評論

• gamedeal user

  Oct 19, 2021

  Overall a great game with a lot of promise, if the devs are looking at feedback I think there are three points to look at needs, wants, and dreams Needs: 1) Overhaul of path finding, it gets pretty janky sometimes with vehicles and units clipping into each other then becoming stuck on terrain 2) Fixing AI for units IE have the infected swarm towards points instead of a constant trickle and have the units become a bit more autonomous 3) Optimization for the mid to late game is desperately needed, the late game can be unplayable at times especially for larger scale operations it becomes a slideshow 4) The map feels empty, this goes in hand with the optimization but it just feels like a ghost town almost when doing operations, I like to turtle and then launch large scale operations to secure a forward operating base and make sure the rest of the missions can proceed from there but even during the early game it just feels empty which while befitting the themes the ambiance is lacking to back that up Wants: 1) I'd love more building interaction, perhaps make it so units can go inside buildings not just on top of them 2) Terrain destruction, with being able to call in an airstrike and use heavy weaponry like tank APC it would be nice to be able to see the effects of combat on the city 3) Greater range of units, right now it just feels kinda so so I would like to see more and more units added overtime with better ways to customize them 4) Overhaul base building, right now there's not really a reason to take territory other than income as all you need to do is hunt down patient zero to win the game 5) More interactions with the government, the CERC is supposed to be a secretive branch of the government which is great but I can just kill civilians with no repercussions so maybe a system of objectives, missions, orders, directives, and edicts from the government should be necessary like 50% of the map needs to be infected before you're allowed to shoot civilians in hot zones 6) Research, we have scientists and there's not really a reason to have them other than flame troops so put the DNA points to good use and research various technologies to unlock new buildings, units, buffs, etc Dreams: 1) Slow the pacing way down, I'm a biochemist and molecular biologist in real life and I can say even diseases spread through bites like this one would not go this fast. We know that there's a patient zero but in real life pandemics are a slow burn. It would be much much much more beneficial to the theme if you start out the game as just a task force operating out of some FOB or temporary base and you have to gather intell, respond to small scale outbreaks, follow up on missing persons, quarantine neighborhoods/areas, launch surgical strikes into infected areas to gather specimens with your scientists, etc.. It will be much more beneficial to have this game be a slow burn RTS that slowly expands the scope of what you have to deal with where when you first land you've gotta respond to reports of strange activity and missing persons then a week later you're having to quarantine areas, then a week later you have to blow the bridges, set up barricades and walls, enforce curfew etc, then a week later the infected are actively engaging your forces as their numbers increase and you get reports of strange pods of towering bodies of the infected, then the next week you're having to pull back and abandon large swaths of land as you're completely overrun, and then finally bide your time and build your forces and launch small strategic strikes until you're ready to launch a full scale war to retake the island. 2) Have patient zero evolve with the game, as we see throughout the main game there's different variants of the infected. Patient zero is the central intelligence behind this and it would make sense if she evolved like the infected. Having her go from a normal infected to a spitter to the big worm to a massive tower that constantly spawns infected and converts the local area would be an amazing sense of power scaling and story pacing. 3) Change the way units work, while I love the way you can use complete granular control over the units I dislike it for large scale operations. Sure grouping them together is great but with the way path finding works it kinda breaks down in the late game. Maybe have research to increase unit size so start with one then two/three then five etc so it keeps with scaling. 4) Dynamic evolution, in the wild viruses evolve to overcome challenges presented to them. Bombed all the bridges to secure off one section of the map? Congratulations you have flying infected. Taken care of the flying infected? Well the worm can now make tunnels for other infected to crawl through. Launching large scale operations during the day and then turtling at night? Guess who's having nosy neighbors beat down your door while you're trying to sleep. 5) Faction/civilian interaction and chaos, when society breaks down it breaks down hard and the game should reflect the chaos a situation like this would cause. Fires breaking out across the city, hospitals being overrun, police responding to increasing calls while being picked off, civilians looting, militias forming, gangs fighting in the streets etc. would be amazing factors to deal with besides the infected. Overall an amazing demo with a bright future ahead of it, I bought this after watching the spiffingbrit play it and I've loved it. The learning curve is steep but once you figure it out the roleplaying and story telling are great.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 10, 2022

  I'm putting this as recommended, but with caution. This game frustrates me because it gives you so much to do, but the game rushes you way harder than I think it needs to. If you're not rushing B you're not going to make any progress - and I think that's intentional, I'll explain why in a bit. Pros: You have a lot of cool stuff to do, like evacuate civillians, set up checkpoints and all that good stuff. Great, fantastic, I love it. I like that you can set up FOBs and COPs which, in theory, would be great evacuation sites of the island or to your main hub. I say in theory because this has never worked for me. Cons: pathing is jank, but we all expect that from EA games, it actually doesn't bother me at all, really. But you know what does? The pacing. Remember when I said this game wants you to rush? Remember when I said in theory you can set up evac sites? Good luck. I'm not a super computer, so I can't multitask 5 groups, evacuating, refuling, rearming and all the other stuff the game wants me to. Yes, each INDIVIDUAL unit has it's own ammo. Which sounds cool until you're super spread out doing multiple things. This also goes for fuel and health. It is task saturation simulator and if you're a perfectionist god help you. And don't get me started on Patient Zero. If you want to throw away 4 hours of work, go hunt that down. You can't kill it without committing EVERYTHING. And even then, guess what? You still can't kill it. Like, no joke. I managed to kill it by cheesing it with an Apache it got stuck on after superman jumping onto it (Yes, it does that, no you can't stop it, yes it will kill your unit(s) instantly) but, I got lucky, or so I thought. When you kill it, it goes into some cacoon type thing and regenerates. Well, it was stuck onto the apache, so big brain, I fly it over the ocean because there's no saving that unit. Did it work? no. Killed my unit and teleported back onto the island. What could have been a cool and almost cinematic moment was ruined by what I'm starting to think is a timesink unkillable boss. So what's the point? Devs: Slow. It. Down. Let people get used to the mechanics and experiment a bit before stomping their head in. I think it would be really cool if we could focus on an objective for an end game. Cure, Evacuate, kill whatever. you're giving us all these side things to do but what's the point if in the end it's just a battle of attrition what we'll lose? And for the love of god up the population capacity. The map is huge and if you're wanting us to experiment don't funnel us down the LAV path. It needs slowed down if we need to think of supply lines, if you want it fast pace, get rid of ammo and fuel. It's a really cool concept, but it's not what's on the box. You can TRY to do it your way, but you'll end up like me complaining on the comments.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 12, 2022

  Before I go in to this, let me be upfront and clear: I thoroughly enjoy Cepheus Protocol. It's a pretty cool concept and it's obvious the devs are passionate about their product. Some elements are somewhat one dimensional and there's a few units that need to be rebalanced to make them useful/desirable but otherwise it's a fun game - especially if you like old school base builders a la Company of Heroes. Vehicle pathfinding is desperately bad right now but it's (allegedly - keep reading) being actively worked on. All in all, I have no problem with the game itself. With that said, this dev teams inexperience is pretty apparent, specifically their priorities. For example, the standard install is back on v0.7.130.8 on UE4 at the time of this review while their opt-in beta branch is on v1.1.2 on UE5. Both versions are ripe with bugs that do not exist on their counterpart. EDIT (6/12/2022): I clarified that the different installs are on different versions of UE. Because of the migration to UE5, the default installation is essentially obsolete and development (read: bug fixes) is no longer on-going on it. Additionally, the content patch talked about throughout this post resulted in the UE5 opt-in beta being a complete mess and, as predicted and stated, introduced a plethora of bugs on top of the existing bugs. I run an i9-10900KF/3070, 64GB RAM, and a 2TB m.2 and this patch is locking my system and forcing me to power button reboot. On standard there is something happening where some users cannot play past day 10-ish because the game becomes very unstable and bleeds FPS.....down to the 3-5 frames range. On the beta branch, some units cannot execute the patrol command that is stable on standard. Once the command is issued, they cannot move. To fix it, you have to reload your save. Reloading a save wipes the current infected swarming your base and also generates free civilians - sort of a minigame you can abuse to increase income or get your rocks off muirderizing them. That is just a single example from both branches. There is a plethora more bugs on each. I extensively tested both the standard install and beta branch, posting what I found in the appropriate channels and moving on. I've played well over 100 games and even went as far as to set up a partition on my own Google Drive to share save files with them in order to help facilitate fixes. Additionally, I asked if they preferred I keep posting in their public areas of Discord or if they'd prefer me to DM a single person or hook me up with a private channel so as not to potentially detract from their product. I documented and posted +/- 25-30 bugs and issues across the two versions. I (and others) openly discussed problems and potential solutions and for a brief moment (about 10 days), it felt like a great community. Then, rather then fix any of these bugs, weeks worth of time and attention went in to creating new content prior to the summer sale starting. This content patch was delayed for over a week, during which the studio lead kept giving timelines that were constantly pushed back. You don't announce patch hard times till they're tested - preferably by someone who knows how to test. No big deal, things happen....except there was no bug bashing in the patch at all and it created additional bugs that now require a critical update - such as not being able to move units on the new maps pushed out. Once the patch was released, I read the notes and bluntly stated it was time to shelve new content and focus on bug bashing. One of the devs started to argue with me for the second time because he seems to take anything critical as a personal attack. I was then promptly banned from their Discord. No warnings, no DMs, nothing. Banned with no notice because the truth hurts. My ban was rationalized to the community as I was being "combative" at which point members of the community contacted me, lol. It's a fun game, but beware it's just as likely to die due to poor decision making then anything else. I hope not, but that's been my experience with small studios that can't take the truth. I'll continue playing and wish them and CP luck - I just wanted anyone checking the reviews to know what they might be getting themselves into.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 4, 2022

  I would like to apologize to the soldier who shot my daughter in The Last Of Us, I hated you for years but now... Now i understand you.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 1, 2021

  Its like you're the umbrella in resident evil Its like you're the blackwatch in prototype Its like men of war, but vs zombies Its like super spicy food (very hard) but you keep coming back It has TONS of potential
• gamedeal user

  Aug 15, 2022

  Its a cool game but the dev team is really weird, they fake patches and updates to use the patch notes to advertise their main product that is a comic book line and a merch store. And yeah you bet they blocked me from the patch discussion after I asked i pointed it out... the CEO seems really bad and this game will never finish, i got it a year ago and can see its on its last legs before they give up on it.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 3, 2022

  It feels, and is, VERY Early Access. But there is some serious potential for a wonderful game here. Hell, even just playtesting the game is fun as hell. If you've ever wanted to play as Blackwatch from the Prototype games, or have a (slightly) customizable 'contain the apocalypse' experience, this is absolutely the game. The devs are great folks, have a serious passion for the game, and have great communication on their discord, hosting Q&As, having update reports every month, and having a pretty damn rapid update schedule. I look forward to seeing the game in the future, and would absolutely recommend it for players who are itching for this type of game, and don't mind the Early Access experience. (...Ignore the fact that the majority of all games, AAA or no, are effectively Early Access, so you're stuck with it regardless lmao.)
• gamedeal user

  Dec 31, 2021

  I'm not gonna lie I would have recommended this game a while ago because it was just a zombie RTS where you would slug your way through an infected town and it looked promising if some work was done to it; polish some edges, fix some issues, add some depth: Perfect Zombie RTS. Honestly a dream game. But the direction the game is taking and the work being prioritized by the team means I rly can't recommend this game right now. The main focus right now seems to be adding a first person operator mode and fixing everything associated with it while also tacking on an endless list of new features to the game such as para-dropping units, micromanaging the pilot for helicopters, adding new weapons, etc... All the while the core game-play loop has not really improved since a year ago. Pathfinding is still broken, factions do not add much to the game, performance will still dip tremendously especially at night... Would I have recommended this game a year ago? Yup Would I recommend this game now? Nope. Right now this seems like another early access story to me where core issues are not being addressed in favor of adding new "cool" features to the game. Maybe I'm out of touch with what the community wants, maybe everyone on their Discord is loving the first person mode and new features. But Ik it's definitley not for me right now
• gamedeal user

  Jan 29, 2023

  So, I've noticed lately that a lot of people are upset about civilian AI and some other features being buggy, revamped, or taken down. Honestly, the game is in Early Access and a lot of these things are still being fleshed out and things are being experimented with. Steam EA has a fairly bad reputation for allowing developers an excuse to push out feature-incomplete games to prey on the hopes and goodwill of the common gamer; Yet, based off of all the improvement, experimentation, and hard work that I have seen put into this game since I bought it before it blew up-- I can say that things will eventually level out and come to a feature complete game. The idea is incredible and ambitious. The work the team behind the game has put into it is genuine and they make strides every day while listening to community feedback and polls in their discord. It's not perfect right now, but I believe that Cepheus Protocol is truly tapping into the potential of Steam Early Access as it was intended. In the end, I have every bit of faith that this game will be something amazing on the other end of the journey. Personally, I cannot wait for CO-OP to play with my friends, but that's still a long way away and I'll enjoy it for what it is now. 10/10 would recommend.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 18, 2022

  It's an odd game. When it was first released, it was good, had bugs, but the core of it all was solid. The support was solid. The game actually ran very well too with everything going on (was playing with a 2080 super). Now, I don't really know where this game's direction is. The whole first person operator thing I feel shouldn't be the priority, or the comics, or the clothes, or the cell phone cases. Going out and taking pictures of areas to add "depth" to the game, google maps can do too. I feel that the community is waiting for the CO-OP to be the lead runner, then tutorial, then UI, and lastly a pathing. If you have someone there to suffer with you, you can bounce ideas of "this or that could be better." Plus you help each other learn the game as well. If the game's UI is condensed and simple to use, people won't feel so clustered or have sensory overload. Pathing; If the units actually do their jobs and follow the orders puts the responsibility on the player. (Examples of bad pathing not on the player; Why didn't this dude just turn around to fire, why can't he walk around the tree). The faction AI doesn't really add anything, there's no scale to them, just a few of them running around doing whatever. They're just there. If you have no idea how to play this game, the first 20 minutes is like life or death to me. You need to pick somewhere to set up and just GO GO GO. However, sometimes you can purge a whole island and some random zombie or infected person flips deep inside your turf, the game is done. They are infected everything and if they touch a control point, boom, there's a nest. The sitting on defense building everything up mid game becomes a tiresome endeavor of tug of war. Forcing you to sit there for at least 3-5 hours getting everything ready while they are forming / evolving at least 40 hive nodes.... My feelings for the whole game? It's alright, not good, not horrid, just ok. I beat it a few weeks after launch and was like, that was cool, can't wait for more! Now, I don't know if someone out there has (besides killing the main brood queen).