I like zombie movies. I like zombie games. Sometimes it's just really soothing to do mindless genocide of zombies in video games because it doesn't require much work or thinking. Just aim for the head. So, imagine my surprise that Z after just wasn't what I was expecting. It didn't give that feeling of zombie apocalypse, but it also didn't give the feeling of a game that pulled you into how it FEELS to be in a zombie situation. I personally just cannot in good conscious say this game is all that great. Let's talk about it for a bit.
Let me first say that I did enjoy the concept of what was trying to be done. Telling a story in an RPG fashion, putting elements of survival into it. I can respect that. But the game played so much like a tell-tale series, even though it really didn't talk much about itself. The tutorial was minimal. Told you how to search for things, told you how to kill things, then it just dumped you on the map. You are looking around the map to find items to use to progress, but without any sort of real story, you spent aimlessly clicking on things trying to figure things out. You find tools and weapons and just keep clicking and clicking looking for more things to find and interactions. This felt like a really more advanced Where's Waldo book. There weren't really any interactions that made, me the player, want to continue playing longer than I did. Once the initial "oh what is this?" phase left out, the game grew boring and stagnant. Which is sad because I really like zombie things. Just wasn't any value to want me to play more.
My problem with it is that it was just too safe. Everything was just too cookie cutter. The playbook was not rewritten, and it wasn't challenged. The graphic choice was nice for this sort of game, but it was safe. The audio sounds were safe. I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it. It didn't bother me. The gameplay was just there. It was safe. It didn't make me feel invested in the time I put in. I've said time and time again, when you're making games, you have to go risky. You have to find something that makes your product standout and different than the rest. In a game like this, where it is story based and made to drive a narrative, you have to find or do something that is different. I feel the developer, MobGeeks, just played it too safe. Point and click narration games are a hard genre to come by as is, so you have to find a way to make the game standout. In a small niche community, I don't really feel this is cutting it.
One of the most beautiful things though is that this is just an alpha testing. There is PLENTY of time to refine, change and fix. So much time to polish the product. I would focus on the tutorial and make it a little better for explaining. I would make sure to put a lot of narrative interaction events in the game personally. Maybe having timer events that show a sense of urgency when trying to click around to do things. Without that sense of urgency, it makes the game pace so dull and lackluster. Try to find a way to make this project not so safe and cookie cutter. It's missing quite a bit of things, but in this industry, that is the beautiful part. Working with G.Round and listening to their education, it has a real chance to be more than what it is.
You can check out Z-After on G.Round along with many other titles. Click the links in the article to learn more.