Dead State Alpha Review

PC Gamer has taken the Dead State Early Access build for a spin, and comes away with mixed thoughts on the experience. While the writer seems to have enjoyed the gameplay and narrative possibilities offered, he also seems disappointed by the state of this early release and thinks it’s not worth a purchase:

Dead State is an interpersonal politics simulator as much as a party-based zombie RPG. While safely at the school, I became a den mother to the lost and left behind. Conversing with these characters reveals that what they’d really like what would make this whole thing bearable is a bar of deodorant. Chocolate. A magazine to read. These optional pieces of loot weigh on your mind during missions: I don’t really need to raid that bookstore and risk the dead shopkeeper inside, but how much happier would everyone be with some new books? Is it worth the risk?

These personalities clash as the situation gets worse. After my first scavenging party to a nearby hardware store, one distraught character told me not to take her mother out on missions anymore. She’s seen so many people lose their family already, she says, and she can’t take the stress of worrying about her mom out on the road. Now I’m faced with a political choice: anger the daughter by bringing the mother with me, or calm the daughter and give up a crucial resource in the mother. Dead State’s focus on character conflict during an emergency is an angle I haven’t seen outside of The Walking Dead’s heavily scripted cut-scenes. Unlike the Telltale series, Dead State’s conflicts can be solved by open-world exploration and looting, and that was a new experience for me.

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A promising early build beset by bugs, Dead State: The First Seven Days has potential but needs a lot of work before it’s ready.