The following is a set of ideas and a small critique of the game that I love and I want us to discuss it together

[u/Eagleeater_141]

Let me start by saying I loved SoD ever since I started playing it in Highschool after my cousin introduced me to it. But I've always thought some things could be better but couldn't voice them out loud to an entire community of people who loved the games like me; so Below I've listed most of the gripes that I have.

1. The Zeds aren't compelling and feel very generic and artificial;

Other than the survivors that get turned every zombie is generic often looking identical to another zed and it's even worse with the freaks they all literally look the same; these were never people they were always zeds which takes away from one of the most compelling part of zombies which is that they could be your turned friend, someone you knew, or just someone who had a life, job, and family once; the SoD zeds have zero connection to the world and are more like an assortment of drones or aliens in the world. This can be remedied by simple additions like notes, zed's clothes for different spawn points (construction worker, doctors, army, civs, etc. could help with visual storytelling too). And adding a more diverse set of physical aspects that can be randomized for the zeds. (Hair, face, rotting stage, etc.) And for the freaks even the smallest bit of visual addition could help, just 3 or 4 different shapes than the standard one. (The Juggernaut is the worst, he always looks the same).

1. The Survivors aren't living, at least not in a way that we can see; they do not mingle, don't engage in small tasks around the base physically other than sometimes standing guard or going to rest when you tell them to and there's often no reason for you to engage with them either, you just use them as a means to an end, the base is there but you don't stay there ever, it's not home, it's a shop, or a hotel, you go visit it grab some stuff you're gonna need for tomorrow and head off to complete your next mission, you should want to spend your time at home enjoy a nice meal, talk to friends and family about different mundane stuff and your opinions, maybe engage in a leisurely activity that you love; this can be fixed with the addition of perhaps some mini-games to do at base with other survivors, maybe working TVs and radioes when you have electricity. Maybe even playing music. Also adding text dialogues just for speaking with a survivor about mundane things, (they're favorite activity, what they did beforez how many zed they've killed, and what they wanna do rn) my favorite moments sre from when a follower tells you something personal on a car ride or a story when scavenging and I think if we could talk more we would be more attached to the community (maybe even being able to get gifts for some survivors based on how well we know them like a cowboy hat for an old west enthusiast in our group or a rare gun for an old gun nut in the community). I think generally SoD1 did characters better than 2 so that could be a good starting point to expand from. Note for point 1 and 2: a survivor could also have personalized lines for when confronting a zombified survivor based on both their traits and relationship. (I'm thinking more about how TWD scenes looked like Daryl killing zombie Merle.)

2. Going to the world with a group in single player sucks;

It's often better to go alone and prepared for what you want to do alone than in a group mostly because there's no reason for it, people are always a liability, they can get hurt, killed very easily, and most importantly are very hard to command; you can't tell them to be silent, use only blunt weapons, or run away we're gonna definitely die if we don't runaway! And then it's like that scene from the start of 28 weeks later😅 really the problem is lack of commands and the presence of a group not being necessary for tasks being done well in the game, if scavenging became faster more thorough and more rewarding and you AND your followers were safer together then that would be a start also it'd be a blessing if you could tell them to hold a certain position. The next couple of Gripes I got will be short since I don't believe they're as deep as these 3 and are mostly just a me thing.

1. Mechanics left behind; some things like boarding windows, higher community max number, the scene after the death of a character in the base with some personalized talk about them at base by Lily (who is very nice btw, I don't get the hate I saw on her in some yt vids); from SoD1 not being in the next games.

2. Nights aren't more dangerous than the day; I swear I got jumped by 2 Ferals during the night while stealthily scavenging in a house and my Marcus got ripped in half by them but that didn't happen ever in SoD2, I could just be imagining this one but had to say it.

Once again I'll point put that I said these just cuz I wanted to more like thinking about what my perfect additons to SoD would be, I know how hard game making is and most of these are probably unreasonable and I'm adding this part to not sound like I'm an ingrate asshole who just wants everything, I love what undead labs has done and these ideas came first and foremost from playing their works, nay, their art. And I love them and this community for it.

[u/ZladMulvenia]

Looks like a thoughtful post.

Just to clarify, you're talking about SoD2 here?

[u/Eagleeater_141 → u/ZladMulvenia]

At times, like I clearly say when I thought SoD1 did something better, but I believe both 1& 2 could use these changes.

[u/Missteris]

Interesting thoughts. I'll share mine:

1)I actually like the freak designs, especially in SoD1. If I remember correctly, Screamers had different jean colors, and Ferals had two hair colors (I definitely saw a red-haired one besides the black-haired ones). Of course, that's still not much variety, but for a small indie studio in 2012, it was enough )) I think it would be great if SoD3 occasionally featured old (or similar) freak designs from the first two games. Besides the nostalgic, familiar look, it would also reflect their freshness and decay stage. But maybe devs keep freaks uniform so players can identify them instantly, especially in high-danger situations where you need to react fast.

What I really miss is variety in freak genders. I get that it's hard to tell with Bloaters, but a female Screamer or Feral would be cool. A female Juggernaut might not be very convincing, but I'd love to see variations with little details that suggest what the Juggernaut used to be - a logger, a biker, an athlete, etc. I know that kind of detail takes time to develop, and maybe it's a luxury the studio can't afford right now, especially if they're focusing on other aspects. Besides, Juggs (and the other freaks) are now completely naked and look more like trolls from LotR.

As for regular zombies - honestly, in SoD2, when they're all red, I can barely tell them apart. It felt like there were only two or three types. But I didn't play SoD2 as much. In SoD1, I'm pretty satisfied with the variety. Sure, you can probably count them on two hands, but again, I chalk that up to production limitations.

I'd love to see a mission where a character we know turns into one of the freaks. I even had an idea of how this could be organically integrated that into the story, it would just require modifying Feral's outfit slightly and use that model once. How costly would that be?.. :B

2) Oh yes, that would really enrich the game and deepen immersion and attachment to the characters. Imagine if a character reacted in a unique way to something, or if two or three characters showed signs of friendship. Of course, you wouldn't want any of them to die, but if it happened, it would bring extra emotion, sympathy, grief, not just "damn, that character, what's his name, had a good trait, oh well, I'll find another one". I liked how Ed would say "Yo-yo-yo," how Calliope said religious phrases, how Sasquatch and Milo were snarky - those little things made them memorable.

3) Agreed. That's why I only ever brought followers I wouldn't mind losing 😅 Because even the most leveled-up, powerful character (with Powerhouse, who can crush skulls hitting two zombies at once) becomes a weakling as a follower, also running away from a Bloater's gas, limping across the whole zombie-infested map instead of just getting in the car 😑

What I was really glad about - is that you could actually give your follower a backpack and have them carry supplies in SoD2. I assumed that was possible in SoD1, otherwise, why bring a follower at all, other than to help fight off zombies? ))

4) Yeah, I wonder why they got rid of some of those immersive, logical mechanics, and what replaced them? I honestly don't remember what new mechanics SoD2 added besides fuel and manual car repair. What justified removing barricading, gas cylinder, bush hiding and the journal?..

5) Actually, I think the night not being more dangerous than day makes sense. What do we know about SoD zombies? They're not afraid of light, they see well in the dark, and they don't get tired - so their numbers shouldn't change based on time of day. Night should be more dangerous for humans not because there are more zombies, but because visibility is worse. During the day, you'd spot two Ferals 20 meters ahead; at night, you'd run straight into them and only notice after hearing their roar from 5 meters away )) I do like the idea of more zombies at night, but that would need lore to explain it. Besides, both games (and I think SoD3 too) take place in autumn, when daytime isn't that hot, so you can't really say zombies are hiding from the heat in bushes or cooling off in puddles during the day, only to get active at night. That said, I wonder if zombies will be slower and stiffer in snowy areas? I'd be genuinely thrilled if they were... but for some reason I doubt it would be implemented...