My thoughts on H1Z1

[Guest]

Hey,

 

Few people have asked me my opinion on H1Z1 as it's all they're seeing me play on Steam at the moment. I've put some dotpoints below and please note i've sepereated what's broken from what is bad as they're two different things

 

What's good?

• Planetside engine - coming from nearly 1500 hours in DayZ (Epoch mainly) I was used to dodgy combat where you hit something and 15 seconds later it bleeds. This game is pretty good as far as that goes. (see below in what's broken)
• Crafting system - The crafting system in this is far superior to 7DTD in my opinion. 7 Days gives you a slab of darkish text on a darker background and expects you to know what you're doing. H1Z1 works off of discovery meaning recipies that you can craft are unlocked as you go. You can go to the discovery tab of your inventory, click a few items and see what you make. It also greys out anything that won't work together and tells you if an item you'd need is missing. This means that you can progress from a basic character with a simple bow out to an advanced player learning how to build bases and animal snares.
• Loot spawns - the loot spawning while broken is accurate. You'll find meds in the bathroom cabinets, a handgun in the desk and a crowbar in the garage. 
• Terrain - unlike DayZ, the terrain in this does not kill you if you step on something.

What's bad?

• No friend system - I don't know if this is something that will be added soon however at present there is no way to tag someone as friendly and have them identified differently against other players. This makes for interesting confrontations when most characters look the same.
• The community - as the game strongly resembles Rust, in the first few hours I was murdered 3 times without warning. 
• Gloomy - to me the game seems constantly dark and it can become quite dreary to play.
• Shooting distance - coming from DayZ where I could shoot at up to 1500M, this game tends to render players as black boxes beyond 300M and you can't make anything out at about ~500M. 
• Don't bother buying the premium version on Steam - doesn't really give you much.

 

What's broken?

• Loot spawning - currently loot only spawns on restart and then it's a rush to find stuff. This doesn't really effect me as most servers go down at 1AM PST which is about 8PM ADST and come up a few hours later after maintenance
• Combat - Zombies have an issue where sometimes in melee combat they'll fall to the ground as if dead but then slide around on the ground and attack you.
• Terrain generation - I've come across a few houses that haven't been correctly placed in relation to the land around them but it's not a major issue.
• Food and hydration - the game works off of 4 counters: health, stamina, food and hydration. Currently you consume far too much food and liquid making it a pain to stay hydrated and fed. Stamina on the other hand seems almost infinite. 

 

Few tips

• use /loc in game (access console via ?/ key) and then use 'M' to activate your mouse. Copy the XYZ heading data into h1z1db.co.uk to find your location
• When spawning in, move all your gear to your waist bag, shred your shirt and pants (right click on them on your body) and craft a satchel: gives you 300 storage and with 4 nails and 4 sticks can be expanded to 1200. 
• Use 1 stick and 1 cloth to make a basic bow. 
• Kill zombies as they have a good chance of dropping dead player loot based on geographical location
• Purified water + blackberries gives you more hydration and some hunger back

I'll add to these four lists as I go.

[brownninja97]

i just dont like it, i dont like the genre, i dont like the community, i got killed by a sheep in runescape.

[Makkusu]

Hey,

 

Just want to tell you I like this post and I want to share some of my experiences.

 

I think the loot spawning depends on the server you are.  I am on a PvP server and loot spawns pretty regularly.  I was able to find a lot of stuff and go back later to the places I looted and there was more stuff to loot. I have a few hours in the game with friends, we are having a good time now that we can actually find things to discover and craft.

 

The community I would not put it under the 'bad' section, it is a personal opinion and should be a 'under consideration' subject.  IMO I love PvP games, I don't mind if someone comes and punched me in the face of tries to kill me as soon as they see me.  That is what I expect and I tend to jump between the 'I am not looking for trouble but I will kill you' player instead of the one that runs at the first sign of trouble because I like combat and jump to 'the bandit' player that will try to back stab player or flat out punch/shoot at them on sight.  I kill people and I get killed but it doesn't bother me, it is an 'open world pvp survival game' and that is how I like to play when I play this games.

 

One thing I think is bad and this is coming from my side as a bandit raider player.  It is way too easy to break into anyone's building right now.  Let me give you my experience and you can add it to any section of you post that you like and I think you should. 1) My 2 friends and I were able to sneak past a gate simply by having one of us crouch in front of it and the others jump over the door, you can also put a furnace and jump on it and over 2) the buildings are really easy to destroy, my 2 friends inside broke every single building to get to the boxes inside with spears and it took them little to no time, same with the gate.  We were in and out in less than 10 minutes I believe.  In the other hand, if the players would of been there, they could use hammers to repair their building as we tried to destroy it.  

 

I don't think that is a good balance since it gives an unfair advantage to bandits/raiders.  At least in Rust (legacy) people needed grenades and explosives to even break into a wood building with metal doors (because wood doors were easy to break with axes).  Even as a 'bad guy' I don't want it to be this easy, so hopefully the devs will implement something to make break ins harder.

 

I have seen players make bases in existing houses.  I think that is awesome, we raided a guy that barricaded himself inside a house and was an amazing experience.  He had furnaces inside in front of the door to take cover from looters, he had barricaded the top half of the front door and the only way in was to prone and he had the top view advantage.  That was the only way in, all the other doors were barricaded with wood panels and furnaces making it impossible to get in and he had an escape from the 2nd floor of the house.  The way you can make other building enforced and use them is awesome.

 

I have all the setting of the game turned up and at least on daytime I don't see any gloomy stuff.  At night it does become kind of foggy for me but it doesn't bother me at all.

 

For hydration and energy, I think you can use boosters pills that you can find in cabinets and that will reduce the drain on both (I think). 

 

'players as black boxes beyond 300M' this really annoys me.  Hopefully this distance issue will be fixed soon, I am just thinking is alpha and all I can do is report.

 

This is a great post and I think more people should read it before they make a decision to buy or pass on this game.   Some players might like it, some don't.  The right decision should be based on what the players likes.  I know my friends and told some flat out to buy it because I know the like this type/style of games and others to not get close to this game cuz they are going to hate it.

[MrBucket101]

I like the game, I love the base building aspect of it all.

I had built a deck and metal shed, metal doors, metal walls, everything. Decked it out with storage containers, dew collector, barbeque and a furnace. Pretty much everything you need to survive in one location.

 

The problem I had was that placing objects on the deck foundation is near impossible. TWICE I placed a building the wrong way and the door was facing the outside wall. Which meant all that time I spent getting materials was wasted. And then I couldn't even demolish the building.

 

I was in an intense shootout at the police station when my game crashed unexpectedly. Logged back in to a fresh spawn. Really frustrating, but I kept all my good stuff inside my base. All i need is to make my way back to the base and get a new gun

[Makkusu]

i just dont like it, i dont like the genre, i dont like the community, i got killed by a sheep in runescape.

 

If you don't like the genre then it is an easy decision for you to make, and if you don't like the community then it is easier.  Why pay for a game you know you are going to hate AND it will be F2P when the first official release is made? 

 

There are a lot of people that are on the fence about the game.  $20 for me is not an issue but I know for many it might be.  I liked the game and I have a group of friends that play it and we have a great time.  I am the black sheep of the group and I love it.

[brownninja97]

If you don't like the genre then it is an easy decision for you to make, and if you don't like the community then it is easier.  Why pay for a game you know you are going to hate AND it will be F2P when the first official release is made? 

 

There are a lot of people that are on the fence about the game.  $20 for me is not an issue but I know for many it might be.  I liked the game and I have a group of friends that play it and we have a great time.  I am the black sheep of the group and I love it.

i didnt pay for it, im using teh steam sharing stuff from my brothers account, he plays it with his friends, my friends are diehard bf4 fans, while the concept is interesting im not into the trolling thing and i have a low tolerance for glitches etc

[VortexS]

Great post, I was looking for a nice and detailed breakdown. Based on your thoughts I will wait for a while before playing this game.

[Makkusu]

i didnt pay for it, im using teh steam sharing stuff from my brothers account, he plays it with his friends, my friends are diehard bf4 fans, while the concept is interesting im not into the trolling thing and i have a low tolerance for glitches etc

 

Then definitely don't pay for it.  If for some reason you want to play it, wait for launch when it goes F2P.  

[TheGFactor]

I absolutely love this game. The developers are fixing and addressing issues left and right. I like where its going.

[GrimNeo]

I'm not into early access stage games at all. Waste of time and they will take their time releasing it.