No More Room in Hell is iconic, it arrived around the time zombies were gaining peak popularity and really took the horror and helplessness to a new level.
NMRiH 2 took it and improved it, made it nicer and created an actual game out of it.
I have no idea how the game was in Early Access, I've heard a lot of rough things about the game, but 1.0 released and the game is pretty damn good. It has a few issues, mostly UI bugs and a few animation glitches.
I don't really like how zombies are unable to be knocked back when climbing over obstacles, you can still deal damage and they're effectively stunned while climbing but they just don't react to your attacks at all. A bit lame.
Barricading feels a bit clumsy and pointless when there's 5,000 windows and doors in every area but it still has it's uses. Guns feel pretty good and decently well-balanced. Difficulties need to be locked behind profile level as newbies jump into nightmare difficulty as a level 1, horde all the items, be completely selfish, get people killed and then die themselves. This isn't the type of game where you can just pick up everything and not give anything back. If you don't need ammo or have a surplus of meds, offer them to teammates.
That being said, there are those that sprint off alone like the ADHD that they are, get surrounded and mobbed while the majority of players are still trapped behind and then complain and be frustrated that their team didn't help.
I would say something negative about the rescue beacon, but it's pricey, you keep your character/respawn if you die but you lose your loadout. Incredibly useful for public games where your mileage may vary.
I see people saying that Nightmare is still too easy, to a degree it is but it mostly depends on your 8-man team. With a proper team that sticks together and shares supplies, it can be pretty straight-forward, but in a team where everybody is selfish and nobody attempts to play as a team it can be pure pandemonium. Especially if your team wastes ammo on a single zombie that can be handled without using bullets. I hear there's a harder difficulty being planned/on the way so that's nice.
I think in terms of difficulty adjustment, as difficulty goes up, there should be slightly more ammunition, not considerably less. It ends up becoming a stick together in teams of 8 and just keep wacking the horde till they disappear, which is fine but it seems a bit wacky when you're all stacked up like some meat grinder for the zombies. Definitely feels like there needs to be some fine tuning.
It feels a bit difficult to judge how close I am to a zombie to figure out whether I can hit them or they can hit me. Increased FOV just makes this a whole lot worse.
I wish there would more ways to portray what you want, other than typing or voice chatting. Other players often times won't notice what weapon you have and they may be collecting ammunition to share with the team at some point or for a weapon in the future, so maybe more radial voice-over options that portray to your team what you need?
Outside of that, the skill-system is pretty cool (although I feel lacking in the dopamine department when my last 2 skills require 25 levels each for a single skill. Loadout system is pretty straightforward and relatively balanced although I wish there was a bit more complexity or item upgrades we could have prior to a match. Cosmetics are crazy expensive and they require a high profile level, but it's fine as an end-game grind beyond your characters.
Uses UE5 which is staggerly unfortunate, but they seem to have ditched the awful UE5 ray-tracing/lighting/rendering non-sense, similar to what Arc Raiders did so the game looks and runs fine but has some hallmark issues of UE5.
It's nice to have a multiplayer/hardcore zombie game again where the zombies are an actual threat and you're not some insane action hero with infinite ammo. Makes surviving tough situations feel really rewarding.
The character voice-lines whenever something worth mentioning happens is really interesting. Coming across other survivors that have died and re-animated, finding other players in the map for the first time, running low on ammo etc. all have unique voice-lines and the attention to detail from the first game has been improved.
There is a solo-mode but no progression so if you don't have a single friend and the game dies you basically can't play the game properly. Not really sure why they're stubborn about this, maybe because they don't want a single person taking up the bandwidth for an entire server, but is there really a big difference between 1 or 2 players? I understand it's a team-based experience and it's not really recommended or intended for solo play, but just let the people have their fun in solo. It does get frustrating sometimes playing with a team so just let people have what they want.
TL;DR - Good game, runs fine (although is UE5), can be difficult depending on how selfish your team is, requires a good amount of teammwork, has hardcore characters but an expensive safety-item to prevent your character from being deleted on death, has some interface issues, animation weirdness, a few bugs here and there but is definitely worth the money. Solo mode is a thing, but progression doesn't save. Experience can vary depending on team.
