The survival MMO Deadside has been in Early Access on Steam since April 14. With around 5000 concurrent players and a positive rating of 79%, the title is doing quite well. We at MeinMMO reveal what Deadside is and what it does right.
This is Deadside: The survival MMO Deadside, developed by Bad Pixel, initially looks quite similar to the well-known title DayZ. The community also draws comparisons to the Exile Mod of Arma 3.
Deadside describes itself as a hardcore multiplayer shooter with a large open world and various ways to survive in it. In a post-apocalypse, you will not fight against zombies here, but against other people and players. You can:
- Complete missions
- Earn money
- Trade in safe zones
- Build your own base
The title made it onto our list of the 7 survival games we look forward to in 2020.
Deadside focuses on strong AI and special missions
These are your enemies in Deadside: In the survival MMO, you will encounter AI-controlled soldiers who patrol the map either alone or in small groups. Don’t underestimate them.
Like in the hardcore shooter Escape from Tarkov, the NPCs here can shoot excellently and quickly take out careless players.
This is the map: The game world in Deadside is currently 50 km² and is set to expand to 225 km² by the end of Early Access. In the active area, you will find many forests, abandoned villages or industrial locations, and large open fields.
Two safe zones offer you the opportunity to buy or sell items and rest. PvP is not possible here.
Currently, up to 50 players can gather on a server.
These are the missions: What makes Deadside special are the missions. They play out differently than you might expect. Combat zones regularly appear on the map when bandits start causing chaos. Players can enter these areas and eliminate the bandits.
This sounds primarily like the events in Fallout 76, with one difference: Once the event or mission is over, the reward goes to the player who loots the fastest.
This is base building: Deadside offers a base-building feature for individual players as well as for groups. Using gathered resources, individual parts like walls or towers can be built. At the moment, these are also indestructible, but later they will be able to be destroyed thanks to a raid feature.
Many updates and a clear roadmap
The community is responding positively to Deadside. 79% positive reviews and about 5000 players online concurrently with a peak of up to 9500 players is not bad for a fresh early-access title.
What the developer is doing right: Developer Bad Pixel regularly releases patches, hotfixes, and content updates. They also provide a clear direction with their roadmap and communicate with their community about their goals.
Not only is the map set to grow by 4.5 times, but Deadside will also receive more missions, weapons, and equipment as well as vehicles in future updates. But even now, players are having fun with the title and have enough content to explore.
The early access phase is planned for 12 to 18 months. The full release is therefore expected to be targeted by the end of 2021.
What the community appreciates: Mostly positive, the community sees great potential in Deadside. In particular, players of the big survival titles like Rust are expected to feel at home in the title.
- Steam user Dr. King Schultz says: “This game is really good. It’s a mix of Rust, Escape from Tarkov, and DayZ. All these games combined make it a great game. The fact that the game is in an early stage only shows that the game will get much better, even though it’s already good.”
- Steam user Top Ramen isn’t as enthusiastic but still enjoys it: “Base building is very boring and some of the mechanics are not the best, but the game is really fun, especially when you have friends to play with.”
What the community doesn’t like: But not everyone is thrilled, and there is some criticism of the game, primarily concerning the title being too similar to others.
- Steam user Silence would like to rate the game as good, but in its current state, he cannot: “The game itself is nothing more than a watered-down version of DayZ SA, which is about as good as the original. It’s not suitable for newcomers (especially since anyone who sees you will only shoot at sight, as in DayZ SA) and it has nothing that distinguishes it from the masses of other similar open-world survival games.”
Deadside seems to be off to a mostly good start. How the title will develop in the coming months remains to be seen. In the meantime, those who want to play other games in the genre can check out our list of the best survival games.
