Zafehouse: Diaries

[Takeda Shingen]

You write the best AARs, Hott. They make me want to play every game you use for them. Fantastic.

[Hottentot]

Since most of my AAR games are from GOG these days, I'll be sure to add "improving your sales on my spare time" on my merit list if I ever apply to work for them.

Hopefully this AAR will be noticed by folks despite of not having a dedicated thread. It's a small project (took only one day to write), but would still be nice.

[Penguin]

Great and well-written AAR, Senor Hottentot!
Though I wonder how much replay value this game has. For example how often certain events repeat itself, or if different strategies have different outcomes.

Originally Posted by Hottentot

...Is better left off for the zombies. Claudia's secret will die with it. We are going to find a way. We'll have to.

Not so easy, mate! Happy endings are only for Hollywood. I imagine the last scene being the helicopter flying into the rising sun, with Fernando sitting in it, all delighted and relaxed - when suddenly Claudia becomes very, very hungry... -> no second part

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

What's wrong with that? Some of the greatest games of all time are text based.

Anyway, the game looks interesting and pretty deep. I might try it sometime, but right now I'm kind of burnt out on the zombie thing.

I like zombie games...but not if they're text based.

I like sneaking around scavenging for food, water, and shelter while trying to survive in a big environment. I know you are going to tell me to play DayZ...but I cannot.

So I have to settle for Dead Island...

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Great and well-written AAR, Senor Hottentot!
Though I wonder how much replay value this game has. For example how often certain events repeat itself, or if different strategies have different outcomes.



Not so easy, mate! Happy endings are only for Hollywood. I imagine the last scene being the helicopter flying into the rising sun, with Fernando sitting in it, all delighted and relaxed - when suddenly Claudia becomes very, very hungry... -> no second part

Failing that, they make it out of the town, and then the helicopter gets taken down by an even bigger zombie, like this:




Great AAR Hottentot, shows you can do serious as well as humourous AARs with great skill.

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Though I wonder how much replay value this game has. For example how often certain events repeat itself, or if different strategies have different outcomes.

At the moment the game is repetitive. It's being patched extensively (see notes here) and patches are adding new stuff like the completely new Road Kill mode that wasn't in the original release. So I'd expect we are getting new content for some time, seeing the game is still relatively new. The randomly generated town also adds surprisingly lot of replay value.

But that doesn't remove the fact, that the basic formula remains the same. For me the biggest thing to add replay value are the characters and their relationships each time, because they make the stories play out different way each time. But that naturally requires imagination to patch up many gaps and holes. As you could see in the AAR pictures when comparing them to the AAR text itself, I made up lots of stuff to spice the story up. The game, for example, does not track mental health or the thirst of the characters, though I wish it would. The last stand in the warehouse, in reality, was quite less dramatic in game terms than what I made it sound like.

Not so easy, mate! Happy endings are only for Hollywood.

Who says it was a happy ending?

What I had in mind was a sudden outbreak of another epidemy in somewhere else due to our dear survivors here not seeing the big picture and being a little too loyal to each other.

Also, thanks for the feedback to all of you who have commented. This was the first time I tried a more serious and dark toned AAR and I'm glad you liked it. I might try something like it in the future, but despair not: that doesn't mean I'm abandoning HMS Hilarious anytime soon.

[CCIP]

I love your AARs however you choose to do them - keep at it!

Again, I have little to add here - the writing is excellent as ever, and you've yet again cost me $10 on gog.com
And IMO, text-based games have the best graphics, just that you need an imagination to power them!