Netease, Lifeafter showed incredible potential but the downfall of that game was simply its sheer amount of lag and it's absolutely embarrassing amount of dependency on being P2W. While i haven't encountered any P2W mechanisms in Fading City since its a beta which means i cant speak on it, i can indeed speak on how the game runs. When it comes to lag there is virtually none of it. The absolute max graphics you can possibly stick on there. Anti-Aliasing on, view distance extreme, shadows, textures everything is max and my phone runs this game like i was playing Flappy Bird. I also had a stream with my friend on discord while i was playing and the screen share did basically nothing to it. Honestly speaking, when it comes to performance this game gets it right.
Lets get into its gameplay and mechanics. So loading in the game once you're done with resource downloads should be a breeze. No long loading screen or anything u should be fine. (Another disclaimer im only going to speak on what ive experienced in the tutorial here as reviewing the entire game in all its glory will take another one of these.). Starting the tutorial i notice immediately the resemblance to The Last of Us and throughout further gameplay i see the heavy influence that game has on this and i applaud the devs for that. Not many games can pull off a zombie survival atmosphere the way TLOU can even with all its flaws. Further down this review i'll describe what i mean by priorities but for now i'll just stick to the reviewing. They teach you some basic mechanics at the beginning yk, climbing, jumping, walking, some time further down they teach u crouching.
My first pet peeve that I'd highly suggest changing is the climbing mechanism. I like the ability to climb and vault but i cant imagine anyone who likes being told what to climb and where to go. It simply breaks the immersion of the game. There are only certain objects you can climb and even then they all have to be waist height. For context, I tried climbing on top of a truck specifically to test this climbing function and its honestly quite disappointing that you're barely able to climb anything. Even things that obviously look like they're supposed to be climbable, i mean any normal human being could get up or over it, its simply nothing but decoration. We'll leave climbing as a Priority 1 issue.
Combat is also quite efficient in the game. As with TLOU there is no hp bar for non-special or non-boss mutants but they're also not impossible to kill. With your bare hands it should take about a few punches to get the job done. Melee makes that easier. The sneak and alert(when you're being spotted) mechanism could use some brushing up on but functionally it works. Silent takedowns are a little longer than I'd like them to be but it hasn't become a major problem to me yet so thats about a Priority 3 issue. Weapons work fine and recoil isnt a complete pain in the ass like Lifeafter was particularly with shotguns and ARs. I like the weak points system and i like the fact that you're actually able to dodge attacks. its a pain how in Lifeafter enemies were basically walking black holes that lock on to you and suck u in once they start charging at you. An actual evade button with a dash animation and rolling animation when you're in crouch mode for an additional tactical advantage in stealth would be nice though. Maybe it could dash towards wherever your movement pad is pointing idk devs could make that work. That's a priority 2.
While stealth isn't particularly a highlight in the game yet given its lack of adequate cover and easily avoidable enemies, it does boast quite the capable stealth system and with improvement on its effectiveness it could rival that of Mr. Splinter Cell himself. I have no serious issues with stealth only that the already established mechanics need to be more refined.
I've certainly seen some remnants of resident evil throughout the gameplay particularly with those zombies laying on the ground waiting for u to pass so they can drag u into their sex dungeon lol. Context is that one mutant laying underneath a car in the underground parking lot. You cant see him through sensing because he's laying down but looking at the ground with the flashlight you can see his lil head poking out. I shot him once to get him to come out and nothing lmao. I shot him again and the creep just would not get up until i walked up to the car to grab my leg lmao. If zombies sitting there with absolutely no intention of doing anything at all but waiting for u to stray too close isn't some straight out of resident evil type sh*t idk what is lol. Simply put, there's quite the variety in mutants in this game and although there can be more and the already established ones can be improved. Its quite satisfying.
Im gonna bring this to a close soon as it's only the tutorial im reviewing here and i wanna hurry up and finish this so i can go back to playing Fading City lmao. I cant go without touching on the more underrated mechanics. Most notably, its weapon assembly. The fact that i can reconstruct an entirely new gun out of one part i randomly found is astounding to me. The game's retrofit mechanic is really one to behold and i must give the devs their credit for making this system work so well. Secondly is its crafting. Certainly HEAVY influence from TLOU but that's why it's a highlight for me. its seamless and so fluid it doesn't break immersion needing to craft something on the spot and using it so u survive just that much longer. Finally, the lockbox mechanic by far rivals video games built inside and out for puzzle solving. I refer specifically back to that safe in the kids playroom where u had to use the crayon sketch to figure out the combination. I wont spoil how to do it now simply because of how absolutely satisfying it is using your head to figure it out. my friend saw me on stream doing it and didn't even expect it to work. It was the most basic way of finding the combination you could think of and that's exactly why we didn't expect it to work. Our minds were actually blown when i went over to the safe and input the code then it opened. Really Netease, well done on creating this beauty. Im giving you your props rn for this sleeping giant of a game before you murder it in its sleep with P2W systems.
The last two topics im going to touch on rn are simply its emptiness and its loot. The game, while visually inviting, seems empty.. Mutant encounters are, while sort of frequent, aren't frequent enough. the world feels vast but empty. Maybe the solution isn't to add more encounters but simply more mutants per encounter. That way you still get to have the breaks and momemts to take in the environment while also feeling like you've really earned it. Priority 1. When it comes to loot the game also feels quite void of this. I hate when a survival world is littered with items but finding loot seems a little too tedious. More than it needs to be. The safes also done give enough loot to make it worth the effort. They give items that i could walk around the street and pick up when i just spent 5 mins of my life figuring out a code. simply put their either don't give you enough items to make it worth it or valuable enough items to make it worth it. Randomising them should also definitely be looked into. Priority 1.
Im sorry this review was so long and it was only the tutorial lmao but this game can be so much with enough improvement and i wanna see where it really goes from here. Great job again to Netease for what they've created and fingers crossed they don't let it get ruined somehow like their previous projects.
**
Priority 1 - Most definitely need to be changed, added or adjusted as it relates to fundamental mechanics of the game or gameplay.
Priority 2 - Suggestions that could make or break the game depending on how well its executed by netease.
Priority 3 - Less of flaws in the game or gameplay and more of just personal pet peeves localized to myself and maybe the thoughts of others. its up to netease to decide what they wanna do abt those
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