I am at around day 60-something. I think I restarted once or twice in the early game, and then got serious.
Overall - great idea and a reasonably good implementation of the idea.
What is great:- Overall story.
- Dialogue.
- Seems to be meaningful choices/crisis events.
- Ally personalities
- the data messages (although the scramble mini-game gets dull after a while)
I love the way that the "mini-story" of what happened on each map isn't spelled out in text, but rather visually... figuring out that this guy crawled off to die, or this guy made a last stand, etc ... very well done.
Areas that can use some more love/investment:The inventory interface, trading interface, car trunk interface - I spend way, way too much time on these screens, and it is painful. The weight limit, while it makes sense, forces me to continuously balance my inventory.. so... one or the other - either drop the weight limitation, and thus I won;'t need to spend too much time here (bad idea), or dramatically improve the User Experience/UI of these screens.
Combat options - too limited... for a game that seems to be like 80% combat, we need more tactical abilities like over-watch/reaction fire, some basic cover mechanic, zones of influence/attacks of opportunity, etc. ... right now its just run up to each other and smash, smash, smash or shoot, shoot, shoot...
Automatic weapons - SMG/assault rifles need rebalacing.
Non-ally NPCs with dialogue - There are allies, who you can talk to, and then a very limited number of other NPCs - I found the two militia bases and the summer camp... other than that, everyone just attacks, with the rare occasion of survivalists who say "one step closer and I attack"... it would be nice if there was the ability to talk/negotiate, something. Like, talking to the starved soldiers in the hospital, or the clerk who was locked in the shop, or those 8 soldiers in the bomb shelter... they may not become allies, and I might not even be able to resolve peacefully, but, just having them start shooting is too shallow... some kind of dialogue, which may always end in violence... something...
I would like to have seen a research and the build tree, like the old X-COM... or at the very least something to enable me to make bullets more effectively.
For Dead State 2 - I would love to see the ability to negotiate with other factions, trade, peace/war, etc.
Overall pacing needs work - the first 14 - 21 says are awesome, but after that, everything is built, and its go to map, travel, fight, scavenge, sleep, rise/repeat, with a few events smattering in the middle, but mostly allies asking for a day off.
Zombies stop beings scary pretty early on... they are like an environmental element to watch out for, but really, no threat... not one of my people ever got infected, much less killed by one.... and on the flip side, they take like 3 hammer hits to kill... gets kind of tedious. These guys need to be scarier, and at the same time, when they aren't going to be a major factor ... its silly that I have to hit them 3 times
The really bad:Enemy AI, specifically the human enemies, is too simplistic. After a while it becomes annoying just how dumb they are.
The long wait when the enemies are taking their turn - that whole thing is taking way, way, too long ... it badly needs some performance improvements.
Some maps, like the hospital lag/stutter something fierce... and I have a pretty powerful machine, video card, etc.
At the end of the day, it kept me engaged for 100 hours, which is high praise.... but at the same time, the last 20 hours were a slog, and I don't think I have the energy to get to the end...