Dead Matter Releases on Steam: Should You buy it?

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Guided Editor-in-Chief Kevin Willing has been following the survival game Dead Matter since its closed alpha in 2020 and has this to say about the Steam release: Don't buy it! And there are good reasons for that.

What's Going On? Dead Matter started its closed alpha in 2020 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Back then, players were optimistic because Dead Matter was one of the first-ever zombie survival mods, released around the same time as DayZ for Arma 2. Technical demos and many updates at the beginning seemed promising, but then progress came to a halt. Now, a year after the last update, Dead Matter has been released on Steam.

The Problem with Dead Matter & Why You Shouldn't Buy It

It Started So Well: I've been following the development of Dead Matter for over three years, both privately and in my articles, alongside the developers - the former developers. Dead Matter began as an ambitious zombie survival project and did a lot of things right. Some of the game's standout features include:

• Realistic base building with power and barricades
• Persistent open containers (trucks could be loaded as the player wished)
• Great gunplay and realistic weapons
• A unique game world set in Alberta, Canada
• Perk system and backstories for characters

Dead Matter was fun for a few hours, but the updates became increasingly scarce. Recently, the original developers of Dead Matter left the studio and pursued new projects. Some of them are now working on the new project "Vein," which is also playable on Steam.

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It Ends Catastrophically: On September 16th, Dead Matter was released on Steam. The reviews are almost entirely negative. I also virtually visited Alberta again and tried the current version. Here's a brief overview of what doesn't work in Dead Matter:

• Weapon animations are broken.
• Sounds are scratchy and poorly mixed.
• Infected enemies freeze in place.
• Vehicle and base persistence is nonexistent.
• The game world consists of only a handful of towns and one city.
• The originally good gunplay is completely broken.
• With an RTX 3080ti, we barely reach 26 FPS.
• Physics, including vehicle physics, destroy the game.
• AND MUCH MORE

But why does this argue against a purchase? The price of Dead Matter speaks volumes because the developers are asking for a whopping €35.09 for this game. Some might say that the development team is just trying to grab as much money as possible one last time before Dead Matter becomes a dead game in the zombie survival genre.

We're issuing a clear warning against buying Dead Matter, but for those who don't believe us, here's the opinion of YouTuber BigFry:

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