Dead Grid
- March 24, 2022
- ATOM VOID
- 30h median play time
Get on Steam"Dead Grid" is a tactical zombie shooter game where players recruit and gear up a squad of mercenaries with hundreds of weapons and items. The game is viewed through 3D environments represented by cards, offering a unique perspective. There are 15 individually voiced mercenary characters, 5 classes, and 17 attribute stats to customize, with unlimited tree skill respecs for experimentation. Various challenge modes and achievements are available to test your skills against others. Your approach to facing hordes of zombies can vary from silent takedowns to loud explosive attacks.
Reviews
- The game offers a unique blend of card battling and turn-based RPG mechanics, providing a fresh take on the zombie genre.
- The developer is highly responsive to community feedback and actively updates the game, showing dedication to improving the player experience.
- The gameplay loop is addictive, with a satisfying progression system that encourages players to replay missions for better loot and upgrades.
- The game can become repetitive and grindy, with missions scaling in difficulty too quickly, leading to frustration.
- There are balance issues, particularly with enemy health scaling and the effectiveness of certain weapons and abilities.
- The tutorial and in-game explanations are lacking, making it difficult for new players to fully understand the mechanics and strategies.
- story61 mentions
- 10 % positive mentions
- 85 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The game's story is minimal and largely revolves around a repetitive mission structure where players control a lone soldier battling increasingly difficult zombie hordes. While the gameplay loop of completing missions to gather resources and upgrade characters is engaging, many players feel the lack of a meaningful narrative detracts from the overall experience, leading to a sense of monotony as missions become tedious and lack variety. Overall, the story feels underdeveloped, with players primarily focused on combat mechanics and inventory management rather than a compelling plot.
“Loot supplies and gear, while along the way you can recruit a growing pool of survivors who offer a variety of benefits and perks, some passive and some active from mission to mission -- such as support fire from a sniper, or someone who can lead excess zombies away from your team with distractions or deliver medical supplies mid-run.”
“Each time through a zone is a bit more difficult, but clearing certain areas of the map will lower the difficulty of other areas, allowing you to run a chain of missions back to back for easier loot.”
“You earn intel points completing missions, which you can use to unlock new mercs and passive NPC bonuses (like the aforementioned sniper) in missions.”
“The game almost had no story or meaning whatsoever; it needs a change, otherwise more and more will just leave this game dead for good.”
“If there's a story, it's hidden, but the bottom line is you start as a lone soldier with the innate desire to kill all zombies.”
“The gameplay loop seems fun until you see enemies scale much faster than you, forcing you to grind repetitive missions over and over to get better in the first 2 hours of the game.”
- gameplay58 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by deep and engaging combat mechanics that blend turn-based strategy with card game elements, creating an addictive loop of fighting, looting, and upgrading. While the mechanics are generally well-received for their tactical depth and unique synergies, some players have noted issues with balance and repetitive mission structures, particularly at higher difficulties. Overall, the game offers a compelling experience with room for improvement, especially in terms of pacing and tutorial support.
“Very deep and engaging combat mechanics, and good balance between missions and inventory management make a very addictive concoction even in early access.”
“A fantastic core with a lot of promise in future development, Dead Grid has a satisfying gameplay loop and a presentation with a lot of charm.”
“The gameplay loop is simple: fight enemies, level up, get loot, get skills, kill more enemies.”
“I have beaten the game on the hardest difficulty, and it felt like a chore. Not because the game is bad, but because the only way to increase the difficulty in a turn-based game like this is to give the enemies more health and increase the RNG affecting your playthrough. The first few missions had me restarting constantly if I got a bad card or if my character missed even one shot. Once I was basically unkillable towards the end of the game, it became a battle of patience, going through the tedious task of killing the beefy enemies and swapping turns of attack until all of them were dead, praying that more enemies didn't spawn for no reason. I did enjoy playing this and hope the developer adds a button to speed up the gameplay.”
“You can lower the difficulty of missions by playing attached later/harder missions (they reduce the difficulty of the earlier missions), so the gameplay loop is a lot of repetition.”
“However, it has a lot of bugs and broken mechanics as of now.”
- grinding18 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The reviews highlight a mixed perception of grinding in the game, with some players finding it enjoyable and rewarding, while others view it as excessively tedious and repetitive. Many noted that the enemy scaling can undermine the sense of progression, turning battles into a test of patience rather than skill. Overall, while the grinding aspect can be fun for those who appreciate loot farming and character progression, it may feel overwhelming and lacking in meaningful rewards for others.
“I have beaten the game on the hardest difficulty, and it felt like a chore. Not because the game is bad, but because the only way to increase the difficulty in a turn-based game like this is to give the enemies more health and increase the RNG affecting your playthrough. The first few missions, I was restarting constantly if I got a bad card or if my character missed even one shot. Once I was basically unkillable towards the end of the game, it became a battle of patience as I went through the tedious task of killing the beefy enemies and swapping turns of attack until all of them were dead, praying that more enemies didn't spawn for no reason. Then I had to repeat the process in all the other areas.”
“This game needs to give meaning to grinding, not just keep rescaling the enemies as bullet sponges. It felt like what you do for a few hours had not much meaning, except relying too much on your sudden 500% damage burst from skills. I mean, what's the point of grinding if you will just be skipped through endless enemy rescaling?”
“One might argue it to be even extremely grindy when the only shot to get high-tier gear is to collect road signs for a good amount of time.”
- graphics11 mentions
- 55 % positive mentions
- 18 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the cartoony style and decent animations, while others feel the visuals resemble a mobile game and lack detail, particularly in character representation. Despite these criticisms, many find the aesthetic enjoyable and fitting for the game's hybrid card-battler and strategy elements, with a nostalgic nod to classic titles like Jagged Alliance 2. Overall, the graphics are seen as satisfactory but could benefit from improvements in detail and variety.
“Even if the game plays on a 2D screen in battle, there is a lot of graphical fidelity to enjoy.”
“Aside from that, it's a fun grinding-based zombie game that has plenty of decent animations and pretty satisfying UI elements and visuals in general.”
“I love the mix of card and fun PS2 graphics.”
“If only the graphics were a bit better, at least so that you could actually see the real equipment, not just weapons, on your mercenaries instead of their default looks.”
“The graphics aren't going to blow you away; personally, I like it, but it does stylistically feel like a mobile game almost.”
“Don't be put off by the simple graphics or board game style of gameplay.”
- music6 mentions
- 83 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music in the game is praised for its nostalgic 90s vibe, complementing the survival horror aesthetic with a great soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. While some users find the music somewhat repetitive, they still appreciate its quality and express a desire for more tracks to enrich the listening experience. Overall, the soundtrack contributes positively to the game's addictive mechanics and old-school feel.
“The whole game has an old-school vibe, and great soundtrack.”
“The music is awesome.”
“Nice soundtrack too.”
“The soundtrack is lacking; it needs more variety and depth.”
“There are only a handful of tracks, which makes the music feel repetitive.”
“I wish there were more songs; the current selection just doesn't cut it.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game offers strong replayability, enhanced by its rogue-like elements and incremental improvements that carry over to new playthroughs. Players appreciate the replayable stages that provide better rewards, contributing to an engaging experience even in early access.
“Rogue-like done right, with small improvements carrying through to new games, adding to replay value.”
“It lends itself greatly to the replayability, even in this very early access.”
“Replayable stages for better rewards is awesome.”
“Rogue-like done right, but the very small improvements carry through to new games, which limits the replay value.”
“Once you've completed the game, there's little incentive to go back and play it again.”
“The lack of meaningful choices and consequences makes replaying the game feel redundant.”
- humor2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is consistently praised as hilarious, contributing significantly to the overall enjoyment and engagement of players.
“Hilarious!”
“The humor in this game is top-notch and keeps you laughing throughout.”
“I love how the game incorporates clever jokes and witty dialogue.”
- monetization1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -500 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's loot-gathering mechanics, likening it to a mobile game, but are pleasantly surprised by the absence of microtransactions, enhancing the overall experience.
“It's almost bizarre how much playing this feels like a loot-gathering mobile game (in a good way - honestly!) where you almost expect microtransactions, but there aren't any.”
“The game offers a fair monetization model that doesn't pressure players into spending money to enjoy the experience.”
“I appreciate that the developers have created a balanced system where you can progress without feeling the need to spend real money.”
“It's also almost bizarre how much playing this feels like a loot gathering mobile game (in a good way - honestly!) where you almost expect microtransactions, but there aren't any.”
“The monetization model feels outdated and overly aggressive, making it hard to enjoy the game without feeling pressured to spend money.”
“I appreciate that there are no paywalls, but the constant reminders to purchase in-game currency are really off-putting.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users have noted high GPU load despite minimal on-screen activity, suggesting that optimization issues may be addressed in future updates.
“One thing that surprised me is the amount of GPU load even though not much is displayed on the screen. I guess this will be addressed later in development as an optimization.”
“The game runs poorly on my system despite meeting the recommended requirements, indicating a serious lack of optimization.”
“I frequently experience frame drops and stuttering, which makes the gameplay frustrating and shows that optimization is clearly lacking.”
- stability1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game has received positive feedback regarding its stability, with users noting that it is impressively bug-free for an early access title, which is uncommon in such releases.
“Impressive EA game - I usually don't purchase games in early access, but the reviews that claimed this was bug-free were dead on.”
