Jaws of Extinction Early Access
TL:DR
A game with huge potential, pretty graphics, a massive open world, experimental Co-Op, interesting characters but one that is early in it’s development so, sure it is buggy, it’s a ALPHA!. My advice if you like the look of it buy it now and help steer the development, squash bugs, give constructive feedback and generally help the Devs deliver the game you want it to be, or just buy it to financially support the Dev.
A LITTLE SOAP BOX MOMENT
Straight up, it still seems that people have a hard time understanding what Early Access is, the game is meant to be in an early stage with missing features and content, it is an alpha which is a perfectly reasonable state to release an Early Access game in!
Buying an Early Access game you are doing so to either help shape the game, report bugs, make suggestions and generally support the development directly via feedback, preferably constructive, or to simply support financially.
A Little bit of Info
Now I have that moan off my chest, ‘JOE’ has come along way since it’s prototype release in 2019, the original release date on the Steam page, don’t be fooled though it was actually released on the 23rd September 2021, this issue is something, that due to how things work on Steam, cannot be changed, so just be aware it is a new early access release and it is honestly very promising.
SOAP BOX STASHED, WHAT’S THE GAME LIKE NOW?
Graphics
The game is very good looking even at this early stage, not perfect, but for a game in Alpha very nice. Excellent lighting, the reflections while not real time are done very well, the shadows are where shadows should be and so on, I mean it is a very pretty game but there are things that need addressing such as some textures, grass popping through floors, all the usual things you expect in an alpha, this may be a the start of a recurring theme here.
I do however need to give the team their due having seen the prototype screenshots versus what they have released here, they have done a ton of work on the visuals.
Gameplay
It’s early days yet but the quests I have take all work just fine give you opportunity to get into combat a fair bit, go prepared, the Zombies are not pushovers.
I personally think the crafting is very promising, even early on it is very cool with items having a more detailed requirements than most starter objects in survival crafting. You might think that this is a bad but everything is easy to find when you look and break things down.
There seems to be a good variety of weapons early on, quiet and noisy though I don’t understand why the knife you get is not a weapon, but maybe I am missing something.
Overall even early doors I like it the gameplay and there is plenty more for me to see, you only have to look at the size of the map to see that.
Characters
The Sheriff and I are already off to a beautiful start, he does makes me chuckle and that moustache is amazing.
As for everyone else, well the camp manager is a dick and I dislike him so they are already eliciting emotional responses from me so that’s a bonus. The only thing I would say is that some of the simpler interactions, shop etc, are a little more wooden than I would like but this does seem to be fairly common in most game, I would just like to see a change but that’s me.
Voice Acting
For the most part the voice acting is good, very good actually in some, with the occasional average, it does need work for sure, but there is plenty of time to expand and improve what few problems there are here. There are one or two bugs in this area, for instance one of the starting female characters would mostly use the voice of one of the main male characters.
Story/Writing
Having only played 4 hours, it is quite difficult to make a full assessment of the entire story and writing but what I have experienced is OK, thin on the ground so far but you would expect that at this early stage, see what I mean about recurring theme. I have no doubt there are still lines to flesh out or write but so far I am impressed.
Sound
It all sounds fine and dandy, there could me more detail in footfall sounds, changing from concrete to grass to mud etc but there is time for that to happen.
I would also say the gun sound needs to be amplified a touch too, this is the zombie apocalypse and you should be afraid to fire your gun unless absolutely necessary in case you pull more infected. Although to be fair no one said they were zombies I am just assuming, bad Raz.
SUMMARY
A very promising title that if able to deliver on it’s promise could be an excellent, excellent title indeed and while it is some time from complete according to the early access statement it is one I shall be checking on regularly both on and off stream. The risk here is that is falls short on funding later in development and has to be rushed and that would be a shame because this, at least for me, has so much potential to be a game with tons to offer.
The best we can do to make sure this does not happen is as gamers purchase to the title to support it, if you are into this kind of game and want to play it eventually of course or buy it to play and give feedback as the game develops.
As Streamers and Influencers we need to keep an eye on the title and stream it as much as possible or as much as makes sense and show off the work the devs are doing to progess the game.
That usage of asset’s grumble.
Only AAA studios with big budgets and tons of staff can afford to have in house teams develop every detail of the game, Indie studios with I have no doubt use a combination of assets and in house art to produce a game, this does not mean anything other that, this is how non AAA studios do things.
There have been times in the past that people have done the nasty and put out asset flips, I have been caught out by these too, but you cannot go into or look at every game that uses them in the same light. Also as someone who is developing maps for use in projects, I can tell you, using assets is a massive time saver so more time can be spent on other things. Don’t judge a game because it uses assets.
Have a little faith and see what happens.