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The year is 2011, and a terrible infection has spread across the United States.

The infection was airbourne as well as highly contagious. Symptoms were similar to the flu, including high fevers, vomiting, coughing, as well as a general weakening of the immune system. Due to this epidemic, the US began to collapse. Hospitals were overrun with infected patients, plants and livestock began to perish, which led to the economy's failure. All of the military bases were facing difficulties trying to quarantine the disease, even failing to stop the infection from spreading within their own ranks. There seemed to be no answer, and no cure...

But the worst was yet to come.

It was roughly a week before those who were unfortunate enough to become infected began to show enormous amounts of hostility to family, freinds, and strangers alike. This single infection brought down the entire USA from the inside, as its own citizens were murdering each other out of an unexplained rage.

It's been four weeks since the infection began. Those who were neither killed nor infected have held out and survived in shelters in cities, towns, and rural areas using any means necessary.

Now, follow the story of two survivors as they attempt to survive Hell on Earth.


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Featured! I can die happy now...

I can't believe it! I'm at a loss for words. This has been my dream since joining RMN.

Infection is featured! And on the day after Halloween, it's so perfect. Thank you so much!

To everyone that has made this game possible I'm so grateful. To everyone who has supported, reviewed or left a comment I thank you all very much. My dream has come true and I'm incredibly happy about this. :D

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Posts

InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
author=Marcus
Oh, well I got it some time last night, 3 in the morning ish....but then I'm in Australia so that might be 4 in the afternoon for you? I assume you're in America?
Yes, I am in America! :D

author=sabin1981
I've been trying it out and I'm not sure whether it's just me being unlucky, but man oh man this is a brutally difficult game. The infected are faster, stronger and more resilient which makes combat a chore and extremely costly ... right to the point where I just don't even bother. I'm forced to ignore pretty much all combat, thus keeping my characters extremely weak, because they simply take too much of a hammering during standard 2-enemy combat and trying to take on 3-enemy combat is downright suicidal.

Also, the music seems to have this "pop" every so often and it can get a bit irritating after a while.

Gameplay and style wise it looks like it could be a blast, once I'm strong enough to take on enemies without losing 50%++ health each time.

~edit~

Okay, I'm about done. Game is above the "challenging" threshold and way into "Yeah, delete" one since it's more than brutally difficult. It takes my two survivors and a dog *three* attack rounds (at the minimum....) to take out ONE infected and now infected are attacking in groups of 3 and 4. The math simply doesn't add up to a fun experience. Not to mention the infect are faster running than I am, so I can't even outrun them to escape.

Good concept though, so thanks anyway =)
I'll respond to you first, but kumada does make a lot of good points on how the game "should" be played.
Anyways, after this recent update to fix the game crashing errors I did a full playtest and messed around with removing several zombies from all areas as well as making some weaker.
I want the game to be difficult but at the same time I want it to be possible, which it is even if you aren't the developer.
Thanks for playing it and giving your opinions though, I hope I'll have addressed most of them in the next update. :)
(I'll also fix the invincible zombies that you and kumada mentioned!)

author=MarroScifo
author=sabin1981
I've been trying it out and I'm not sure whether it's just me being unlucky, but man oh man this is a brutally difficult game. The infected are faster, stronger and more resilient which makes combat a chore and extremely costly ... right to the point where I just don't even bother. I'm forced to ignore pretty much all combat, thus keeping my characters extremely weak, because they simply take too much of a hammering during standard 2-enemy combat and trying to take on 3-enemy combat is downright suicidal.

Also, the music seems to have this "pop" every so often and it can get a bit irritating after a while.

Gameplay and style wise it looks like it could be a blast, once I'm strong enough to take on enemies without losing 50%++ health each time.
I don't hear the popping sound but I did notice that the game is quite hard I wouldn't say brutal though. I got used to the ABS so now making quick decisions is a bit easier but sometimes I make a choice to fast then I get grappled which takes away my initial choice.

I tried out another zombie "adventure rpg" though before I had gotten to into this one and it seems that this one and the other play out as a pure survival game. To be honest though this one plays out more like a survival game than the other, but the concept seems to be revolving around that. It makes it interesting I think, so if you can't seem to find anything good while your going through the city/town then your kind of screwed in the long run.
Yeah, once you get the hang of the battles I wouldn't say they are overly brutal, but I did want them to be hard nonetheless.
And you're exactly right! Part of this game is to be slick and to try to find as many items possible, whether it be health or weapons. It's part of the game!

author=kumada
BUG

The trigger for the dialog "This is perfect. We can rest here. Let's go check out that building" that happens immediately after exiting the sewers remains on the map, and it is possible to trigger it multiple times.

-COMBAT EXPLANATION-

edit: finished the demo. Actually liked it a lot. I enjoy unreasonably difficult games, and this was just on the verge of being challenging enough without being too hard for me. The black-and-white worked really well in most areas, and I genuinely liked the combat system. I did feel like the difficulty fell off sharply after Tend Wounds showed up, but the alternative to having that skill is very careful pacing for item placement, and that would probably be a headache from a development perspective. There are a couple of zombies that do not die when their encounters are finished, but otherwise I found myself relatively immersed in the setting. You've done really good work here, InfectionFiles.
Thanks for the bug reporting, I'll definitely look into the battles as I mentioned and the recurring dialogue event. :)
And really thanks a lot for the break down of what you thought, I'm glad you enjoyed it overall and that really keeps me going as a developer of a survival horror game, in the end I want the game to be fun for those that can actually take it.
I'm going to/have been really trying to make it fair while still being a challenge, and I think Michelle's healing ability will go down in its "broken" state once I implement more of the game and the infected/enemies get harder.
(but the again, you'll probably have more skills to abuse by then!)

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the support, criticism and you taking the time to play and actually type and send your opinions, it's really helpful!
I'll try my best to address all bugs and by the next release hopefully have a slightly less hard game experience. I'll even look into a "Normal" "Hard" mode when all is said and done for those that want the challenge or don't.

-wipes away tear- makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, and I hope to one day finish this game for everyone to enjoy, or well...hate!

:D

EDIT: Oh! and it might be obvious to people but don't forget to equip your weapons and gear before getting into battles, same goes for when you find new ones, switch immediately to do better in combat!
I don't think Tend Wounds is necessarily broken, just a crutch needed to survive later sections of the game. My biggest gripe with it is that it messes with the game's difficulty curve. Things start off really hard, and then relax a little about half an hour into the game. If this is a design goal, then there's really nothing wrong here. If not, you might want to consider being more generous with scavenging and enemy difficulty in the starting area. I think slightly toning up exp gain from encounters and item placement on maps might do a lot to smooth out the difficulty if you do end up taking out Tend Wounds, but areas like the park and sewer tunnels are going to be balls difficult without some kind of a healing ability. Maybe, instead of straight up hp recovery, make it trigger a weak regen effect on the character targeted by it? That way it's not quite as abusable, but still provides a valuable edge in combat.

edit: also, a readme would not hurt at all. It might help cut down a little on the initial frustration and confusion of getting whomped by encounters if you give people some of the correct strategy to play the game with.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
I definitely wouldn't take out Tend Wounds, that's for sure. I like having a healing skill, although I might lower its heal rate or take your suggestion and make it a healing dot type deal. (would it make it too much better if I also made it relieve disease condition? or save that for another skill, but it doesn't seem worth it enough for that)

I'll make the infected give more exp probably, I just didn't want them giving too much because it might ruin the difficulty curve.
And I've been thinking about a readme, but I wouldn't want people thinking I'm trying to tell them there is only one correct way to play, otherwise you're screwed, which is true in a way...but you picked it up after all :P
Would you even be slightly interested in writing something up? All your views was pretty much what I was going for anywho.
To be perfectly honest, I tried everything kumuda said. That was exactly how I was playing in the first place -- apart from one thing; kumuda spoke of distributing stat points, which isn't possible in my copy of the game. Level ups are automated and I've found next to no equipment aside from the starting stuff. A couple of new weapons, but none as strong as the starter equip, as well as some running shoes (vastly improved speed) and a military jacket for Michelle.

Adrenaline is a skill that boosts your speed. Activate it at the start of every battle for every character that has it. Likewise, prioritize boosting athletics (which, as I understand it, is the speed stat,) although you should exercise common sense when it comes to major stat tradeoffs. 1 endurance for 10 athletics, definitely do it. 1 athletics for 5 strength, definitely don't.

I mean, this^^ What the heck is that? I've got none of that in my game! What on earth do you do to change 1 endurance for 10 athletics? Are we even playing the same game? :\ Level ups are automated and stat points allocation is automated. The adrenaline skill is only available to Michelle and I use that every so often to boost her attack/recovery speed. Jonathan has an utterly useless skill that does low damage and has *never* caused the Fracture status that it claims to do. Honestly, either I'm playing a copy of the game that doesn't exist -- or I really am the unluckiest jackass because I simply can't do anything right. Healing items are in uncomfortably short supply, infected do significantly more damage than I do, they move faster and what's this about learning a healing skill at level SIX? I'm barely level 3, getting my ass handed to me on a blood-stained silver platter and I'm out of all healing items -- how the hell do I last until lv6? :|

Since nobody else seems to be having a problem, then it's just me. Again. I'm just not cut out for this >_< Thanks anyway InfectedFiles.

~edit~

Sorry, my apologies.. both Jonathan and Michelle have Adrenaline.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
I don't think he was talking about stat allocation, like Jonathan's wedding ring gives him 1 endurance, and it would be a no brainer to use the running shoes for the speed boost over the endurance boost. That's what I got from it anyways. :P

There are a lot of other weapons in the beginning area, some aren't as good as what you start with and some are, just have to find the better ones of the beaten path.
And I usually at some point trade off Michelle's two hander with a two one handers so she can attack multiple infected, if she delivers a killing blow to the first she attacks another.
Hmm, infected should be slower than you, but I'll look into their speed stats and see if I can make it more fair. As for the healing, at some points I think there is too much! Again, if you search all the areas and garbage cans, bottles, etc. you'll have more than enough for awhile. (also I'm going to be releasing a new update soon with less zombies and slower zombies, so it should be more fair to be able to search around the city)
And the experience given has also gone up, although slightly it will help I believe.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong, really. I wanted the game to be difficult and you and some others in the past have proven that it is going to be a challenge, and I'm glad about that in a way.
The reason why the infected are so strong in the beginning compared to you is because they stay around at the same stats while you get stronger, more weapons, etc. So to level them out and make them challenging for the beginning of the game, they start off strong, but slowly get weaker as you get stronger.

Thank you for taking the time, sabin1981! I hope you do enjoy it in some way, and if not yet, try it again in the near future and I think you'll have more fun! :D
Sabin, I definitely meant boosting stats through equips. I did find one consumable that boosted a character's strength, but that was the only thing of its sort I found in the game. Sorry if I said that in a confusing way.

Also, once you get Jonathan a few levels, he learns adrenaline as well as Brutal Blow, which causes fracture.

The way the game is currently built, it's very hard to get to a level where you're self-sustaining, but once you do things become more okay.

InfectionFiles, did you mean you want me to write up a review, or just a quick guide? I could do either. Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with giving players hints about how to play the game effectively. Trial-and-error can be fun for some people, but it can also cause a lot of frustration. I definitely wouldn't use me as a baseline for other players.

Also, there is no real indication in-game of what is searchable and what isn't. It took me until the last five minutes or so to realize that dumpsters had items in them, so if you do write up a readme, you might want to mention something about that. I was item-starved the whole game.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
@kumada- A short review is always nice, people seem to read that stuff more than trying the game out for themselves usually.
But, that's up to you!

I'm thinking about adding a tab on this gamepage which would sort of be a user's manual and I could cook up little pictures of what is searchable, just so players know for certain. (if they care to look)

I forgot to address this, but Jonathan's Strong Kick always seems to work for me as a way to fracture, maybe every now and then it doesn't work, but that's strange.
I'll look into this one too.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the help and advice =) I'll try it again tomorrow, see if I can't push through and try to make some headway. It's just exceedingly difficult at the moment, fighting packs of 3+ infected and I'm stuck at 50hp or so, which means I can barely take out a single pack. I've even restarted twice over and still ended up hitting the same difficulty vs progression wall.
Strong kick has a fracture chance (I think? Maybe it just autos) but I never used it. The damage from using two weapons and attacking instead always seemed to outweigh its usefulness. If it had, say, a fracture chance and a stun chance, it would be a different beast entirely.

A user's manual tab on the game page would be very welcome, and I think would do a lot to improve accessibility.

I definitely can and will write a review, but it might take me a little while, so shoot me with a PM if it isn't up by mid next week.

edit: Sabin, the game is really hard in its present state. Don't sweat it. If you can't access any new healing items and everyone in your party is at around 50 hp, it might be time for a restart.

Things you can do to give you an early-game edge: equip two weapons on the dude, avoid all fights until you get the dog, use maltovs as soon as you have them in any fight of 3 or more zombies, always break grapples, target little girls and ladies first (they seem to have slightly less hp,) and only fight when you absolutely have to (you'll absolutely have to fairly often) until you get Tend Wounds. Don't stay and grind areas. Always push forward to keep yourself supplied with items.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
author=sabin1981
Thanks guys, I appreciate the help and advice =) I'll try it again tomorrow, see if I can't push through and try to make some headway. It's just exceedingly difficult at the moment, fighting packs of 3+ infected and I'm stuck at 50hp or so, which means I can barely take out a single pack. I've even restarted twice over and still ended up hitting the same difficulty vs progression wall.

You want me to send you the revised version that I worked on recently removing all the mentioned bugs as well as lower zombies on screen and most of them being slower, as well as dogs. I also added some nice "secret" treats if you can find them. :)
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
author=kumada
Strong kick has a fracture chance (I think? Maybe it just autos) but I never used it. The damage from using two weapons and attacking instead always seemed to outweigh its usefulness. If it had, say, a fracture chance and a stun chance, it would be a different beast entirely.

A user's manual tab on the game page would be very welcome, and I think would do a lot to improve accessibility.

I definitely can and will write a review, but it might take me a little while, so shoot me with a PM if it isn't up by mid next week.


Hmm, the point for strong kick was to have 90% chance to cause fracture so you can put DOTs on everybody easily. I'll look into raising the percentage as well as the base damage too.

That'd be awesome, don't worry about time, when ever you can it would be very appreciated. :)
@kumada

No BS, what you said is pretty much exactly how I've been playing - though I wasn't aware that child/woman infected had different stats, I'll keep that in mind.

*I break grapple at the earliest chance possible. Zombies ALWAYS attack first, so I generally start a fight and wait a second or two to see if it's a grapple or something. At least then I have a a full ATB with which to use break. If they don't grapple, I use Adrenaline.

*I only fight when I have to, though by doing so I don't get any stronger.. whilst enemies further into the game DO seem to get stronger and more numerous, so I'm crippling myself by avoiding combat and not taking the time to level up.

*I hammer the Z key on almost every tile I can find, trying to search for consumables and equipment (it seems a shame that the most logical of places, the boots/trunks of cars, aren't searchable)

*Jonathan has a Baseball bat (2h/90%/20% F.Chance), Brown Leather Jacket (5 End) and Running Shoes (14 Ath)
*Michelle has Crowbar (90%/15% F.Chance) and a Large Butcher Knife (85%), Military Jacket (3 End) and Heart Charm (2 Ath)
*Dog has nothing

Jonathan has the single weapon since it gives him more strength than the two, vice-versa with Michell. We're all level 4 and - once Adrenaline'd up - I generally use Melee for Michelle's two attacks, each one does between 4-6 (.. for comparison sake, infected hit for between 6-17) and Survival>Strong Kick on Jonathan since his melee damage is a single hit of 4-8 and his S.Kick can sometimes hit 12. Dog fights on it's own. Michelle's Flurry only hits once, though it does hit all enemies simultaneously, and Jonathan's Brutal Blow rarely seems to hit at all, let alone causing Fracture when it does. This is pretty much how I play and I've long since used the molotovs I found. It takes a long time to down an enemy and packs are now frequently filled with 3 infected at once and I simply don't know what I'm doing wrong.

@InfectionFiles

I wouldn't feel comfortable with you making the game easier just on account of my whinging. Like I said, nobody else is complaining about the difficulty so it's obviously NOT an issue to everyone else. Making it easier would benefit me to the detriment of other players, which just doesn't feel right. Yanno? I love the idea of the game, love the style and I'm well aware that zombie apocalypses aren't supposed to strolls through sun-kissed meadows, but right now I feel like I'm missing something insanely obvious because I can't seem to progress -- whereas Kumada isn't having much difficulty at all by the sound of it.
Make no mistake, this game is extremely hard. I had to do a few restarts as well as a lot of continues, and there was some save/load abuse involved in my surviving until level 6. I absolutely did not breeze through this thing. It was much more skin-of-my-teeth.

Sabin, I can't recommend enough putting both melee weapons on Jonathan, since he has higher overall strength, and the higher you can get your average damage output on a character, the quicker you can kill zombies. Have him prioritize attacks over strong kicks, and only use brutal blow on targets you intend to attack last. Jonathan swinging twice with a crowbar/golf club combo, or even a crowbar/bat or crowbar/knife is about as fearsome as any player character in this game gets.

I didn't notice the generic infected getting any stronger over time, by the way. If anything they become less of a challenge as you level, because you're becoming incrementally stronger. It's only when you hit the dogs and bloat flies that the challenge ramps back up.
Thanks again, kumada, you've been a great help
Just subbed and downloaded! Keep up the good work I want to see a cool zombie rpg!
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
@sabin1981- Oh, honestly it isn't just you that made me want to turn down the difficulty abit, after a playthrough I noticed it would just be more fun and you can actually try to immerse yourself in the setting instead of worrying about fast infected on screen as well as having like three follow you.
It can definitely be tough, and I'd rather have the beginning of the game hard, but at the same time doable so you can reach the more brutal parts.

@kumada- They don't get stronger as you go, they do get weaker as you level and whatnot. I meant that they are harder in the start so that they kinda scale with you as you level and they don't become paper to fast.

I just recently changed the walkspeed from run to the walk pacing it is now. So I think I'm having to adjust the game slightly because you aren't running through it full speed.
I'm hoping one day to implement a run/walk system with an energy bar so you do have the option to run faster for a given time.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
author=Mechno
Just subbed and downloaded! Keep up the good work I want to see a cool zombie rpg!

Thanks man! I appreciate the support! :)
Review is sent, and should be pending.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
I've updated the download for those who are interested. :)
New download, downloaded. I'll try it out and I'll give you some opinions.