Dysmantle Preview (Steam Early Access)
As you ascend from your shelter after the long long years, a brave new old world awaits you. A world inhabited with nasty and vile creatures. A world with no other human soul to be seen. A world with nature in reigns now. A world that’s about to get even worse.
Pros:
- Decent graphics.
- 430mb Download size.
- Controller support.
- Graphics-fullscreen, graphic presets (low/medium/high and auto-detect), resolution, render scale slider, particle detail, FXAA anti-aliasing, bloom filter, and dynamic shadows.
- Gameplay settings-screen shake, freeze frame effect, text show duration slider, tutorials, rotate mini-map, temperature units, clock format, run toggle, and game log events and auto-lock enemies.
- Can rebind controls for both keyboard and the controller.
- Four save slots.
- Skippable cutscenes.
- In-game cutscenes.
- A 3D world with full camera control.
- Tutorial icons.
- Survival gameplay.
- Break items to get exp and crafting materials.
- Upgrade your gear so you can break bigger and stronger items.
- Camp-manage inventory and upgrade gear. Will replenish health but also respawn all enemies.
- Earn EXP from putting materials into the inventory chest at camp.
- Everything has a health bar and shows the damage done.
- Medals-kind of like achievements in that they are awarded once you have done milestones like walk X amount of miles or upgrade a weapon so far, each has a counter of progress.
- Find points of interest and fill in your log.
- Bestiary that shows details on all encountered enemies.
- Progress bar along with total time played.
- It all runs very smoothly.
- Can craft with items in the inventory.
- Collectible radio shows to listen to.
- Play how you want.
- Can interact with the world like open/close doors or search through cupboards and fridges and the like.
- Death-you drops everything but can come back and loot your body. You respawn at the last camp used.
- Combat-uses a lock-on system with heavy and light attacks.
- Link towers–activate to fill in the map. You can unlock gates from the link towers.
- Massive map.
- Uses a lot of the mechanics found in a Dark Souls type game.
- Save and exit.
- Earn EXP and level up to unlock new skills via the massive skill tree that covers outfits, supplies, tools, and miscellaneous. When leveling up you can also get a choice of 3 new skills/abilities.
- Big boss battles.
- Enemies will have an alert bar and fill up as they see or hear you.
- Dark Souls inspired zombie survival game.
- Absolute time killer.
- New enemies are unveiled over time.
- You can hunt wildlife, gather from the wilderness.
- Craft new weapons and items.
- The world changes as you get new abilities.
- Addictive.
Cons:
- You drop everything into the inventory chest.
- You will spend ages breaking and storing everything as it has exp attached to it.
- Can’t zoom into the map.
- When you are not upgraded enough to break something it keeps banging that text up on the screen.
- You never feel sure as to what you can and cannot break.
- Enemies hit way too hard at the start.
- No Steam achievements.
- Camps are not just discovered and used, you have to be so far in the story for it to unlock or do a specific task.
- Very slow and sloppy combat at least at first it is.
Summary
When I initially booted up DYSMANTLE, I honestly thought it was just another 3rd person open-world survival game with crafting, zombies, and the like. It’s really not for after you realize what the game is going for, so much of it makes sense. The enemies hit hard, your weapon is shit and you think it’s just the devs way of keeping the game going or extending its life but it’s like that as it encourages strategy, it encourages patience and countering, all words used to describe Dark Souls combat and for good reason. Dysmantle takes a lot of inspiration and ideas from the Dark Souls series and to a very good level. Yes, it’s a 3rd person open-world survival game but when you mix in Dark Souls combat and Dark Souls death system (die but leave your loot which can be retrieved) you have a game that is a lot more immersive to play. You have an overall goal which is to survive and escape but along the way, you will pick up optional side quests with rewards. Having the world how it means it’s a richly diverse world. The whole place is uncovered as you play, campsites serve as your one-stop-shop for sleeping, crafting, leveling up, and sorting inventory. You find link towers that first off reveal the map but then also act as fast travel points. Boss fights occur as they are the breadcrumbs used to move the story along. Oh and worth mentioning that like Dark Souls, whenever you use the camp and heal, the enemies respawn. Enemies come in many disgusting mutations but they all can be killed and also are open to stealth attacks thanks to their alert monitor above their heads, combat initially was horrible but I got used to hitting dodge combos and stealth one-shots. The game is some of 10 tons of best work and for me is their best game yet. Sure it needs work like a better more cohesive tutorial and the campsites are either too close together or too far apart but overall it’s a game with a lot of rewards. Everything needs to be learned earned or crafted from building a new weapon to cooking to fast travel and gathering. It sounds stupid but the game and how it is paced really suits this way of drip-feeding the content. I had to physically stop myself from playing because after many hours it just kept going and going and I almost zoned out into this cycle of exploring a new area collecting materials then resting than doing it again and finding campfires. It’s a dangerous game in that fact because it is so easy to lose yourself. It may be early access but they have a fine product as it is and it can only get better. This is a zombie survival game I wanted, one full of danger and really knows how to amp it up as every encounter needs to be carefully executed or its game over, the rewards keep you going and keep on opening new things. It’s almost like a single-player MMO in so many ways. The verdict is that DYSMANTLE 10 tons best work and is an absolute delight to play.
