Zombie Shooter- Alive 4-ever RETURNS version 1.1.2 is out!

[Aurora]

Like I said if it's not possible to beat them solo, then you're not getting the full player experience, as half the bonuses are unlocked through that mode. Did I know that when I bought it? No, so it's a rip-off, and a pathetic marketing strategy to force you to spread words about this game and get other people to buy it. No I don't have time to persuade other friends to get some iPhone game so we can huddle together like a bunch of nerds playing some minigame on a tiny screen, that's what MMORPGs are made for. I never heard of in-game content unlocked through multiplayer mode in any iDevice game, guess this developer isn't satisfied with the huge profit from the first game.
I wonder when a proper non space themed dual-stick shooter will be released, Guerilla Bob was fun for a few levels but got boring in a while as well since it was too easy.

[Scythe89]

Originally Posted by Aurora

Like I said if it's not possible to beat them solo, then you're not getting the full player experience, as half the bonuses are unlocked through that mode. Did I know that when I bought it? No, so it's a rip-off, and a pathetic marketing strategy to force you to spread words about this game and get other people to buy it. No I don't have time to persuade other friends to get some iPhone game so we can huddle together like a bunch of nerds playing some minigame on a tiny screen, that's what MMORPGs are made for. I never heard of in-game content unlocked through multiplayer mode in any iDevice game, guess this developer isn't satisfied with the huge profit from the first game.
I wonder when a proper non space themed dual-stick shooter will be released, Guerilla Bob was fun for a few levels but got boring in a while as well since it was too easy.

It is possible to beat solo... All the multiplayer levels can be done solo, the challenges too though the last few are hard, but I was able to do it. for the first level Try staying at where you start, that's how I beat it.

[Exploding Brain]

Hi. I just registered to talk about Alive 4 Ever.
I played the first Alive 4 Ever too and i liked it a lot.
But there were some issues in Game Balancing that affected the game experience.
The worst thing is, that the developers repeated some mistakes in Alive 4 Ever returns.
Since i´m not a native english speaker, i´m just posting a part of my e-mail to Meridian - it´s the easiest way for me to conclude my problems with this game.
I would appreciate your opinions regarding the issues.

At first i have to say, you did a good Job with Alive 4 Ever and Alive 4 Ever returns.
The game is very addictive and well done regarding technical aspects.

But like in the first Game, there are some serious problems in Balancing.

The Bug at first: When i reach Level Character Level 50 the experience bar raises a little after completing a level, but when there should be a Level Up at the end, it stays on Level 50 - but the worst thing is: I don´t get APs anymore to Level up the Abilities.
Not even one Ability is fully upgraded, although the Character seems to be on maximum Level.

I´m very disappointed, for playing a lot of levels a few times for earning experience points and not being able to improve the Character anymore.

I don´t understand, why you didn´t design the Character Development the way it is done on so many other games: With completing the last Level, the Character should be almost fully upgraded.
The Survival Mode get´s very hard after 5 Minutes. It was impossible to reach 4 Minutes in Normal Mode. (edit managed 5 Minutes now.) The Experience Points you earn with playing Survival Mode are too few.
Since it is not possible to earn any AP´s by reaching Level 50 and the Levels are all completed, there is no Motivation for continue play.

It took about 5 hours to "finish" the game like that - that is a little to short. For the price of the game, it is ok! (i would have payed more, for more content.)

The next thing is about the Equipment to receive: Why do you "hide" the best Stuff in Multiplayer mode? Kind of a hard mode, if you play it without a second player?
I think it is IMPOSSIBLE, to complete the Level, where you have to kill 500 Zombies AND save the Survivor. I tried it more than 30 times.
Also the Level where you have to kill 25 "Cops" AND prevent the death of the Survivor.
IMPOSSIBLE for one Player - as a single player i will not get the stuff.
That is not satisfying neither.

And last but not least: The Weapons.
Some of them aren´t very different to others. The Performance Bars are almost the same. Also i don´t feel really a difference while playing between some of them. Why is that?
The most expensive Assault rifle does not do a lot more damage, than the GAK47 or the best Submachine Gun.
The Grenade Launchers and Rocket Launchers don´t give a lot of advantage because of the game design. When the Zombies are attacking from all directions (like mostly in the game) the amount of shots that can be fired is to small for being able to keep them away.
The firepower of GL or RL does not compensate the disadvantage of the few rounds per minute, that can be fired. The magazine capacity limits the possibilies even more.

In other games, it is a big motivation to get new weapons or power ups. You put a great Variety of Weapons in the game, but you are not integrating the feature like it should be.
This was the same in the first Part of Alive 4 Ever.

Please fix the bug in Level UP, work on all the balancing in the game and put some more effort in the details.
The Game has all this high potential, but with a lack of focus on details, it spoils a lot of fun.

Thank you very much for any improvement!

Kind regards

[Bok Choy]

I have a really annoying bug.... I've completed Level 19 three times now, but it doesn't show it as completed. I get the money and experience, but the game won't let me move on. It really sucks because I can't even finish the game with this bug.

Grrr....

[Scythe89]

Originally Posted by WCFields

Thanks! Any tips for dealing with the zombie balloons on level#35? Their really giving me a hard time.

Try hugging the walls and attract the balloons so they hug the wall too. When they're hugging (haha) shoot them and then move and hug the other side of the wall to avoid their explosion and keep on moving towards the objectives.



---------------

I agree with a lot of what you said, my comments are in bold.

Originally Posted by Exploding Brain

Hi. I just registered to talk about Alive 4 Ever.
I played the first Alive 4 Ever too and i liked it a lot.
But there were some issues in Game Balancing that affected the game experience.
The worst thing is, that the developers repeated some mistakes in Alive 4 Ever returns.
Since i´m not a native english speaker, i´m just posting a part of my e-mail to Meridian - it´s the easiest way for me to conclude my problems with this game.
I would appreciate your opinions regarding the issues.

At first i have to say, you did a good Job with Alive 4 Ever and Alive 4 Ever returns.
The game is very addictive and well done regarding technical aspects.

But like in the first Game, there are some serious problems in Balancing.

The Bug at first: When i reach Level Character Level 50 the experience bar raises a little after completing a level, but when there should be a Level Up at the end, it stays on Level 50 - but the worst thing is: I don´t get APs anymore to Level up the Abilities.
Not even one Ability is fully upgraded, although the Character seems to be on maximum Level.

I´m very disappointed, for playing a lot of levels a few times for earning experience points and not being able to improve the Character anymore.

I don´t understand, why you didn´t design the Character Development the way it is done on so many other games: With completing the last Level, the Character should be almost fully upgraded.

I think this was a design choice. However, I agree with you that something should be done about this. If they want to limit the amount of points you can earn they should offer an option to redo your points even if it costs in game money (ie not real money :P). In a game like this you shouldn't be punished if you screw up your point distribution

The Survival Mode get´s very hard after 5 Minutes. It was impossible to reach 4 Minutes in Normal Mode. (edit managed 5 Minutes now.) The Experience Points you earn with playing Survival Mode are too few.
Since it is not possible to earn any AP´s by reaching Level 50 and the Levels are all completed, there is no Motivation for continue play.

If you use the football player and max out his defense and give him the +defense armor he is almost invincible and can easily outlast 5min (I reached 15min to get the achievement and then let them kill me)

It took about 5 hours to "finish" the game like that - that is a little to short. For the price of the game, it is ok! (i would have payed more, for more content.)

The next thing is about the Equipment to receive: Why do you "hide" the best Stuff in Multiplayer mode? Kind of a hard mode, if you play it without a second player?
I think it is IMPOSSIBLE, to complete the Level, where you have to kill 500 Zombies AND save the Survivor. I tried it more than 30 times.
Also the Level where you have to kill 25 "Cops" AND prevent the death of the Survivor.
IMPOSSIBLE for one Player - as a single player i will not get the stuff.
That is not satisfying neither.

It is not impossible to complete the multiplayer levels and challenges.. it's just like you said a hard mode and some of the levels are really difficult, but it is doable!

And last but not least: The Weapons.
Some of them aren´t very different to others. The Performance Bars are almost the same. Also i don´t feel really a difference while playing between some of them. Why is that?
The most expensive Assault rifle does not do a lot more damage, than the GAK47 or the best Submachine Gun.
The Grenade Launchers and Rocket Launchers don´t give a lot of advantage because of the game design. When the Zombies are attacking from all directions (like mostly in the game) the amount of shots that can be fired is to small for being able to keep them away.
The firepower of GL or RL does not compensate the disadvantage of the few rounds per minute, that can be fired. The magazine capacity limits the possibilies even more.

I agree IMO it's kind of misleading saying that there are so many weapons in the game when a lot of them are just stat upgrades of previous weapons. I mostly use the best shotgun and best assault rifle... sometimes the best sniper rifle when I'm leveling up on stage 32 and need to kill the football boss.

In other games, it is a big motivation to get new weapons or power ups. You put a great Variety of Weapons in the game, but you are not integrating the feature like it should be.
This was the same in the first Part of Alive 4 Ever.

Please fix the bug in Level UP, work on all the balancing in the game and put some more effort in the details.
The Game has all this high potential, but with a lack of focus on details, it spoils a lot of fun.

I agree with the balancing! With Ellen and her +damage, +crit, and dual handgun skills she can kill any boss in seconds!

Thank you very much for any improvement!

Kind regards

[Exploding Brain]

Hi Scythe89

Thanks for reading!

I think this was a design choice. However, I agree with you that something should be done about this. If they want to limit the amount of points you can earn they should offer an option to redo your points even if it costs in game money (ie not real money :P). In a game like this you shouldn't be punished if you screw up your point distribution

Ah now you get me to a different point of view.
You mean, that it is intended not being able to max out EVERY Ability of the Character?
Ok, this made sense then. I thought i could be able to do the multiplayer Levels, i did not manage finish before when everything is on maximum.

If you use the football player and max out his defense and give him the +defense armor he is almost invincible and can easily outlast 5min (I reached 15min to get the achievement and then let them kill me)

I agree with the balancing! With Ellen and her +damage, +crit, and dual handgun skills she can kill any boss in seconds!

Ok, so the Characters have absolutely different skills also. This was new for me. I played it only with Ellen yet. (Wanted to get all the weapons first and if i start a new game, all the progress with ellen seems to be lost)
I´ll give it a try with the other Characters.

It is not impossible to complete the multiplayer levels and challenges.. it's just like you said a hard mode and some of the levels are really difficult, but it is doable!

I can hardly believe that. I tried the two levels i described for example so often.
Made me mad, because it wasn´t even close. Just too many of these Creepers

I agree IMO it's kind of misleading saying that there are so many weapons in the game when a lot of them are just stat upgrades of previous weapons. I mostly use the best shotgun and best assault rifle... sometimes the best sniper rifle when I'm leveling up on stage 32 and need to kill the football boss.

I mean there are some good strategic approaches by playing around with the equipment (eg combining the Submachine Gun with 90 Bullets with some Power Improvements like the Jacket Lead Bullets), but i still miss the upgrading weapons experience like in resident evil 4 on PC for example. It is mostly a lot of fun investing in weapons.
And also here are mistakes. I got the first Sniper - then a little later i got the best one, the AS50.
Why should i waste time to get all of them between?

I hope they do a better job in the next part - or better in an update.
I mean, to pay as much as a beer costs for such a game, i will not really complain.
But i think there´s a lot of potential wasted.

BTW: My ideas for a focus on Details would be:

If i put on a helmet, it should be visible on the Character

if i put on the Nightvision Goggles, there could be a shimmering "aura" around the Zombie Crows and the other Zombies in dark areas for example.
(a lot of people were complaining about the crows - an easy way to solute the problem)

Also if i use the Golden DE or the GAK it could be a golden Weapon in the Gameplay also.

If i throw a grenade, these f uck ing Exploding Head Zombies or the Fat Zombies which blow up after being hit should be destroyed without exploding. (i hate them!)
Same by killing them with the Grenade or Rocket Launcher.

[Meridian]

Hi all,

Your opinions are very valuable to us, we will certainly take them in consideration.

[WCFields]

Thanks for the tips scythe89 & exploding brain

[Exploding Brain]

Hi Meridian,

good to know that! Thank you.

About my last suggestion: To destroy the Exploding Zombies by Grenade Launcher or Rocket Launcher instantly, would be a good opportunity for enhancing the Capabilities of this weapon category and a further step to equlibration.

And how about an option to increase the speed of character movement?
I could imagine that this could be an advantage for dealing with the Zombie Football Players and the Zombie runners.
If not putting this in the ability section, this could be an idea as an additional Skill for example.
(But to activate this, would mean more confusion i.m.o - better would be an ability to improve or some Combat Boots as an Equipment Option for example)

I also liked the Zombie Splitter Action more in the first part (the ones that catch you with their tongue), they pulled you toward them instantly. (sometimes this even helped to escape from a bunch of hugging zombies surrounding you )
In Alive4ever returns, you sometimes have to run away from their direction and because of the Weapons range, you are not able to kill them unless walking back toward them.
In many cases, there are so many Zombies inbetween, covering the Splitter also.
So there is no way to get rid of the tongue.
My opinion is, the shooting range of some weapons is to short. Even with the Sniper Rifle it is not possible to hit Opponents which are farer away then where i can aim with the Cross hairs.
This could also be an option to give the use of Sniper Rifles more advantage due to low firing rate.
Concerning the Assault Rifles or the Submachine Guns, the damage they do, could be reduced, the more distance you got to the target, but they should be capable of causing damage too.

It is not my intention, to suggest changes for making the game easier.
Just logical considerations.
(if it get´s to easy then, you just raise the amount of zombies spawning. Sometimes there are still parts of the floor apparent on the screen, which could be filled up with more zombies just joking)

[WCFields]

The increased character speed movement is a great suggestion. Could you also consider adding heavy machine guns to the weapons chart?