During these Christmas holidays, Clamoune and I took a tour in the post-apocalyptic world of Dead Maze, a new free-to-play 2D isometric MMO available in beta on Steam.
The creation of the character is quite simple, three styles of tops, pants and shoes, combined with colors for hair, skin and clothing. The story begins with a short scripted intro that can only be played solo. In the near future, a gigantic wave has crashed onto shores around the world, resulting in millions of deaths. But this was only the beginning of the catastrophe because the dead did not remain inanimate, they rose up, contaminated by an ancient evil coming from the bottom of the sea, covering the world with a second much more terrible wave: zombies !
My character is, at the time of the events, far from the coasts and towns, in a forest. I discover the controls, requiring to switch my keyboard to American and, at the same time, the 2D decor in which my character evolves with rigid animation always presenting only one side on the screen. Unaware of what is happening as a character, only waiting for that as a player, I witness the attack of the first zombies cheerfully puffing up my fellow travelers. Listening only to my instinct for survival, I fled in a great moment of heroism ...
The story resumes six months later, governments have collapsed and survivors, like me, are trying to find their way through the ruins. The missions are linked in small instanced areas accessible from the map that opens by clicking on a bicycle. Once there, it is quite possible, even recommended, to group with other survivors to sweep the area and accomplish its missions.
Zombies are ubiquitous, more or less strong, they do not represent a huge challenge unless they are in large groups. The character attacks automatically with what he is carrying (real weapon or any everyday object picked up such as a book, a board, a tool ...), his arsenal supplemented by two or three special attacks with a reload delay. Note that here the bite is not fatal and the character never really dies. In case of failure, he is content to flee, abandoning all his objects on the ground, it does not seem possible to become a zombie!
There are items all over the place just waiting to be picked up, which can be used for food, hydration, or defense. There are a lot of things, from the very useless like a guitar, to the very useful like a katana to switch to Michonne mode! Food and drink are more or less obvious to find, you have to be careful with these gauges because they can drop quickly. Likewise, keep an eye on the gauge next to the small fire, representing the character's energy. It decreases gradually, and may prevent certain actions from being performed if it is too low. To wind it up, nothing better than a nap by a campfire!
The craft occupies an important place since the hut, a hut lost in the forest serving as HQ, the place where my survivor reappears when she wisely flees the fighting which has become too dangerous. Assembly stations are to be built, to add access to new recipes, asking to collect lots of components by exploring more places while killing more and more gaunt.
At each level, the winnings are to be chosen between three possibilities, generally an item and two bonuses. Objects are very effective, but since everything deteriorates over time, they will only be temporary. On the contrary of the bonuses which, for their part, will permanently affect the power but, at the time, to a lesser extent. Choose wisely!
Resembling a little too much of a browser game in its graphics and its mode of operation, Dead Maze is nonetheless an addictive and promising multiplayer game that will take you, the time of an adventure, into a world like the Walking Dead. . Few multiplayer features for the moment on this beta beyond the possibility of occasional grouping with names to be entered manually. No guild, friend list, group finder ... The most annoying thing concerns the zones, all instantiated, separated by loading screens, which forces us to wait, while the current trend is more to a large open world. Despite everything, the game is worth the detour, especially since it will be offered for free. A final question therefore arises concerning the content of the store, not yet integrated into the game. Interested? You can register for the beta on the official website, we may have some keys for you very soon!
