With Pax East 2022 finally behind us, I was invited to check out an upcoming game from XSEED Games DeadCraft during Pax East. DeadCraft is developed by Marvelous’s First Studio, creators of DAEMON X MACHINA. DeadCraft brings you into a world where you will have to survive not only against zombies but humans also. At the same time, you have a chance to not only craft weapons and unlock tons of upgrades, but you also have the power to build your army of zombies from all the zombies you hunted down. DeadCraft is an ActionRPG/simulator game where players have to craft to survive the world ravaged by zombies, and I will talk about the reason why this game deserved the Team Choice Award from us.
The story revolves around survivor Reid who is half human and half-zombie on the quest for vengeance to find out what happened to the only person he can trust in this wasteland while wielding zombie powers to fend off his enemies. As if a hail of meteors reducing the earth to a barren wasteland wasn’t bad enough, the devastation released a mysterious virus that resurrected the dead. Ravaged by fire from the sky and the dead below, only a fraction of the human population remains, largely clustered into small outposts where power-hungry opportunists capitalize on the chaos.
Hands On
From my preview of playing DeadCraft and chatting with the developers as we are going through the demo, I enjoy every moment of the game from the combat to crafting and farming for materials. There will be tons of content with up to 30 hours of the storyline but also if you are like me and want to do all the side quests and explore every part of the game, you are looking at up 50 hours in total of gameplay. The combat is smooth and fun there are also finishing moves that you can do similar to the ones you can do in Mortal Kombat like a fatality.
Limited Resources
Crafting is experimental in a way because you can grow your food in a way using water just like any other farm, but you can also use zombie blood to water the crops to grow into something mysterious. However, whatever you craft there are some consequences as you play. One example being is that if you become 100% zombie, you are much stronger but you won’t be able to enter human towns because of these new conditions you happen to have. So there should be sometime a balance between human and zombie mindsets. There will be a bar as you play that tells you how far human or zombie you have become and that will determine what quests you get and how you progress through the storyline.
Open-Ended
A few other things I learned from playing the demo, there are some side missions in the game where you can get extra rewards by helping people but also you can decide not to help them and just steal the reward from them but there is a catch, just like in Grand Theft Auto when you steal something or commit a crime you get wanted stars, well in this game you can get wanted stars also from murdering people in the town.
Reputation Levels
When this happens the entire town will come after you and try to kill you so you can either destroy the town and the people or you can just run away and wait a couple of days to cool down the wanted level, just know when you have the wanted level you won’t be able to go back into town because they will attack you on sight until it is cool down so that means you can’t domain missions or any other side missions.
Different Editions of DeadCraft
The title will be available for purchase for $24.99 for the standard edition, and $39.99 for the Digital Deluxe edition which includes two DLC adventures in addition to the core game. A special pre-purchase discount will be available on the Nintendo eShop beginning today, with the standard edition discounted by 10% and the Digital Deluxe edition discounted by 15%. This same discount will be offered across all platforms when available and through May 29, 2022.
Deluxe Edition
The Deadcraft Deluxe Edition includes two DLC packs, “It Came from the Junkyard” and “Jessie’s Wasteland Wares”, both of which will arrive post-launch. “It Came from the Junkyard” pits Reid against a new threat named Revenant, whose sights are set on Ark. In “Jessie’s Wasteland Wares,” players will step into the shoes of eccentric nurse Jessie as she sets up shop to raise funds for her beloved lady Duna. DLC packs will also be offered individually for $7.99 each upon release.
Key Takeaways
A few things I love about this game is the amount of crafting you can do for both the human and zombie crafting tree either from improving your home base or when you go venture out into the wasteland doing missions. Another part I love is the combat; it is fun in a way like the diablo game playstyle where I can use different types of melee and ranged weapons to either fight the zombies or maybe go on a rampage in a human town to steal all the resources.
Team Choice Award
I believe the game deserves the award from us, as the Team Choice, because this is a game that is coming to multi-platforms and can be enjoyable by everyone interested in playing it. There is also a demo which you can download and play now to experience some part of the game, many games don’t have a demo. Releasing a demo before the game release can build up some hype for a game but it can also give us a chance to see if this game is something a player will enjoy playing. This is a game that can be enjoyed by many gamers or even find new gamers to a new genre of gaming.
Final Thoughts
The game is fun and crafty, and I enjoy every moment of the game from the unique world with zombies and humans but also the amount of crafting we can do to survive the tarnished world. and I can’t wait for the release day to play more of the game and uncover more of the story behind the virus and where I can find my friend. If you love an open-world survival-action RPG game with some crafting and a wide arsenal of different fighting styles then DeadCraft is the game for you, the demo is now available on all platforms showcasing the game’s setting, characters, and unique gameplay mechanics.
DeadCraft will be coming to Windows PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series, and Nintendo Switch on May 19th, 2022.
