Nether
Review
Needs work, a LOT of work
by Johnathan Irwin
reviewed on PC
In Desperate Need Of More Than Duct Tape
Almost everything else is in need of more work. MUCH more work. Quite often it feels as though the game is still in beta and even the environment that I find so beautiful has technical failings so numerous that at the moment they can only be considered the product of a severe lack of manpower on the development team.
Countless times I'd find myself walking down a road, only to notice that the rubble was anywhere from a few inches to a few feet off the ground. Laying down in the tall grass, that too was too far off the surface. Counters in interiors allowed me to crawl inside and shoot at my enemies without anyone being able to see me let alone hit me. A tunnel that had caved simply let me walk through as the image of the collapse was nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
And it doesn't stop there. Fire escapes randomly clip into the buildings several stories up on many buildings for no reason. If you want to use them, you have to either be very crafty at jumping or simply walk back down and numerous open doorways act as though they are blocked. Quite honestly as it is right now, the glitches and technical failings are far too numerous to list them all.
Becoming The Ultimate Survivor
Combat is functional, but very rough around the edges. Inconsistencies in hit detection with both melee and firearms stand very prominent. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don't and it can make all the difference in a battle. Against the Nether themselves, you're almost always guaranteed to win unless you have managed to aggro multiple at once. That is a scenario that is rare unless a safe zone has failed and the Nether are overrunning it. Most of the time the creatures you encounter will be by themselves and easy prey. Yes, even the intimidating behemoths known as Golems are easy as long as you dodge and weave.
Against players however, the hit detection is when it truly becomes an issue, and especially so with firearms. Good luck killing anything at a distance, as it is highly unlikely to happen; have your sights right on someone with a long range weapon while you have the height advantage? Watch as you see the bullet connect, but no blood erupts from their form and no damage is done. As for closed quarters combat, it boils down to spraying and praying with firearms and hoping you kill the other guy before they kill you. Because of this, combat has mostly boiled down to ambushes before the other player can fight back.
While combat is the quickest way to level up, you also get experience for looting, exploring, and simply surviving. The quests you can take part in are all simple delivery runs or involve fighting off Nether at a fallen safe zone. When level up, it does give you - some - sense of progress but not much, mostly because the perks you gain don't really feel like they change anything at all. If you'd like to make your leveling experience more enjoyable you can join a tribe but most of the time tribe members don't bother to aid each other, so really you're only doing it for the sake of doing it. Very rarely does it actually add anything more to the gameplay.
What It Could Be...
My opinion of Nether changed vastly in the days I've played it. There were moments of grandeur, there were moments of failures. There were moments where I found myself awestruck by beauty, and moments where I was equally dumbfounded by the glitches or technical failures I encountered. My journey through this vast world was one I will not soon forget, for both good and bad reasons.
Still, the potential is there. With effort, dedication, and a painstaking amount of man hours, it is plain to see that Nether could become a game to rival the likes of DayZ and Rust. As it stands, I cannot suggest this game to anyone looking for a unique survival experience.
4.0
fun score
Pros
Beautiful take on a post apocalyptic urban environment
Cons
Technical failures, glitches, bland gameplay
