Zafehouse: Diaries has received glowing praise on Idle Thumbs, the podcast hosted by Double Fine writer Chris Remo, The Walking Dead lead designer Sean Vanaman and The Walking Dead co-project lead Jake Rodkin.
In the latest podcast, Remo and Vanaman have nothing but good things to say about their experiences with the game. (If you'd like to hear the guys chat about Zafehouse: Diaries, be sure skip to the 56-minute mark.)
Here's a tidbit from Remo:
The fact that it's turn based and the fact that all the relationships between all the people is so complex -- well, so theoretically complex -- it feels, even though it's turn based, you can take it however slow you want, it feels like such an active experience.
You know, a lot of games, a lot of fast paced games, real time games, you can be mentally checked out while you're playing them ... This game was so in contrast.
And a couple of snippets from Vanaman:
You send one guy to do something, you feel like you've covered all your bases [and then you realise] "Oh my god, I didn't send him with a gun." [Then] it's starting to tell you the outcome -- you hit basically "Go" and then it writes in a journal ... you're reading it and waiting for the paragraph that reads like "Mark was eaten." When it doesn't happen you feel like you dodged a massive bullet. It's awesome.
I like the fact the car one [Road Kill] has a very specific goal. As you're exploring locations in [Road Kill] you'll find little clues ... so you're getting information and then you have to go to the map and find the street and find the building ... and then you can move [the notes] around on a table.
There's like a notes section, where you collect the clues -- and you can push them around ("These are the ones I've done, these are the ones I haven't done") and it doesn't do any of the hand-holding stuff where it says "Good job! That note's done now." They're just artefacts like you'd have in your pocket, which I love.
The game treats you like a smart person, it expects you to be really, really critical all the way through it and it's just really wonderful ... I think this game would do incredibly well on Steam ... I think it's one of those games when people see it, if it were to get on the front page of Steam, yeah...
Zafehouse: Diaries can be purchased today via Desura, for $US9.99. Oh, and a thumbs-up on Greenlight would be fantastic!
Why haven't I found this yet?
Great game. Bought it few days ago!