Dead Frontier: Outbreak

Think you described it enough, Kyle?

We are a review site, Cyberjar. ;)

This is a great idea for a game. Maybe interactive fiction people won't like it, but I find IF too hard and frustrating.

BTW, thank you for pointing out that you can't turn down the sound! I hate that. I like to listen to podcasts while I play casual games.

Good review.

A second thought, after I've died a couple times. A true choose your own adventure allows you to just randomly change the game, and take different pathways. It'd be interesting to see a casual game do that, and it would raise the replay value. Perhaps one option to save the wife, another option to not.

*shivers* Some parts were a bit too gorey for me, but luckily nothing that I haven't seen before so I'll be fine. xD;

Very nice! The colors were a bit redundant, but it matched the music and the setting, so I didn't mind. The voice was okay. I wouldn't sit down and listen to it if I had to, but I wouldn't mind not being able to skip it. Luckily, you could skip the audio by clicking on the screen, but I did that once and accidentally chose an action. Luckily, it didn't get me killed.

Very interesting. The music matched the whole situation, IMO, but maybe some music change at each checkpoint would've been a great idea. I like how some choices weren't really obvious. I had trouble choosing from time to time.

I eventually finished with 'A' for survival and compassion. I also saved the wife. *thumbs up*
I always thought surviving in these situations is interesting. You have to think clearly and try to only make the best choices, but it's also good to have compassion at times. However, you can't let your compassion overcome your reasoning because that will get you killed. It's the same the other way around sometimes, IMO. If you aren't compassionate and try to do things on your own and ditch others for yourself, it could get you cornered w/out assistance.

I'm curious for the sequal. I'm not crazy about it, but this game held my interest for quite a nice 15 or so minutes. :3 I wouldn't mind checking out the sequal when it come out!

I got an A+ for survival and a C for compassion.

...oh god. What have I become? ;.;

I just played it through, mapping out all the options as I went. It held my attention all the way (good writing on the whole).

I would have liked to see a more branched game. In the game you just move from choice-point to choice-point along a linear path. The choose-your-own-adventure books I read as a child were much more open-ended than this game.

I think I know what's wrong with the voice-acting...it sounds as if the narrator is casually relating the story like you would talk to a friend. It's a little too casual for a game about life and death situations.

Yeah, I agree that more branches would have been fantastic. As I was playing, I noticed that there was only one story, really. When you choose a vehicle, it would have been interesting if choosing the sports car affected the story differently than if the motorcycle did, but instead, the story continues with you "on your vehicle of choice."

The same with the weapon. Maybe if you choose the sledge hammer it'll kill big brutes, but you'll get creamed in groups because it's too slow. Or maybe if you chose the crowbar, it would be ineffective against certain enemies for not being able to crack some skulls.

There is a lot of potential here. Hopefully we'll see something like it in a sequel.

But I dug it. I played 'till the end. Can't ask for much more, really.

Dead Frontier: Outbreak Walkthrough
Many of the choices have multiple "safe" answers, but some can affect your final score.

This walkthrough rates an A in Tactics and A+ in Compassion. I haven't managed to get A+ in both in the same game, and I'm not sure if that's possible.

Wow, I really enjoyed that!

I got an A for survival and an A+ for compassion, although some of the choices I made were different from schep's.

IF's are okay for me and, as long as there aren't any "popping" things (which is why I'm wary of Alice is Dead), I'll check this out.

That was scary >.<

I ended up with a A+ in survival and B in compassion. I guess you just can't be compassionate and survive at the same time. :P

eyra

I'll sleep easier knowing that I have the skills to survive an actual zombie outbreak. Phew.

I agree with CyberJar88 - the review seems to contain more text then is the game!

Is this really necessary? Apart from anything else it makes me expect a far more substantive game then I got. It also takes me longer to read, and I suspect some people wouldn't bother to.

You've had a few comments about review length before. I thought I'd add this to the pile because I love this site! But as the reviews get longer I find myself turning to other sources - causal games like this just don't need that much analysis (some more 'arty' ones maybe, but this?)

But since we're discussing this, I'd add the writing isn't particularly good (why does it break the fourth wall to tell us which group we choose is a good choice for example? - this kind of thing should be revealed in how the game works out) and I think I remember a few spelling/grammar mistakes.

Some people just get excited at good games I guess. And although the review was kinda long, they did make sense.

A+ for survival.
E for compassion?!

i got an A for survival, A+ for compassion, AND i saved the wife. yay!

I only meant that the review seemed a little longer than others have in the past.

Long reviews don't bother me - I just skip the analysis until after I've played the game, then I might go back to read that part. But maybe a section of the review should deal with 'tips', like how to switch a game to an English translation, or, for this game, the fact that you could skip the voice acting by clicking the screen.

Ah, and I see by not reading the analysis, I missed that part. That's what I get for being so lazy and such a smartie pants.

I got an "A" in both tactics and compassion, though I don't know why my compassion was so high because:

I liked it overall though.

I really liked this game, although it doesn't have as much replay value as it should. I understand the plot being linear, but it could have branched out a little bit more. I'd love to have more games like it.

I really liked this game. Extra-casual, no dexterity required. Can you post more like it?

Why hasn't someone made a game generator that lets you make choose-your-own-adventure flash games like this?

I'm only on the beginning and already I'm reminded of the book Cell by Stephen King.

And I could only get halfway through that.

So I passed with a A/B. Very nice game. Definitely reminds me of Cell.

I got an A in survival and an F in compassion. Guess I was just too ready to bash in some skulls and leave everyone to die. I didn't find it gorey, really, just descriptive, although when I cut off my wife's hand, it sort of got to me. All in all, I liked it, and played it several times seeing what scores I could get.

"Take a shortcut through the cornfield" NO! I'm already in a zombie movie, I'm not reliving Children of the Corn.

Great game :)

when presented with the answer " take a short cut through the corn field", i said knew somthing bad from looking at pic from left 4 dead. anyway, great game. i wish it would be more like the real choose your own adventure games.

Nice. A little less gory and realistic than I usually like my games (and films), but it was easy to get into and entertaining to play. Also good to see there are more than one "right" outcomes possible (the first time I did everything right and ended up hanging myself anyway.) Only thing I'd add is a bit more gameplay time. And a lot more gore, of course.

I kept dying repeatedly because I was apparently being too compassionate. I kept stopping to help everyone and got 'hands on' in trying to aid them. After dying a dozen times, I instead ditched trying to help anyone and just pick the answers I thought would get me through the game.

So I ended up with an A for survival but an 'F' for compassion! To add insult to injury, it called me sick in the end, that I didn't care about anyone but myself and my own survival. LMAO! That was hysterical. I did TRY to help! LOL!

A for survival, B in compassion. I would have got higher in compassion, but once I chose to, for example

Nice game. I got B I think in tactics but A+ in compassion. I do have a wife IRL so no way I'd kill her :P Nah, jk. I actually got F in compassion XD

welll hahaha ! i got a+ in tactics and a f on compassion it sayed: "You're self centered, homicidal son of a bitch who would do literally anything to save your own skin"

it was good, but showed the linearity of it when

Good, but lots of room for improvement. Like, the thing people have pointed out about the linearity. Those are factors, but what bugs me the most is how he says everything n this BIG, DRAMATIC, turn-the-sound-off kind of way. Even the little things like "It started like any other day..." were voiced in this "Buh buh bumm" kind of way. Also, every new screen started with a really loud (compared to the rest of the volume) buuuuuummmmm type noise, like the kind you make by falling asleep on a creepy, haunted house organ. Overall, good game. Most of my peeves were in:
-How I was judged. I can't seem to find what the game thinks is a healthy balance between super-nice compassionate type who dies trying to help people & crazy, homicidal, evil maniac who will let anyone die if he can save his own skin.
-The sound. BIG NO-NO. The 2nd one fixed this big-time, & hired a less drama-queen voice actor.
-The choices of death were odd. Like, I felt like some should be swapped. Like I know even in realistic zombie films & stuff, zombies are always pretty darn slow. That's why they SHUFFLE toward you! Despite that basic gore-lover knowledge, the game insists that I will live if I sneak out a back way, NOT if I do the logical thing & sprint outside.
A good game, just needed some tweaking. I didn't notice anything that wasn't at least improved on in #2. Bye ;p

Umm... when you say menu do you mean the game menu or the eating menu? LOL.

I had an A for Tactics and an A for Compassion. Yay me! :D

The ending... well... it's like a classic zombie flick type of ending...

The sound is kinda uncontrollable. But it's a good game overall.

They need to have more games like this!! :D

Finished with an A+ in Tactics and Compassion...

I ran into a few examples of "adventure game logic" with only one answer and a bit of railroading.

It could have also done with a little bit of info on whether the zombies were lurchers or runners.

The rest was brilliant.

Honestly, some of those decisions are sound. The character is just stupid. For example, the very first zombie you come across? I'd kill it. Then instead of going right up to the woman, I'd stand back and be ready to kill her. No sense in her screams of terror attracting MORE undead

Another example is going around the vehicles. It's the moron's fault for not paying attention and crashing. You go at a safe, reasonable speed

Although I admit that it was stupid of me to leave the house right away instead of searching. I thought that it was serious about her leaving, and was pretty PO'd about the suicide part. But yeah, I admit that leaving the house again instead of securing it for a bit, if only to get supplies, was a bad move

Also, the game was horribly misleading with the, "Which group?" choice. I thought that the coworkers were going to help the man who was with the police, so it seemed like a stupid choice to go with them at first

This should equal an A in tactics and an A+ in compassion.