Alright here we go.
TLDR: Good game, leaves you severly wanting in every reguard, just as much as it is every zombie game in one, in a way. You can afk in spawn, or jump up on top of spots, where zombies cannot reach you, and simply wait for your teamates to do all the work. You are not penalized, you are not affected by the fact you aren't scavaging, because there's no real reason too. getting infected and the suicide button this game is acclaimed for, is actually worthless, and not at all fun. You get near a zombie? you get sick. you need pills or a cure. Pills are everywhere, but they aren't? and you can suicide, or you can turn and spectate your teamates killing you effortlessly when you try to have a bit of fun. all and all no reason for suicide or being infected, it just makes you annoyed.
I love how it's everything, and nothing. it has beats from hunt show down, left for dead, dead island, and even dying light with the atmosphere and flashlight running out, and various parkour jump exploits that even I've found just playing the game. the only problem is none of these are actually expanded upon. it's an extraction, but you don't get to keep ♥♥♥♥. so whatever you find is in the end kinda pointless. there is no invintory, just character and perks.
This game needs an invintory, it needs skins, and to keep attachments on exit. Make higher dificulties reward better skins, but don't have the skin give any attributes. this way, i still have the same gun as anyone who just started playing, but the skins, invintory i have, account level, character level, and gunskin with attachments seperates myself from that early player. ALso, the limit of three slots, and 20 extra bullets per gun is good. not being able to buy certain rifles, is good. I should want to feel a progression for playing and scavaging in the game, rather than be able to simply afk at my spawn, until my teamates beat the game for me, and run through the barren map to extraction and gain all the same rewards as if i had been with them. Adding skins while making sure they don't add anything extra is a great way to get people to praise your game for adding skins, without microtransactions that are scummy, and keeping it fair and balenced for all players on the board, leading to more sales, more funds, balh blah blah.
i'm dissapointed in the infection system, i am. Everytime i'm infected, i go "aaaughhhh pills? pills?" it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid. to have this system, and enough for each player to have 2 bottles of pills, it removes the suicide option. especially since you get absolutely nothing from it.
So limit 1-2 people to be infected, 1-2 mins for first stage, then 30 sec of blurry vision, then a third stage of hallucinations, which could range from 1 second to 3 mins, rng based, and the fourth a constant 30 seconds with red veins. It adds more panic and stress, as anyone could turn at any moment, and suddenly become a super sprinter. Also, give the turned infected, double speed, double health, and make him an absolute monster. It should be unfair, to almost punnish the team for not seeing the subtle signs, or not providing pills. it adds more merrit to the suicide mechanic, which you should give account xp for making the sacrificial play, and only when doing so. Also add a perk that reverts this change, and adds a button to turn at any point, given it's after the second stage. Give xp for each member of your team you kill with that turned, and now you have a fun mafia game inside left for dead. Do you, "a: turn now at an opptertune time using a perk to selfishly gain xp? b: beg for pills and mercy, a now rareer luxury as only 1-2 pills can spawn, and pray they don't kill you themselves. or c: use the suicide mechanic this game is acclaimed for to make the sacrifical play, gain some xp to your account and a good ol feeling in your tummy?
Compare that with this games current options: a: get pills after asking, b: don't get pills and turn, c: killing yourself instead of tunring, even though there's no difference to either.
Way more fun, with more playability, and added way more weight to the options your given as a player for every mechanic, instead of being a simple nuisence. Reguardless, given you do do this, don't change this for survival. survival is perfect the way it is. Speaking of, i think the game is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good.
For new maps, don't. just take the maps you do have and open them up more. There's some buildings you could open up and use for escort missions, or hell, maybe even a search and destroy mission, defenc the zombies off from the nuke or bomb that needs to blow up a building. watch the building explode into pieces as zombie bits fly off, while you run barely enough bullets to even get to the next zone. anyway, just expand on the maps you do have, brainstorm some more ideas and objective based campaigns inside those maps, and add them as their own campaigns, so you can get more from the maps you do have instead of spending resources on new maps. I think the gore and how the zombies work are fine too. Maybe, just maybe, add a little variation to the stages of zombie head exploding. It gets a little borring seeing the same 4 stages of "fine, smashed, broken, eviserated" I shouldn't be able to see all the animations the gore system has to offer in just 20-30 swings, or at the very least have a tiny bit more feel to them, more brains and such. either or i think it's fine for now, just needs a bit of variation. I'm not gonna ask for dead island 2 levels of intensity though.
Also play the game like you don't care about it when play testing. jump up on roofs and cars, jump around, maybe give up and play on your phone, go afk and let your teamates complete tasks. you'll see how broken the animations look, the idle for the guns seem unfinished, having the gun being "inspected" and then brought to the wrong position, to be teleported to the right position. You'll also notice that there's no penalty for waiting around, even in survival, and can extract with all the same benefits with none of the work, which is why games reward you for actually killing zombies for xp, otherwise why bother? I think the lack of modern implimentations for the sake of being old school will ultimately be the downfall, as there isn't much motivation to go for level 100 outside the achievement, and overall makes the whole game feel almost empty and baren. This is probably one of the most creative concepts for a game, and has not been expanded upon, what so ever, and would be a huge shame to watch it simply become nothing more than another fun source mod because it couldn't catch up with the times.
And i'm not saying fortnite fortnite fortnite, i'm saying there's still a way to make it interesting without getting backlash from microtransactions, hell profit off it. Make them scavange for the cool skins, make them have to escort the characters with specific skins, and make it purely cosmetic. Keep the 3 slot limit, and add an extra "attachment" slot, just the one, for a suppressor, maybe a flashlight or a sight, but no more than one, and now i feel like playing the game, instead of celebrating by holding the throw key to throw all of my items off the helicarrier, because it doesn't matter. Because it doesn't even matter if i play the game utilizing perks, or scavenging, when i can afk in spawn and still reap all the benefits from extracting with nothing.
