The Withering

I want to like this game so much. But it's a crapshoot. It is pretty detailed in that you make camp, then proceed to fortify and defend while maintaining survival skills and needs such as food shelter and defense. However every mission you go on has a pass/fail percentage. While these pass/fail percentages are fine, what you find and what your reward is is not. I had a hard time picking up the resources I needed to make my camp self sustained. It was a 60/40 grindfest/fun. The potential for this game is through the roof, I hope they work out the kinks to make this the game it could be. Positives: Pretty detailed and varied abilities, such as farm, kennel, walls, sandbag crafting etc. Base building is fun, altho a grindfest for materials Randomness to it, with bad weather, zombie raids, and more Negatives: The locations you discover need to have details about whats there, ie wood, metal, etc. I mean you scouted it, you should know Grinding feels a bit tense at times The potential is here, lets hope they realize it. 6/10 so far.

*My review is dated and as of yet I have not put the time into making a new review of the game - my advice is read other reviews.* The game is updated regularly and so far I am happy with my purchase! A VERY VERY early access game. it has potential but right now its unpolished and needs alot of work. I will update my review as I play it more. right now character creation is very basic with only one type of person to make but multiple outfits to pick from. the male and female both Look the same. the survivor management in the camp section seems to be ok the actual controlling of the character is strange to me but fairly easy to pick up. I have noticed multiple light glitchs and bugs in the game but nothing too game breaking. the main character for some reason seems small compared to the surroundings - IE doors and things. It is not all bad though, the atmosphere of the game around the city feels right and really helps to immerse you into the game - the sounds and such add to this CONTROLS Q - stealth (crouch) E - Jump WASD - movement SHIFT - Sprint the controls below work when you have found the item 1 - Rifle 2 - Pistol 3 - Melee Weapon Press the number for the item you need, then after he has equipped it, push the middle mouse button in to enter and exit combat mode. Only get this game if you are interested in supporting the product, as the game itself needs alot of work right now Remember if you found this helpful give it a thumbs up!

newest Update. Game continues to evolve gettting better with time still fun to play even though i havent gotten to it alot the last month Update, they continue to Update on an almost half weeekly basis, feedback is implementent and you actually see your suggestions and feedback in the changelogs. Long time since i saw something like that. Hmm well..., this game is fun. Do you know the Browser Game "the Last Stand" a flash game. It's like this only nicer Graphics and a bit more complex. The scaveging part is fun as that is the FPS part, but you also get a simulation were you build your base, look for food , harvest amterials. And the More survivors you find in the FPS part the bigger your camp gets. Downside those useless bags of meat also want food. So send them on the hunting missions or scouting. My only downside cureetly is I have a TOP end machine , and this game draws on your CPU like crazy my Inter5 6600 goes into overdrive and the fans of my R9 390 Blow like a Nuclear powerplant. So they will need to get that optimized other than that, of alot of Zombie games i Played this one is Top 2. And for the price of under 10€ Go for it. GentleOne

I opted to give a review after 10+hrs of play time. I would recommend not being fooled by review with less than 0.4 hrs of gameplay since those types of individuals imo are addicted to the refund mechanism of Steam only and troll reviews. I am amazed on how nice this game is in its state, I am a fanatic of survival games and found this title buried within Steam sale. Not only you venture in an open world looking for loot while killing zombies you actually need to take care of your camp and survivors you find along the way. Among the numerous guns, sub machine guns you find you also have to fight bandits to gain control of valuable resources. This title is keeping me on my toes at all time and this is what I want in a survival game. become the leader of a group and maintain morale and reputation through the journey. Its a nice game for sure, I hope the devs keep updating and introducing new sites so we can explore further but also keeping in mind game content and not derive from the main goal. for the price I paid I say this is a nice game to add to your library, it is at this time a SP mode game which is fine by me because I dont believe in MP games anymore where all is exploited etc... Dont hesitate be part of the community and enjoy this nice title!

When this game was still under the original 1.0 build, it was full of potential. Extra locations were being added and integrated, enemy AI was effective and multiplayer was to be part of the next major update. Bought a couple of other keys for friends who also liked 1.0, graphic fidelity be damned. Then out of nowhere, the decision was made by the lead dev to start from scratch, despite negative feedback from most of the player base upon hearing about this ill-advised direction. 2.0 looks prettier in screenshots and the camp is now something you can physically walk around in (but is now completely empty outside of overpriced/useless vendors and no visual or gameplay benefits from upgrading the site), but to put it bluntly, it's flat out garbage. Here's a few of the greatest hits: -Enemy AI is now garbage, relying on ridiculous dmg output and cheapness/wall clipping. -Controls are more broken than a Z-stick on an N64 controller after a week of Mario Party. -Assets are even more recycled and fewer than the 1.0 build. -Want to jump that dumpster? Or jump anything? Better think twice unless you like flailing like a moron stuck in space and time. -Melee combos from 1.0 replaced with pathetic, sluggish, ineffective attacks an angry toddler could brush off. No updates since November, but nearly everyone lost interest after the scrapping of 1.0, only coming back occasionally to see if ANYTHING resembling positive progression forward had occurred after an update. This game is another cautionary tale of Early Access and soured me for a long time on supporting 'open world apocalyptic/survival' shooters. tl;dr, avoid this abandonware and don't give it a second thought.

Simply an unfinished game. This product has been launched to market as finished, but truly is an Alpha version that needs lots of work only to be playable. Graphics have severe glitches, interface and HUI are too rude, all basic mechanics not run or go really badly, text tutorial barely explains rules... Seems developers dreamed an ambitious mix of management and survival genres only for multiplayer in 3D enviroments, without main campaign, secondary missions or enemies, leaving the weight of plots and dangers to the community. Surely they worked much, and spend a lot of time and money, but finally, like many other indie projects, they couldn't handle everything. They left product naked, technically unfinished and without objetives for a single player, so try to sell now as finished is just a scam. Should be retired from the store. Even if designers free code and rights to let others try to fix it, seems too hard redesign such a complicated product. But who knows...

Devs put alot of effort into making this, but like a constipated dog, what eventually came out was a pile of stale, forced carp..

Was originally a good concept and then we got baited and switched into this game which eventually became vaporware. No updates in years its an abandoned money run.

For an Early Access game I'd say CM Softworks nailed it! This game has features that most games don't implement until the Beta stage. They may be small features, but they're still there! This game has provided me with 10 hours of suspense, and zombie slaying fun! If you like games where you get to kill zombies, earn/spend skill points (on three attributes at the moment) and manage your own survival shelter then this game is perfect for you. Not many zombie games give you the ability to loot cities in real time, and manage a camp where you can build Farms to have a food supply, and a Radio Tower so you can communicate with other known camps! There are many more things to create that help your camp grow and survive. You can even simulate the ability to search for other areas to loot, and you can choose to loot them in real time or simulate the loot phase. This game has you make some serious decisions too. An example: "There is a horde of zombies spotted near your camp. This will conclude in Two Phases". So you have to think; Is the camp ready? Is your defense rating where it needs to be? Should you run out into the city to grab supplies before they get to the camp? If there is no one at your camp to fight off the horde of zombies then they overrun it and you lose it so you have to get everything done in the alotted time given. There are different types of zombies as well. They're not just your standard infected walking around. Currently there is "The Crawler" (The nickname I gave her; She can be spotted with her blonde hair) and "The Boss" (He's easily recognizable. These zombies have the chance to drop rare loot, but take excessive amounts of damage so I recommend a weapon with a good amount of ammo. Randomly throughout the game you will see a bright shinging light (Red or Green so far) and that spawns a loot crate. Green Flare=Resources Red Flare= Weapons. Where will you put all this loot? There is a Storage system at your camp that can be upgraded to hold more things! You just need the right materials. There is a small part to the camp management that I haven't used personally yet but it's there. The ability to craft "Homemade" weapons and ammo using materials that are looted. Here's my Pros and Cons list so far: Pros -Zombies -Looting System -Different Type of Zombies -Camp Management -EXP System -Unique Zombie/Player Animations -Weapon Rarity System -Durability Ratings for Weapons/Clothing (Although Clothing doesn't decay yet) -Ability to Rescue/Recruit Survivors -Working Random Loot System (No location is the same) -Small Material Crafting System -You can Slide Cons -Hit Boxes for Zombies are not the Greatest (You might take a hit when you shouldn't have) -Camera Movement is a bit Funky/Takes awhile to get used to -Finding Survivors is sometimes a pain *****The time it takes to get from "Morning" to "Night" is Really Short***** (Fixed in Last Patch) -There's not an Easier way to Find Survivors -Ability to Control Where your Attack Goes (It just follows in one direction until the animation is done) So all in all there is some Pros and Cons. The Cons can/will be fixed. The company is pushing out updates every few days. They listen to the consumer, and act on what everyone would like to see. You can currently vote on different additions that you would like to see in the game and that is checked daily by the developers. I recommend this game at it's current (on sale and base price) and with where it's headed this game will be an amazing addition to the zombie era of gaming.

I will start off by admitting that this game does have some rough edges, as with any early access game. However, rough edges aside, there is some real potential displayed here and I quite enjoy loading it up after every update and checking out the new content. Potential alone usually doesn't mean a whole lot these days, many games had it in droves and still ended up dead. However, seeing how committed and active the Dev team is really makes me confident that we will all see their vision for the game realized. They listen to feedback, update regularly and truely seem passionate about their project. All that said, the game IS rough in places, it is an alpha. So if you want a refined, shiney experience maybe just hit the follow button and regularly check in on it's progress. Know what you're getting yourself into before you drop money on something all willy nilly and then leaving a bad review because you didn't get what you expected. It's not fair to the developers nor the folks interested in the game. Not to say legit criticism shouldn't be levied but playing for an hour, leaving a shit review then refunding the game is a pretty crappy practice when the game is changing so much, so often. If you do however like testing new things, participating in feedback, finding/reporting bugs, etc then this really is a project I would recommend you check out! It lacks refinement but that comes later. The framework they are building is really shaping up to be awesome, there is fun to be had with it already and I hope the team and game gets the attention it deserves!

Dear Crochan, You, my friend, should be ashamed of yourself. Empty promises, screwing up a perfectly working game to this piece of steaming "you know this word"! At least the beta is an older version, not very pretty but much more fun then what you get originally. I have played more hours in beta version but eventually its just not a good release, probably never gonna happen. Man up, admit you screwed up and perhaps get some of your dignity back. I would say you owe that to the player base, if there still is any..

At first, I purchased this game as a joke, I came in expecting trash. So perhaps I just enjoyed this game by comparison. But fuck it, this is actually a decent game, with a lot of potential. On to the actual review. I'll to the typical thing and just start with pros and cons. Pros, +Fun concept +Somewhat interesting loot system +Decently done survival gameplay +Neat crafting system Cons, -Really poor optimization -Graphics mostly consist of pre made assets -Pretty clunky controls In general it's an alright game with a shit ton of potential. I recommend you support the dev and see what they do with future updates. 6.9/10

Got it to support the devs as I like where it is going. If you like Dead State + State of decay then you should (in theory) like this. Feedback to devs- Yes there are things to fix here such as: - The campsite leaves me feeling wanting, campsite feels it's at it's barebones and the "out in the world" seems more advanced. - The combat is sluggish and feels laggy from a player side, when I swing I feel like i'm doing it in slow motion. - I want to make my survivors more interactive (I know you are doing this devs and it will be awesome when done) - It just feel like there are not enough supplies out there to scavenge and it feels super grindy - Please please make co-op sites where I can join up with others because they are too hard (bloodborne does it so well, I know 100% diff game but still they do it well). - The campsite is just ugly, I want to see the buildings I build! I wish I could walk around it and have it as a 3D model vs a txt model. Refer to Dead State when I talk about walk around it. Once this is finished it will be an AMAZING game, I love what the devs are doing. I have been waiting for a game like this for a very long time.

Another Early Access from another small team. Not a bad little game at all so far. Keys to the future of note; Multi player is planned. The Dev ( as usual ) has answered countless times on that. The answer being, MP / and or Co op in the plans. Info available on details in the Forum. More character customization. Currently you do have both Male and Female models. But at the start of the game you can only change the character menu portrait and the starting clothing look. and of course.. all the usual things that go with an EA. I did not follow this from the start. I only looked it over today and did some research. The post and reports show it has changed much since it first arrived. That is always a plus. It also shows relevant answers from the Dev team often in the forum. Game play wise, it is not a fast pace start off in the thick of it type Zombie game. Its a strange twist on several approaches to Zed gaming fans. First it is based on camp / survivor management. The system is simple to figure out and work with. Includes a quick in your face tutorial on getting started in the camp section. The UI is not the prettiest, but it serves well for now. Then the ' sort'a ' open world. This is a ' sort'a ' moment because you dont just walk around an open world. You start the game with knowledge of your general surroundings, but it is pretty limited. You learn more by assigning scouts to go and snoop. Once that is done you find either new fixed locations or event type. Fixed are sections of an area, say like a part of a residential zone. Events are like finding an abandoned camp, or a derelict vehicle, junk site etc. You then assign a team member to head out. Now comes the ' sort'a '. This takes place on an over the shoulder character. You have to have boots on the ground to explore, find items, equipment etc. Combat is simple and varied. Different stats of the team member allow different affects. For example my high strength member can do a special move via double click RM and kill pretty much each time. My less buff can do the move.. but she has yet to kill on a first time strike. She is however much better with her firearm. See how that works? Keys are mapped in the oddest fashion I ve ever seen. You just have to look to probably agree. But you can re-map with no problems. Movement is the normal.. other keys are weird. MAKE SURE you look and / or re-map. CLIMBING on cars... this is important. Lesson learned. The first ' easy ' or ' baby ' zone it is not like it is other places. No idea why. After you leave the first area when you approach a vehicle at a climb / jump point you get a prompt. In the first area you just cant get on them at all. You can however climb on a van.. its weird to read.. but if you experience you will get it. No problems after the first area as I said tho'. Finding loot... its hard. Its supposed to be. Unlike many games that just hand you finds.. other than obvious boxes laying around or tool chest, you have to look. You will find things like food, medicine, water, gear, weapons, and of course ammo. But its not marked with shiny lights or arrows to glowing boxes of goodies. But it does give you a nice prompt when you do find it.. so you can ' sort'a ' just mouse around and make some finds that might not be obvious. But you have to be close to them. BUILDING materials etc are usually easy finds. They are in boxes or took boxes. Easy being relative to the amounts tho'. Areas with an abundance are not easy to walk into and out of. Easy to pick areas are pretty empty. Nice thing. When your out exploring you can leave the area via ESC and return to camp.. which causes a 10 second countdown, during which you are vulnerable.. so make sure your safe. Or you can walk out without the delay. Overall, with its current EA price of $9.99 US its not a bad little thing. But at its current state its not going to be for everyone. I see myself enjoying it, but not in large doses. More of a slow and steady time. BUT ON THAT. Not all the enemies are push over brain dead Zeds... that you will see on your own..

It could have been good. Good concept, poor execution. Zombie Tarkov, but not.

I just cant comprehend what the developers had in their minds when they ruined this game. It had all the potential for a instant classic but everything apparently had to be changed. Combat is a joke, running is not an option while in combat mode and to start with a melee weapon means hitting, then retreating and repeat several times. Hud is horrible mess with useless hints for the melee fighting and several colorful bars. Inventory and looting is made over-simplified but still they dont work, if inventory is full, nothing can be removed from there, until loot window is closed which results in losing the loot in question. Just terrible mess, dont waste money.

This game should still be early access. There are a tremendous number of aspects missing from what I would consider a completed game. The controls are a bit strange, you have to use alt (which just happens to be next to the windows key) to do anything like go to inventory or even bring up the menu. There is no option to map keys to controls. A relatively simple item if coded in a decoupled manner. I have no idea what I can loot, nothing indicating it outside of just trying to loot everything, and things you would expect to be lootable are not. Not even sure what all of the keys are, I tried using the game controller (but it was even worse). Not sure what options are available like blocking or dodging I just stumbled on. I could not exit the camp at first, not knowing I needed to hit the alt key then click on the item in the world. It has a lot of promise, but still needs work, this should not be considered a released game.

Sooo... game was great, game is now horrible. Before total remake of the game, the game used to be what I would call a well made decent zombie apocalypse version of the Division, you went out, killed zombies, looted items and gear, completed in world missions and events to get better gear a la Division. There was a specific map that was going to be a big open world, it was unfinished but had enough content a la Division to keep us entertained and hoping for a new update that adds more to it, as in more weapons, more missions, more enemies, higher difficulty. Basically more content in general with that unfinished map. Then... the remake of it happened... it was complete shift of the game, turning it into the stereotypical MMORPG game, but without the MMO part and only the RPG part of the MMORPG. Yes, you may say. "But doesn't that make it only a RPG game", you would be right, but, BIG but, the way this RPG was created was by using things you would usually see in an MMORPG and not a simple RPG. The crafting system is laughable at best, the UI is horrible, the looting is bad, the animation is laughable at best (Somehow got worst while using the same models and stuff), the survival system is a bit forgiving but still an annoyance compared to before where it made sense, too many merchants with things that doesn't explain you how to get ever inside your underground camp, material is a hassle, money is called copper, silver and gold, even though they use penny, dimes/quarters and a wad of bills, Division like missions are gone replaced with boring RPG missions of "Get X, kill Y zombies" or just none existent. Combat is clunky, controls are clunky, shooting moving enemies is clunky, using inventory is clunky, shop is the only thing that isn't clunky. Basically, the game was a great Division like zombie apocalypse game and it got ruined for some odd reasons into what it is now, a husk of a game that is now trying to be a Witcher like MMORPG set in a modern zombie apocalypse setting, just without anything that makes any of those alone good.

Still pre-alpha as of Feb 4, 2017. It's got a lot of issues, but a lot of potential. I was happy to spend 10 bucks on this game, and I've put in a lot of time for those 10 dollars. There's supposed to be an update soon, and the developer is somewhat active on the forums. I'm hoping the next update vastly improves the camp management part of the game, which is the section that is the least fun at the moment. Basically the ideas are good. Scavenge for supplies and look for other survivors. Build up a camp. Defend it from zombies. It's the execution of the core game mechanics that need work, and unfortunately the game suffers for it. The camp related parts of the game need a lot of love. The interface is hard to read due to the font and backgrounds they use. The menu system in camp is very clunky right now, and bloated. There are too many sub-categories, and it could easily be streamlined. Production and construction can also be streamlined, and for some reason construction of certain parts of the camp are separate from the camp upgrades even though it's basically the same thing. It could, and should, all be in the same menu. The exploration and scavenging is a fairly decent third-person shooter, given the early stage of the development cycle. It's kind of fun to run around and collect stuff, shoot zeds in the head and try to deal with the two stronger types of zeds. Okay, okay, "Infected". They're zombies, no matter what you call them. The game has rare and legendary items, they're simply better quality items, and weapon mods that you can find. They have a good variety of guns, however they all kind of feel similar except for a few exceptions. Headshots are your friend, and even the worst weapons can kill with one or two head shots, unless you face the tougher infected. Those take anywhere from 8 to 30 or 40 head hits depending on what you're using to shoot them. Currently the enemies aren't too bright. The human enemies will take cover and shoot at you, by far the most dangerous thing in the game so far, however even the "parasite" infected, which is very tough and will chase you rather quickly, can be easily defeated by anyone. They're also too dumb to climb, so if you can get up on a truck or a van, they won't attack you and can't reach you. Yet. I think this is eventually going to change, but there's a lot more work to be done. Hit detection is wonky. Often with a clear line of sight you can't hit what you're shooting at, the bullets strike some invisible thing somewhere between you and the target. A few guns are buggy, if crouched you can't shoot properly. Combat is fairly simple right now, but if you're not careful you can still be taken down. Some of the infected tend to sneak up on you when you're not paying attention. If you access your inventory the game does not pause. You have to pay attention. The most frustrating part, and most tedious part, is building kits for your scouts, scavengers, etc. I absolutely hate this part of the game. You have to go back and forth too many times in the menu system just to build one simple item, and each kit takes several items. There's no indication on the production screen to tell you how many of any resource you have, it simply lets you build the item if you have enough but doesn't tell you what you're missing if you don't. You have to go back to the main camp screen, go into the inventory screen, click around in there a bunch of times because there are several categories and buttons you can click, then look around to find what you have. It's just way too time consuming and clunky to be fun. The base defence is terrible. Zombies come at your base to attack it. The game puts up a very poorly designed screen with a few buttons at the bottom. It shows on the left how many survivors you have in camp, excluding your four heavily armed heroes - for some inexplicable reason they can't help with this - and the zeds on the right with one icon each. Combat is turn based, and you pick a combat "stance", and your tactics, then click a button. You have a bunch of numbers representing initiative, power, defence and so do the zeds, but it seems to matter very little that you have numbers 10 or 20 times larger than theirs. You can, at most, kill one or two of them per turn. Click, click. Bang. An icon gets an X over it in red. Next turn. Click, click... bang. Another zed gets an X. It's uninspired, boring and takes forever. I really hope they completely overhaul this part of the game. At least make it a tower defence style sequence where your survivors, and heroes, can defend an actual camp. Better yet, use the same third person perspective and gameplay that the exploration part of the game has. That might actually be fun! For an EA game, despite my complaints, I've been drawn in. I like a lot of things here, and I truly believe that the game will only continue to improve. It's imperfect, but still very early Alpha. I put enough time in so far, and had enough fun, that it's very worth the roughly $10.00 price. I am looking forward to some significant changes, and multiplayer. Despite my gripes and the issues with the game, I recommend giving it a shot, and supporting these devs. It's got potential, and I would like to see it continue to improve.

I like it. Quite a nice mix between management and action. It does not have a lot of content at the moment and has a lot of bugs (Early access) but it´s quite clear where the developers want to do with the game. If you are a zombie fan just buy it.

The Withering is one of those Early Access games that had potential and the inexperienced developers failed to deliver. The graphics are pretty bad, there is so much pop-in, clipping and disappearing floors, walls and whatever. The game mechanics are terrible, hit boxes are horrible, animations are bad, controls are clunky, combat is slow and sluggish. The sounds and music in the game are pretty pathetic too.There isn't anything about this game that's good imo. Money wasted, not recommended

At present this game is at its very bare bones of EA, I would consider waiting to buy this game until a lot more is added, the combat in this game is weak to say the least and there is a severe lack of resourses which are needed to build your camp which is what you need to go further in the game, i reached well over a month of in game days to acheive nothing. Pros Regular updates Good FPS Very promising Cons Controls are terrible Dated graphics (this could be overlooked if the game had alot more to do) Lack of usefull resourses (you go to cities junk yards etc and your lucky to get a scrap of wood I mean come on just from a scrap car you could take alsorts) Boring Repetative Not much of a tutorial Combat is poor especially as if when youi first start out you have no weapon the only thing you can do is kick which has simply no effect on the zombies Lack of player customizeation To end I would not advise buying this game at all in its current stage and I for one will not play this game until it has had atleast several major updates however it is promising and will if continues in the direction the devs say it will be a good game. definatley one to keep an eye on EDIT. So the game has got better to an extent, still has regular updates (however not in the direction i would like), a bit more of a tutorial, still a lack of usefull resourses and the combat is still very clunky as are the controls i still think that this game will turn out good as the devs are prety good at updating it however id still wait, the thing is if every body waits then i guess the game wont develop because of lack of funding so its a bit of a situation really. I really hope the game goes in the direction that is promised good luck Devs.

When I first saw The Withering I was cautious, it looked like another game that is a huge scam(the health bar is what made me think it was THAT game just given a different name) but thankfully it isn't since it started out with singleplayer(Multiplayer is in closed beta) and will keep single player when the game is finished. I would say that The Withering has the potential to be one of the better zombie survival management games out there.(The only other one that comes to mid is state of decay) Your main task is to find supplies to keep your camp going, finding other survivors to increase your camp size so you can build upgrades to help your camp thrive. You can send your survivors out to gather resources on missions too. As of right now there is 3 locations you can go to scavenge for supplies(The newest map has a mission that you do to get some better loot. You can also see that they have plans to expand this map as well as add new missions), there is also a freeroam map in the works. The gunplay is good, it could be better but it is EA so it will more than likely get improved as time goes on. Melee definetly need some improvement but it could be worse(if you time your swing right regular zombies can fall with one hit). Zombie can sneak up on you if your not paying attention(especially crawlers) but the normal ones die from a single headshot. I will say that you should ignore the negative review that have less than 5 hours, because it takes about that long to get a feel for the game and whether or not you'll like it. Overall, I'd say that I would recommend this game for the price of $10 since it has the potential.

you got H1Z1 and dayz but you don't want to play online get this game you got 7 day to die but it's too buggy get this game you got projet zomboid but wan't a 3D game get this game you got a steam account ? get this game

This is a great game so far, with an even greater potential. It is a camp management style game where you can deploy to live action stuff at any point you'd like. Side note: I had a small bug in this game, so I went to the discussion via Steam to see what the deal was. A developer responded to me within ten minutes to ask me questions about my problem and then included a fix for me in the patch that was scheduled for the next day. I've never had a developer be this attentive to their community and it was a welcome change.

Agree with the other review of alpha players. The dev ruined a partly playable game into an unplayable garbage. The movement and interface is clunky and lagging. combat is impossible even against normal zombies ...

Game used to be dope af. I guess they decided to wipe the slate and redo everything from ground zero. Well, what you're paying for now is basically, exactly that. A ground zero game, still. Content is EXTREMELY limited at the time and imo, combat is worse than it was before (clunky,unfun). I put several hours into the old build just to have it ripped away and discontinued, then twisted into some sort of abomination. Original Expectation: 9/10-10/10 if co-op implemented (which was intended). New expectations, probably a rough 4/10 by the time it gets anywhere.

Good game, it has everything i want from a survival game. Basebuilding, talents, solid weapon gameplay, lots of upgrades, group management, intense scavenging runs with challenging zombis that actually can beat me up if i dont pay attention. Just needs optimization and some polishing regarding the interface. Too many fps issues for me to enjoy playing it. The fact that i still played it speaks for the solid foundation this game has. It doesn't invent the wheel new but I never had these expactations anway. Can't wait till it is optimized to drop loads of hours into this.

This is a very preliminary review. I will try to update later after more play, but first impressions are not great. We'll have to see whether those positive reviews really make sense, or it's just a case of the "sweet lemon" fable. First of all, it took me a while to even figure out what I was doing in terms of playing the game. There's no "play" button in the main menu, just "Camp" and "Survivors" (along with options, extras (currently empty), and quit). Then, once I had created a character under "Survivors" and gone to camp, it took me some time to realize how you actually get any sort of action sequence, as opposed to just automatically running missions and trying to read the results. Actually, to talk about that: the interface is bad in camp, too. The tutorial, such as it is, does help, but you have to trawl through the menus to find out what happened after each time advance, instead of having it reported in some kind of simple pop-up dialog box or something like I expected. Anyway, you actually go on a mission by going into the roster, selecting a "hero" that you've created, and clicking "Deploy". Not obvious at all. Then... the tactical mission. My god, it's like '90s technology. Not only are the graphics poor, but at least in the first level, the zombies posed no threat, and often just stood there while I repeatedly shot at them. I wasn't even touched. Maybe that changes later, but meanwhile, running around the level was like trying to spring through water; the running pace was slower than many games' walking pace. Finally, the inventory space is critically limited; you will certainly be leaving things behind. Again, maybe all this gets better with better equipment, but it makes the first mission at least simply excruciating. I did like the music and the incidental noises, if I'm pressed to find something rewarding. Oh, and the intro newscasts (which you can hear on the Steam store page) are nice enough. I love games like this, I really do. Put hours and hours into everything from Project Zomboid, Dying Light, 7 Days to Die, and many others. Nonetheless, unless this game turns around dramatically very quickly, I will not be putting much more time into it.

EDIT (June 2020): This game has at least resumed development (I think, there haven't been any updates at this point since November 2019) but is now essentially a bare-bones zombie MMO (but single-player) with a bad control scheme, sluggish controls, and bad mechanics/storyline in general. 2.0 so far is still way worse than the original 1.0 concept. My original review is still accurate, barring the fact that the devs may actually be releasing the game sometime in the next year or two. ORIGINAL REVIEW: In early access going on 4 years now, and no updates for at least 7 months as of this review. Looked promising at the beginning, but as mentioned in other reviews this game took a turn for the worse with the 2.0 release. 1.X was moving forward and making process, and was fun, but then the developer decided to throw almost everything out and re-do everything from the combat systems to the camp/hub and inventory. Surprise (not), it was a massive step backward that felt worse in almost every respect. Most players (including myself) stopped playing at that point and only check back occasionally to see if the game has been fixed or gotten more content since then. TL;DR this game is essentially dead, both due to the devs making a terrible design decision with 2.0 that killed off most of the interest from people who picked it up in 1.0 and due to there being no updates for over half a year since November 2018.

i got this for 3 bucks cant remap controls properly it wont allow you to map mouse buttons which left, right, and mouse wheel click are all default registered controls. there's now button to pull up an in game menu. the clunky controls are a plus given the history of survival horror it helps to build tension.the game is an interesting concept but they need to make it sou can truly and freely assign all keys and mouse buttons included if they do that then i'll have no issue but at 3 bucks when i got it on sale i'd say it is a great coaster for your drink cups but a broken game.

Hands down this is the best zombie game I've played, if not the best game on steam - I'm completely addicted. Its designation as Early Access is misleading, the current version feels more like a highly polished game and is already in class of its own. It is teeming with things to collect, places to explore and endless hours of entertainment. I've spent over a 100 hours already and I still feel like I've only scratched the surface. I can't wait to see what they do next - you won't regret this purchase. Pros: Perfect combination of fps and base management. Huge number of weapons, craftable items and upgrades. Highly active and dedicated developers. You'd expect to pay $60 for content like this, the price is a steal. Cons: Navigation difficult at first. Finding items at first is frustrating. Once you figure out where to look and where not to look, the game becomes much more manageable. Combat system confusing at first if you don't read the guides. The zombies aren't so OP or numerous that you're constantly hanging on for dear life. However, poor planning, decision making or aim and they'll tear you apart. Different areas provide different risks and rewards that you choose based on your current need, available resources and ability to survive. It really feels like you stepped into the walking dead - something most games promise but rarely deliver. Scavenging the materials you need to survive, keep healthy, protect and expand your camp is a constant battle. It's the perfect blend of these two elements that make this game a true gem. Hints: 1.) Read the guides before you play for combat tips and the basic map of the area - knowing how to properly melee and where you are on the map makes a huge difference. 2.) Nightime is not pitch black if you wait for the moon to rise. Find a safe place to wait it out, then continue scavenging until your backpack is completely filled with the items you need. Leaving when it gets dark out means your camp has to survive on less than it has to.

A small game, that i got for 3€ on sale. Felt worth it for that price but anything above it and most gamers proberly wont. And here is why you might feel like that after playing for a few mins: Cons: First off fighting more zombies in melee, than 1 at a time, is very difficult in the beginning since each zombie will cut right though any animation or attempt at moving, they can reach quiet a distance further than the actual physical body / attack animation so you will get hit in most cases.. The controls feels a bit unresponsive, since the characters momentum is not instantly at max speed but rather takes like 3-5 sec before it is up to max speed, this is one of the reasons why the above mentioned dodge is hard to accomplish. The tutorial does exist and there is a few things you can readup on ingame, but it wont spill any real usefull information, so to begind with you are pretty much on you'r own about what to do (so pick explorer mission, crouch / stealth to loot crates close to zombies, loot police cars and ambulances, till u get a shotgun, it can 1 hit zombies at a safe distance, so its ammo friendly) Events will be announced when you enter certain areas, if you look in the tutorial for what they are about, you can forget it, there aint any info about them (so ill warn ya up front, they contain bandits who will KOS you, and most of the time each event will contain 4 bandits, 2 of them will usualy have machine guns, and wipe ya sorry ass before you see what the event was even about..) once you know this, get a primary weapon (this is a rifle of some kind, use distance and take out the ranged guys first, and you will easily deal with the events, they are good loot once you figure out how to deal with them using a rifle) (whats next) So you killed zombies, killed event bandits in explore mode, been around the map (M key, which by the way does not really feel like its turning the right way.. but you aint got a compas so it could be, that it is...) Dunno after 10 hours i got bored of looting, and upgrading the camp was easy.. sending npcs on missions felt odd and without real purpose, since the camp was already at max upgrade when i started.. there is another explorer mission somewhere in the back of camp (close to the faction vendors, whos gear i felt was never needed so i did not get it, as dealing with first explorer was easy and yielded ok gear already) SO pros: Well for 3€ i had absolutely no expectations, so you proberly wont have either and thats good cuz there aint much content in this game. It was okish fun to run around looting cars, and using my own skill to discover how the game functioned, its rare to find a game that does not hold your hands these days, here you can certainly expect that and less :P Its a great title if you like to play survival games that feels a bit unfinished (cuz there are several bugs, such as a rare camera bug where it will start moving forward on its own, seperated from the character, if you get lucky like me, and can move the char close enough to click the leave button (going back to base from explorer mode) then you wont loose all the shit you found i that mission, else you can always try again... A more common bug is the UI menu texts disappearing, I found that if you scroll up using the mouse wheel it will reappere most of the times, but only in the crafting menu, not in the vendor menu.. There you can still sell items, but all the buy items are gone, leaving to main menu and then "continue" will make them reappere, while inconvenient, at least it fixes it. So the game seems to save on its own, and it pretty much does not tell you that, thats how it is, nor does it tell you when its saving so thats that, and from what i read on game discussions, there aint a local save folder :P Lastly let me point out that this game was made using unity engine, so the default option is present before the game starts up, you can change some keys, but not inventory key (so its default to i which most people like) Anyway I have played a lot of games "Made with Unity" and while this one is an excellent proff that it is possible to make games with unity, it is certainly on the low end of what can be created using the engine. So i hope if you do decide to buy this game, that you wont blame unity for the condition this game is in, and the content you have recived, after all you have been fairly informed ;)

The game shown on the store page at the time of this post (and at the time I purchased it), is not the game that CM Softworks is building. The footage shown here shows the discontinued 1.x build, and is completely different to the latest open beta version. It is different in so many ways that it is literally a different game. My game hours were spent in the original build before I switched to the Open Beta and saw what a different direction CM Softworks has taken. For this reason I can't recommend The Withering.

I was looking for some zombie smashing and base building. This game has it all. You can/have to create melee weapons and armor, later firearms. You upgrade your base. The game is using the Unity Engine. There are action games which are somehow fun anyway, like 7 Days, but this is not. The controlling of your character is no fun. The fights are no fun. Using the interface for NPCs, inventory or crafting is no fun. I am not saying you should not get it. There are for certain people who will have fun with this. It is not a bad game. It has some interesting things and if you don't mind repeating the same thing again and again (I am not making fun of you here, I am myself tunneling in MineCraft all the time) then this might be your thing. Summary: I had no fun!

Graphics, Not to bad, since I prefer higher performance than visual in most game, isn't really an issue with my usual all low settings. The game does runs smoothly 98% of the time i have spent on it, shooting zombies/ bandits, switching weaponaries and opening newly included supplies containers are fluid. *The effect of the bright Burning Flames from objects like cars, rubbles, buildings and barrels look realistic but seems to be overwhelming, might cause lags and stutters when in the vicinity for the lesser systems. Just occasional laggy and glitchy. Audio, Keeps me on my toes, with the errie background music and effects of zombies. In some situations out of Fov, zombies are like ninjas, they approached you in silence and next you hear it groar, by your ear. Be alert to step back or strafe when you do hear any unusuals. Game Play Decent management of survivors aspect, BUT could have alot more room for improvements on the Interface of the production and storage windows, frequently required to switch back and fro to check the quantity of materials in the storage if it satisfy the production recipes shows much inconvenience. Enlarging the Equipment window while out in the world to view more slots, rather than scrolling up and down the few lines of inventory would be much more convenient. Alittle Transparency of the window frames so to allow for attention to the backgrounds while accessing the Equipment window in the world would be very helpful. Equipment window is totally Opaque and blocking the center view of the instance you in. *Most times, the zombies kill you, but its due to the Window blocking your view in the split seconds, due to your carelessness. *Storage is a little tacky, its understandable when you go hunting for resources, you can only carry so much on you while you move, but *the Camp's storage, even at max Storage level capacity, it is quite limited, frequently have to throw away a good gun/ mod/ items, to perhap make room from a stack of ammo which maybe needed for the next run. Would be strange that Camp storage is so limited when population is little on a vast land with zombies all over, but you couldn't store more, as most likes to hoards and stock up. Much of the excitment would be going into the real time instances searching for weapons/ satisfier/ materials, shooting the zombies and trying to stay alive, and awaiting the opening of the many new areas, the dev(s) are working on. Would become a task to be completed regularly just to find that so very much needed 'metal'. Metal resource is really the sole resource you need in the game which is too heavily relying on it, that makes other resource category insignificant, due to their abundance and usage. Making the game basically a ' Miner's ' game, farming for metal resource is your way of life until you fulfil your arsenal of equipments for your survivors. A button to point and destroy an object/item in real instances would be handy, rather than constantly picking up every item you see lying around into the inventory and clicking to destroy , just to force new respawns. Could use more implementations of varieties of Zombies (gets boring seeing the same 3-4 faces of the same zombies every corner, upcoming new Areas, Optimizations for smoother gameplay, Customization of characters, multiplayer modes and MORE Convenient Accessing of hub windows. Inconvenience, Lack of Purpose, storage and 'Metal' is the major cons I feel the game is having. Smooth play and seemingly dedicated dev team are the major pro. My Opinion http://steamcommunity.com/app/427950/discussions/0/357288572116511499/

I just bought this game along with 4 others, had $50 to blow so picked up a few low priced ones that looked good. I seen the reviews and check out the game, and it seemed like something I could play here or there. Now that I have actually played it, I can say I really enjoy it and it has surpassed my expectations. This game is like a mix of This War of Mine (camp management), A 3D Project Zomboid, DayZ and a little something of it's own that pulls it all together. Now I won't say this game is for everyone, yet if you like the game I mentioned above, and are tired of the endless killing other zombie games eventually end up at. This is a game I would recommend. 10/10 would randomly buy again. worth the price, would suggest grabbing now while it's cheap.

The Withering is a post-apocalyptic zombie survival game that tries to be too many things and doesn't do any of them particularly well. Let me start out by saying that I bought into this game when it was in Early Access but never got around to playing it until full "2.0" release. As such I don't have any nostalgia glasses for how the game used to be or anything like that since I didn't play it until recently. All of my critiques here are about the current version, as is, and I have no idea if it used to be a better game. Starting off in The Withering the first thing that came to mind was how bleak it was. The developer did really nail the atmosphere of hopelessness in the home base area and I can only describe my first few hours of the game as being bleak. This is partially because the atmosphere is well done in this respect, along with the sounds in the base, but also because the tutorial that you're given is extremely bare bones. There are a lot of things going on that you really have to discover on your own through trial and error and a little luck. That said, part of why starting out is so bleak is because you have virtually nothing as regards weapons, resources, or even a clue of what to do. The only thing you really can do is go out and scavenge for resources. You leave the base and go to the city and start digging through the trash for scrap metal. So far so good. I've seen some complaints about the looting system and I admit that at first using Alt to bring up the cursor while your character is completely helpless is a little awkward but you get used to it. The zombies are extremely stupid and the human enemies you encounter aren't much better so most often you get to choose your battles. I was only caught by surprise by enemies a couple of times and one of those times was almost certainly my own fault. The melee combat is okay once you get the hang of it and learn to read the enemies but once you acquire a gun and a decent amount of ammo you really don't have to worry about enemies ever again. You loot to your inventory's limits and then you return to the base with your sack of scrap metal and open up the crafting menu. From here you can make equipment, upgrade your base, cook food, etc. There's nothing really complex here and it's obvious how much you need of a given resource to craft a given thing. This is essentially the rest of the game. You just focus on getting resources to build and upgrade until you have so much ammo that nothing can touch you. There is a hunger and thirst mechanic to use food for but the only effect I could see was that your health will slowly regenerate on its own if your food and water meters have something in them. There's no apparent penalty for just not eating or drinking. There is no real endgame. There is no final boss. There is no escape from the zombie infested city/countryside (there is a countryside map but the distance between loot spawns is so far that it's only worth doing if you want a change of scenery). If you're purchasing this game for an easy 100% achievements then I'll say that you're going to have to grind. Not for resources but for enemies to kill to fulfill those kill count achievements. It took me 31 hours from start to finish to completely upgrade my base and hunt down the required number of enemies. At the end I had so many resources, ammo, and food, that I was constantly selling some of it off because I was running out of storage space in the base. My only goal was to kill enough of a given enemy type to get the achievement and then move on to the next game. There are mini-game base management type features like sending survivors out on missions and guiding groups over the radio but once you have guns and can take whatever resources you want from the map and enemies it's not worth doing them. Technically speaking it's not a great looking game. My rig is old so I'm not going to knock the game that hard on graphics because maybe it looks phenomenal if you play it on a machine that can handle max settings. I will say that even on my modest rig with lowest of low settings I still had wild fluctuations in frame rate. Again, it might not be the game's fault. It was never something that affected me enough to worry about combat-wise. I really don't like giving negative reviews but as it stands I can't recommend this game unless you've just played to death the zombie genre and really want something different with a few masochistic achievements. It had potential but in the end I think the developer just wanted to do too much.

Good game, "Lots of potential"... A State-of-Decay-Kinda game with base management and Third Person running around. It doesn't have the Hoards of Zed or the AI, or the graphics - or variety, say of a AAA game. But it does have soul... I imagine it's a labour of love by someone in Eastern Europe... Someone who dreams of a world after Humans have been wiped out. It needs more, but as a rough sketch of a game it works well. No real chalenges so far, not to sure if there's perma-death (I hope there is), as I've not been "killed" often. I can only hope that the Steam monies that are flooding the devs way are put to good use. A versatile, cheap SoD-esk game with a community of map makers 'n' moders would be most welcome about now.

the game seems to be good so far. I have a bit of trouble when i start to gather goods in the field, then come across a zombie who seems to be unbeatable, example i do over 500 damage and I still get killed as I cant defeat it or out run it, before it kills me with only 100 hp. other then that I am having fun and challenged. great work so far devs.

I’ve had a lot of fun playing this and really like what I have seen. Early access or not this game has a lot in it to keep you entertained for hours at a time. When I first started it took me a bit to find a decent weapon in the town so those karate kicks, however expertly delivered, took a while to take those buggers down. I eventually found a crowbar which made scavenging the town a much more enjoyable experience. From there I built my inventory of weapons/ammo and other goodies and really found it interesting to explore the town. What I enjoy in these types of games is some suspense and this game definitely delivers that. There were a number of times when the sun started to go down and the light got a little dimmer and I would be focusing on one thing or another and then have some bastard sneak up on me. Made me jump a little especially with the creepy/suspenseful music playing. Music for me is a big part of any good game and I liked what I heard so far. I really like the combination and balance between the live action scavenging and camp management. It was fun to go out and scavenge for things you needed for that next building, camp upgrade, or new weapon I wanted to make. It would be nice to be able to see specifically what materials you are picking up so you could decide what to keep or drop since you can only carry so much. You can for guns, ammo, meds, etc. but not for some reason not materials. I tried dropping some stuff in specific locations to come pick them up the next time but no luck. It would also be nice to be able to hide items in a trunk or locker so you could get them the next time you’re in town. There is a lot to enjoy in this one so I don’t want to give too much away. Overall I have had a lot of fun so far and am really looking forward to seeing what comes next. As a side note, I have been impressed with the level of involvement the developers have had in the community and the rate at which updates/fixes have been coming out. Keep up the good work!

I recommend this game because even in its EA state it's worth the cost. The game is buggy (yeah, EA) and there is limited content but I found the game satisfyingly addictive, clocking a solid no llifer 8 hours play time my first day of owning the game. The game still has quite a long way to go but its obvious what the devs are attempting to do with the gam and I have no doubt when the game is out of EA it's going to be kickiass. The release date was Dec2015, so keep in mind that the game is a recent EA release not one of those games that have been in EA for years now. And the updates are significant for the most part too. My only real gripe is thaat I have to play a male character because females haven't been shoved in there yet, the option is there though so hopefully that will be soon.

I've had my eye on this game for a couple weeks, so when I logged on and it was on sale for just $2.19, I thought why not. This game is very, very barebones in its current state but I bought it because I see potential in it to improve and become something that's much more in depth than what it is right now; A solid but basic open world survival game with base managment aspects. I'd recommend either getting it on sale if you're interested in being patient and watching the game develop and grow, or waiting till it's a little more complete.

The game is Early Access and still needs a lot of work. There is potential if the Developer works on the game. The game in it's current state, I don't recommend it. It runs like an alpha. It needs to reach beta stage before I'd recommend this game.

The game is literally DayZ, Infestation: Survival Stories, and H1Z1 rolled into one, but there are problems with it...First off I have massive problems getting my mouse to stay INSIDE the game. It doesn't snap into it when I play, instead constantly clicking out while playing and in turn dying due to zombie fights and missclicks causing my game to minimize. All together it's a fun game, but can be so much better.

Bought this game the other day and once i sat down i really enjoyed it even though it was buggy. The new update feels like its headed in the wrong direction and changed alot and took out most of what sucked me in. I will be taking a break and ill check on this game in a few months. The new pics show how the game is now. They let us play the to old version now so im good.

I've only played about 8 hours at the time of posting. All of thse early access games have left a bad impression on me. Games that I paid $30 for a year ago, still are not finished and most likely won't be. For the price of this, and what all I have seen so far, and what is to come, it is a great deal. Gameplay is great. Graphics are actually not all that bad. Seems like it will end up being much more in depth. The only thing that I hope for is a little more into the story. I understand completely that for this game it isn't necessary. But I think it would be kind of neat. Even if it is just in the intro. Anyway, I'm begging, please finish this game in a timely manner! Don't do what ARK and DayZ and the like have done to us!

I cannot recommend this game in its current state. It has potential, but losing everything when bandits randomly spawned around me made me feel like the time I spent looting and crafting was all wasted. That's pretty discouraging, really. Here are the changes I recommend: 1. Make player control more snappy. It doesn't have to be sudden, but right now it feels like I don't have control. 2. Increase acceleration to sprint. It feels like the character is casually jogging into a sprint. 3. Although it's nice to have a map overlay showing exactly where the loot is, it doesn't feel right. The loot in map overlay should be removed so that we have to search for loot instead of sprinting up the street and knowing exactly what containers have loot in them. 4. Implement logic to prevent bandits from spawning too close to the player. There are frequent updates to the game and I look forward to future updates and, hopefully, having these issues addressed.

Nice pre-alpha game. Very frustrating third person shooter. Sneak is as good as not sneaking. Collision with invisable walls, sometimes you can shoot over something other times it ricochets back at your feet. You can jump onto the back of a pickup, but not a crate half as tall. Mobs don't have loot except bandits. Cars are just used as bookselves, loot neatly placed on bumper or trunk. Most places are closed during Alpha so don't bother to explore anything that has a gate around it. Doors don't function, so if the door is closed, it doesn't open. Most objects are not interactable. If I need glass as a resource then why can I not pick up all those bottles? Or even make a moltov cocktail out of them and the fuel and fabric I collect. I can carry 2 rifles a hangun and a melee weapon all at the same time...really. But my jeans can't hold 9mm ammo in one pocket and 357 spare ammo in the other? Inventory needs balanced out and made more sensable. Settlement management is a phone app at best right now. It will RNG you to death. I get the scavenge for resources and break it down to use it, but the management is very chaotic and unintuitive. Settlers are just numbers, no personality and represented as shadowy figures in a background image. Overall the game has a lot of potential and I will still probably play around with it, but only when I am bored with everything else. I do hope they do not abandon this as so many other potentially good games have. Recommend? If your a whiney punk that thinks alpha is a finished product then no, but if you like to play with alpha testing games then yes.

Last update 2019. No effort was made into making this a good game