I’ve been trying to positively review the game from the first time I’ve played the game and to now. I still want to review it and it’s still mostly positive, but I’ve been procrastinating forever… So, in a simpler manner - Here’s my opinion and feedback about Alpine unrest and it’s story.
8$ for the RollerCoaster that was this DLC? It’s definitely worth it’s price. It isn’t a rollercoaster of emotions though. It’s more of excitement, shattering expectation, but also derping up the immersion.
The island has it’s own look and story with it’s own new ways of spicing up a story that is not intruding with the main story, but rather could be a story that you can branch in to in the middle of the main story or after finish that. The main mission of the island has actual incentive and stakes that made it interesting. It was something that GZ really needed to show how much more from now can be done and expanded upon.
The story and the new surroundings are what give the worth for the DLC as it could’ve been another asset copy of an island. It wasn’t and I’m happy for that. Walking around the towns, seeing even more effort put in to the environment and story telling through it put me in those same feelings and shoes I had at the very first hours of GZ. It was a great feeling of caution and excitement, where the jumpscares of ticks started working on me again. Previously closed buildings that now were furnished from the inside gave back the incentive to loot insides of buildings and not just go straight for parked cars. New enemies were scary and a threat to my hoarding as I had to start burning through resources to keep an incentive alive - protecting Survivors.
NPC survivors for many was the big thing to buy the DLC and finally find that living piece of flesh they hoped to find in the very beginning of the game. For me, it was a bit odd. It was a big and cool step to take with NPCs as it was something people kept wondering about, but I still think it could’ve waited and be done better. The survivors that I found was a great excitement that got me to start the story, but mid-through I got bored as the NPCs were very stiff. The empty husks only reacted when directly interacting with them and I hoped for a bit more. After a mission that I did for them, I started walking and bumping in to them, but they were in their static position and not even reacting to my presence. This is where I was disappointed.
I would’ve been happier to pay more and get more from the NPCs. I would’ve liked seeing them walk around, turn towards me and say a line or two. I would’ve liked all of them share their story of getting this far. At least if they didn’t interact with me, would’ve been interesting if they did it between them and play it off as ‘I’m the big scary stranger here’, so i’d get the feeling of ‘I need to prove my worth to them by doing what they ask’, rather than ‘I have to fetch this to them because they’re hopeless and stiff’.
Every other thing I enjoyed on the Island, but simply not the NPCs. It was awkward to go through a mission, be stuck looking for a very small keycard/key/barcode and once you finally find it, instantly there’s a voice over the radio that startles me. I completely side-tracked and looted, then only found a key and then realised that this whole time someone over the radio was waiting to tell me something about this one facility. It was that the voicelines were triggered only by certain events and if I were to be way too slow and took time to use other mechanics, the voicelines just stop and have this long silence of nothingness to only resume after I did something particular and now making less sense as I don’t even remember what was said before that.
So the middle of the main story was… a drag. It was slow and went in to this fetching routine again. I’m glad it wasn’t like that through the end as a particular appearance of a new NPC just woke me up from boredom and spun the story back in action. It may have been a scripted event, but it was scripted so well that it caught me off-guard and shattered further expectation of the story. This one or two events through the story completely uplifted the other parts as there finally was some movement.
The finale showed something new in mission flags that wasn’t just fetching. It was also something that shattered expectation of a mission and made me worried. Seeing that there was something to lose and I nearly did lose it, I actually scrambled for the best gear I had, no longer saving my precious explosives, traps and guns. There are just multiple highlights on this smaller island that made it a whole lot better than what the base game offers and for it’s price… it’s worth.
I will still side-quest and explore, but without the side quests, the content was well worth it. I wish to see more of these special moments from you guys.
I can copy text to Notepad and send it in PM, should you like.