Miscreated
Entrada Interactive LLC
Like many multiplayer PC survival game junkies, I was pretty let down by the mishandling of zombie-apocalypse game DayZ. A Steam reviewer reflected this collective disappointment:
“Disgustingly unfinished upon release and you can tell they didn’t care about working on it after they got their pre-orders. Congrats on releasing 40 different t-shirts before even 1/10 of the content the mod had.”
Some folks even exclaimed that they’d left the entire genre behind because of DayZ’s apparent demise. That’s a pretty drastic move.
Also like many of the distraught people who longed for a game to scratch the post-apocalyptic survival game itch, I looked for substitutes. I tried 7 Days to Die with a friend and we played it for a while but then it began to seem as if it was becoming abandon-ware like many other Early Access games (Just Survive anyone?). Plus, the game’s graphics were pretty atrocious.
The only other viable option was Miscreated, which had been launched into EA way back in October of 2014. We tried it out shortly after it debuted and absolutely loved the gorgeous CryEngine-powered visuals. However, many of its systems, such as crafting and building, were far too raw to make it playable and it lacked a lot of overall content as well.
Since then, Miscreated’s developers have released a steady stream of free content, and haven’t tried any funny business (so far) such as introducing paid loot crates or other greedy nonsense. In fact, they’ve not only greatly expanded the main map but also refined many of the game’s core systems such as base building and combat.
One of the primary (if not THE main) complaints about Miscreated that seemed to have kept it from winning the hearts and minds of armchair survivalists, was the fact that the game lacked storage capacity. In other words, after you built your nice little cozy base somewhere you could only fit a very limited amount of weapons and equipment in it.
As a workaround, many people stashed their excess belongings in vehicles and parked them within the walls of their bases. It was pretty ridiculous, to tell the truth—encountering base after human-made base that had numerous cars and trucks stuffed up on their lawns.
But no more…
Miscreated’s latest patch finally introduces expanded storage capabilities. This most recent update added ninety base storage slots and infinite storage with the use of coins which you can loot from kiosks located at various points on the map. What’s more is that none of your stored gear can be looted, raided, or otherwise molested by malcontents.
I recently dove back into Miscreated and had the following experiences:
Although I had recently spawned in and had no weapons (you only start with the clothes on your back and a tiny little flashlight) a few geared-up guys drove up to me in their pickup truck and offered me some free food, water, and even a weapon and some ammo.
Later on, when I’d teamed up with a random player who became my new friend, we were running from a Brute (one of the more powerful mutant AIs) and someone hiding in some far off bushes sniped the monstrous creature, killing it and saving our lives.
After we’d investigated the huge downtown area (complete with skyscrapers) we came into contact with four very well armed players. We all just sort of paused and looked at each other. Then, someone cracked a joke and we all laughed and went our separate ways.
These various experiences were unheard of when there was limited storage because people were constantly killing one another to outfit themselves with the best loot on each server. With such a small amount of room to stash your gear, people felt the need to have only the best items. With the new update, you can now have potentially unlimited storage space so there is no longer a need to have the few best items that your previously limited capacity could afford to hold.
However, I did have quite a different experience on another server. I was lone-wolfing it through a town and stumbled into a store to search for loot when I heard someone greet me. I turned and saw another player who was apparently doing the same thing. We talked and looted together and made sure that we were both well fed and hydrated before we left the town.
We made it a point to make it to a military base at the southern tip of the map since we knew that there was some great potential loot to be had there. As we were scavenging for anything valuable, he came across an assault rifle and began loading it up with ammo. He then spun around and started firing at my wildly. I only had a combat knife but managed to rush him and take him out with a few well-placed stabs.
The point here is that there will always be PvP types in survival games who will turn on you when they have (or gain) the upper hand, so trust no one. However, with this new update, much of the kill-on-sight behavior that people had been complaining about (and rightfully so) has been greatly mitigated. With all of Miscreated’s other systems that are coming along nicely as well as regular content updates, this could be the DayZ killer that we’ve all dreamt about. I highly recommend this game to any true post-apocalyptic survival fans.
SCORE: 83%
Miscreated features great graphics that make its post-apocalyptic survival gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
Visit CyberpowerPC’s website to check out all of the other great deals as well!