Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 30, 2021

  Great concept and artstyle, but the game is really shallow, you've seen about everything in the first couple hours, and they plan to release DLC instead of enriching the base game in order to be worth the pricetag, for that i gotta give it a thumbs down.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 22, 2021

  I like this kind of game, survival, resource management. However, in only 11 hours I already explored all the things that this game offers.. In my opinion, it is really shallow and not challenging at all. Additionally, for me there is not replayability. I played it once and I do not feel and do not want to play it again. I can't recommend this game.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 25, 2021

  TL;DR Version

  Enjoyable game missing for those who are new to the genre. Genre veterans (Banished, Frostpunk, Anno series regulars) will most likely burn through the game very fast and will find it extremely shallow and easy. Game lacks endgame complexity, charging extra for a DLC in Early Access can be viewed with many angles. The amount of content and mechanical change in the DLC: Prosperity update rather gives the impression that the game will have further DLC's coming and they layed the technical ground for it.

  Detailed review

  <*>First impressions <*>Main loop of the game, aka building <*>What is good about it <*>What needs improvement <*>Should you get it?

  First impressions

  Tutorial holds your hand, which is very good. Clear goals, what you need to do, music and visuals in the beginning help you navigating the game. What hits you that the learning curve is hard, the game does not really teaches you well that not all resources that you need to manage are created equal. Yes running out of food or water does most likely lose you the game, hence the two basic resources in your GUI on the left. But after it is wood and scrap. Which you can run out of and your society does not collapse. Run out of proper clothing, which will make them sick and then you lose the game as get anti-radiation tablets is an midgame resource, that is punishment. For those who are familiar though, even on middle setting the game is a breeze maybe with some close calls.

  What is good about it

  Music

  I don't know what they did, but it works. It's the chilled soundtrack of an anno, having a dystopian tune to it. You notice when the music stops and when it's on the grove is on.

  Voice Acting

  A lot of effort when into the voice acting and it is so nice. Especially in the tutorial phases / exploration, though it is not part of the main loop of the game, it is greatly appreciated.

  Sound effects

  The terrible sound of the heartbeat when you lose a person. It is creepy on the other hand a very well distinguishable bass drum. The water flowing, pub background noise. The sound design was top notch.

  Main loop of the game

  So in a simulation building game, you build a lot. Is it fun? Yes it. Sort of. The buildings have to be built from the scratch, ground needs to be prepared (if contaminated) resources need to be brought there, than builders need to build. Few annoyances: - The builders yes build and you can have a lot of builders but each building (I assume based on some building size) can only have an x (very small 1-5) builders assigned to it. Which is fine up until midgame buildigs which after building a complex building takes AGES for your 1-5 builders to collect all the resources around the map. - Builders are agents that have needs, requirements. Sadly these agents do not keep to their assigned jobs, I assume there is some internal logic which agent does what based on proximity. What it means you have a table where you assign xy amount of Farmers and at any given moment you will have xy amount of Farmers, but sometimes Luke, decides now he will become a Herder and Jane who is now near the Farm she becomes a Farmer. This creates sometimes silly pathing and buildings to take ages to build. - Resource mgmt. what resource goes to where is extremely finicky and has to be done by setting which warehouse stores items. Which makes sense unless you start to build items far away from your central zone. Creating a "local" warehouse with building materials creates a pathing issue where builders despite having a warehouse full of items near the newly built buidling go to the other side of the map to pick up the resources. There is no way to tell a new building to where to source its contents.

  What needs improvement

  - The buildings, especially if they are stacked up near to each other it is hard to visually distinguish between them, they can be looking all the samy-if you don't know what you are looking for. Especially small logistical buildings (water / food points) are hard to spot. With decorations you are kinda doomed. - Difficulty curve is all over the place. Generally speaking my playstyle was to completely disregard the raiders, do not even try to fight them, just pay the tribute and focus on the economy. I am unsure if this is intended, but this way you can completely negate defensive works. On hand you can argue this is a "choice" in playstyle, but on the other hand no need to research "worry" about the military part of the game. - On the other hand you can have cascading failures as you sometime do not see if a resources is falling faster (especially when you get to the quadriple digits in clothing). The game has an Anno type of "turn-around" statistic meeter (consumption vs. generation) but that is too hidden in the statistics menu. -> Developers please put that into the top bar as an optional view. Or like a second line. Something. Or warnings if something is plumetting. You can lose sight when you build an finicking with small things. - Even with prosperity the amount of endgame content is few and far between. Explorations are fun, but after the initial xy amount of building its technically a building you can demolish as it has no value, except to create stock of food you can pay as tribute. - Logistics system and carrying water to water points food to food points is just completely useless. Either I am doing something very very wrong or my agents are just not carrying enough of anything to make the points be worth something. There is no upgrade to use any other system than to manually carry items and in settlements +1k or above it is more hassle and what you end up doing is creating small cities in your city to recreate the logistical routings.

  Should you get it?

  At this price and this content level? Only if you are a die hard dystopian builder fan. But in that case (like me) you already have it. With a 40% discount or higher (when the dlc has that discount) maybe. To be honest I would wait 3-4 more dlc's and maybe consider it at that time. There are so many little things that could improve upon it (for example enabling workshop) to fix the myriad of small problems and or missing buildings. Prosperity added some but in a sense completely broke the balance of it. I am expecting serious balance changes incoming. The tech tree in prosperity got changed, items that were previously in the "vanila" tree are now locked behind prosperity which makes sense... but at the same time this game is still in Early access. I do not wish to give it a number, if you want more impressions watch some videos, but I advise to wait until 2022 End of year. I mean if nothing else if humanity continues like this, we are all going to play Endzone IRL. Peace out survivors! P.S.: Those f*ing tailor shops will be the death of me...
• gamedeal user

  Dec 3, 2021

  It's a great game, I wish there was a neutral recommendation. Why don't I recommend? The game was balanced for masochists, not for fun. Tailor shops. That's the game, tailor shops and nothing else. I have 13 upgraded tailor shops, 8 recyclers gathering cloth, hemp farms and mill.... I'm unable to clothe my 150 person town. I played 4 different scenarios, I've beat Frostpunk on hard, I know how to play. The way to win is to keep your population homeless or depressed, that way they don't reproduce effectively until you're ready. This is not a fun way to play AT ALL. So turn the difficulty down, just 1 notch, right?? 1 notch down and I can survive 150 pop with over 40 idle villagers. So out-of-the-box the game is not fun, it's torture, and there is no inbetween torture and essentially sandbox mode. Only other complaint is the repetitive weather... After you've played an hour you've seen everything. Temperature variation would be nice and it would be nice if droughts _felt_ random, they feel scripted every N days (they are not, but the way the conditions work out it certainly feels like you're just playing on a loop) Like I said it's a damn good game underneath...If they make a sequel or try again on a new game I'll buy it day 1 but I don't recommend EndZone.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 20, 2021

  Fantastic, challenging game. Seriously, don't believe/trust the negative reviews about the difficulty. Yes, this game is hard, and mistakes are punished. But it's not impossible. For example, I keep seeing "It's all about tailor shops, I have ~100 tailor shops and can't clothe all my settlers.." That's not true. My settlement is almost up to 1000 settlers and I have 3 upgraded tailor shops and 2 regular ones. You just have to play a few times, lose a few times, and you'll start to understand the resource bottlenecks that happen when you don't plan carefully. And even if you don't plan carefully, if you can identify what's happening (e.g your settlers have to get materials from the other side of your base, not enough production, etc.) you can usually do something about it. The game actually has all the amazing tools and graphs you need to succeed. I use the resource graphs CONSTANTLY, this is often a really good way to see problems coming before it's too late. I believe there's some room for improvement when it comes to balancing and the tutorials and documentation. Firstly, research simply just takes too long. Even with a powered research facility and 5 researchers, it took me 150 seasons to research everything. Yes, you can supplement this with trades from the Trader Post or Expeditions, but you might get an extra 1-2 points here and there. Secondly, the biggest challenge in the late game is that you have to venture out farther and farther for scrap, an absolutely essential resource for your settlement. It seemed as if it's a non-renewable resource that eventually is a time bomb for your game. But then I was finally able to build scrap catchers, and it turns out it's a renewable, infinite supply of scrap. The game doesn't explain this very well. TL;DR Anyway, I'm addicted to this game. It's hard, unfair sometimes, and could use some balancing, but it's rewarding when it all comes together.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 29, 2022

  I played Endzone and Survivng the Aftermath. While I liked Endzone's UI it lacks a lot. Its difficulty comes down to one thing: control the number of houses you have start with ten and then move to more when needed. Without the runaway population there are no more problems. With a short tech tree and the eventual reach 500 goal I do not see a point to continuing. The explorations are the same on every map you spawn. I put in my hours on Endzone but lost all interest on anything when there simply was no more content. Aftermath has a larger tech tree, a randomized over world, more challenges and has simply more replayability. My vote is on Surviving the Aftermath for post apocalyptic colony sim. Given the choice of the two. I also do not love Paradox and their DLC habits but at least it does not feel abandoned like Endzone. Are either exactly what I would have hoped for? No but Surving the Aftermath is a hell of a lot closer.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 5, 2022

  I'm going to recommend this game because of it's tutorial alone which is the most in depth and thorough tutorial I have ever seen in a game. It's absolutely the best tutorial I have seen in any game ever. It feels so weird for me to be raving about a 'tutorial' but so many games miss the mark on documenting mechanics that it's incredibly refreshing to see a game that get's it right.
• Garner McMichaels

  Oct 20, 2022

  I wish there was an option that was like "Do you recommend this game? --> Well, Yes & No." At its core, it's an amazing simulator, very detailed, tons going on, every settler an important individual in your settlement. Logistics are impressive, as in you need to consider how far people walk as part of the efficiency of how your settlement works. The pace is good, the base survival mode is enjoyable and fresh. A lot like Frostpunk but unique in its own right. The problem is the later part of the game. A few things: - Certain buildings seemed pointless. Maybe it was just the way I built my settlement. But it seemed as though there was no need to bother some buildings at all. 100% useless. - Expeditions as a whole look very detailed but are quite lacking in actual depth. Find a huge cache of resources? Sorry, you can't carry most of it back. Looking for expedition points? Sorry, not here, not there, actually you just won't find any, so you can't research most of the technologies that you'd like to. - It ultimately comes down to resource management and anticipating needed resources going forward. Beyond that, the game didn't seem to change much. Great concept, great core gameplay, not a good third act. Still worth trying.
• 々NIGHT KILLER

  Nov 14, 2022

  What a Game!!😍😍 completed in 10 hours
• gamedeal user

  Nov 14, 2022

  Yet another game designer mistook manual control of helpless morons for micromanagement. It's a shame that all other aspects of Endzone (like graphics, for example) are pleasant.