Game Review: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (0.G Stable Version)

I originally learned about Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead from the same place I learned about so many other games--a Rock Paper Shotgun article. As an old devotee of Dwarf Fortress (from before Z levels!) and UnReal World, I loved the article's description of an expansive crafting system and an apocalypse where nearly everything went wrong at once, so I downloaded the stable version--despite the disclaimer on the article, I was put off from downloading the experimental version--and made a character and loaded into the world. I started in the evacuation shelter, talked to my starting NPC who gave me some mission I don't remember, and with some bare supplies I left the shelter. There was a road to the south but I struck off into the wilderness for a while, reasoning that a place with a large population was a place with a lot of zombies, and saw a few wild animals and some giant insects that I avoided before noticing the outskirts of a small town. With a stout branch in my hands, I snuck from the forest to the closest of the houses and shattered a window and entered the house.

Mistake. I immediately hear shuffling footsteps approaching from the street outside, and as the thumping started on the front door I grabbed a couple cans of food and climbed out the window, cutting myself on the broken glass. I was greeted with a zombie coming around the corner of the house, and I laid into it with the stick. I managed to kill it, but the noise attracted a few more, and though I tried to run a tough zombie grabbed me and I couldn't break free. RIP.

That's a pretty good summary of how a lot of CDDA games go to this day.

YOU DIED.

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