Urban Strife

Cannot recommend, repeated crashes a couple hours in, and the worst thing, if you have more than 2 hours on and you will by the time the crashes start, you cannot get a refund - so you are stuck!!!!

OMFG this game is awesome, and I think it should get your funding/support, it's basically a modern BG/BG2 game but zombies -post apocalyptic-like Fallout 1-2. You can play real time or tactics-like with pause (when in combat and your NOT in stealth or you were disovered/seen/heard)

Your stats increase as you use them, but feels like a good way too, not fast but steadily and making ssense. The injuries are easy to forgive, but also add up, and time recovers your injuries, I love the base building and resource mechanics.

This game might very well be the best game I've played in 20 years !

I can't wait for an end-game/developement version with mods !

100% this game will be in those bins where games that were not discovered go but have a cult following and are infact INDIE-but really really good and well worth the time and money to play them !

Great turn based squad tactical RPG, very much in the vein of Jagged Alliance, X-Com, Dead State, etc.

Dead State 2, as if that were a bad thing :)

Still a bit rough around the edges, but that's what early access is for. Makings of a solid indie RPG. Well worth it.

Do not buy this game in its current state as it is dog shit. The devs have decided to go with a combat system that ties EVERY ACTION you take to an AP system but the values you need to do anything are so fucking ridiculous that it's beyond the point of humorous. You know that UI mechanic in XCOM and Rogue Trader where it tells you the hard limit of where your characters can go with a colored border? Yeah, you don't need that shit, move your mouse around and find out. You know that mechanic of pausing the game when the AI is taking their turn? Don't need that either. Have you ever seen on every other tactical shooter where you select a target and it tells you how likely you are to hit that target? Use your imagination and then expect a miss. If you like damage rolls you'll love this because a 12 gauge in this game can either tickle their funny bone or cause a bit of a headache from the same distance; and that satisfying mechanic where you can move one of your squad on a flank and delete an opponent from existence like in XCOM doesn't exist here.

That's not even touching the fact that the combat voices are AI generated and such idiotic characatures of what a foreign dev team think Americans sound like when they talk that it's actually borderline insulting. No AI voices for the cutscene dialogue for whatever reason they made that decision. Since I played for three hours I'm fucked by Steam standards but do not make the same mistake I did.

I will preface this review by stating this is done as of february 3rd, 2025 as it is in early access, so take this with a grain of salt as this is not the final product.

The game is very similar to a game known as dead state, a zombie survival base management game. however, where that game fell flat on many notes this game learned from and is improving upon. The combat is challenging without being insanely repetitive (unless you want that, more later), the loot system is fairly managable and easily intuitive (icons over the item that denotes whether it fulfills a base need or not) and the story once you get into it is not half bad, but it DOES need a layer of spit shine (once again, early access. give it time)

It ISNT all roses and sunshine though. The graphics are a lil stale and i swear the chance to hit with some enemies is heavily skewed in their favor (Devs have flat out told me its not that way but it feels like it when i get hit with a nailgun from across a whole house where if i try the same shot with my high marksman character i NEVER hit), but most if not all my complaints the devs who are highly active in the discussions (they tend to reply within a day or two, 3 was longest ive waited) have stated are currently being worked on.

Do not mistake this for a finished product. Its NOT done. if you go in right now expecting a completed game, you will be highly unsatisfied. If that means you wanna hold off till it is done, devs have stated unless they have to do major overhauls, should be worst case 6 months. Otherwise, i think its good so far and worth the money right now.

I have finished playing the current content and will give a short feedback. I will update my review as development continues.

I recommend the game BUT it is currently not worth the price. At the moment you have about 12 hours of playing time ahead of you. Either buy it on offer, wait or support the developers. It is just important to know before you are disappointed.

The story is good and every decision has consequences. Nevertheless, it feels somewhat linear. It is like choosing between left long or right long. But the result seems to be the same. There is a lot to read. If you don't feel like it, you will wander around a bit aimlessly. A lot of dialogue is important and should be read. It annoyed me a bit.
As all dialogue is in English and no other languages ​​are currently available, you should stay away from it if you have difficulties with English.

I find the voice sounds of the main character extremely annoying. He is the only one who yells while all the others are cool and very well implemented. RELOADING!!! ROGGER!!! Like a startled fighting rabbit. Annoying.

The attributes and perks are not well-developed. Some attributes cannot be improved and some perks cannot be unlocked. Unfortunately, the coolest ones. That also annoyed me a lot.

I created a character with maximum intelligence and wanted to use this bonus to increase the other attributes more quickly. That worked well with agility. It was rather bad with marksmanship and you only seem to increase strength when you walk around fully loaded or travel around the map. I would have had to wait about 5 hours for an attribute point. Kind of uncool.

Some enemies are strange. They dodge every bullet. No matter whether they are zombies or humans. That gets you into big trouble every now and then.

Some lootable objects are also poorly placed on the map and are not accessible. Fortunately, there were no quest-relevant bugs or restrictions.

The storage system... I don't understand it. I go out, loot, come back, expand the camp and try somehow to keep food, medicine, fuel and morale high. But every time I take someone new home from my missions. And I have to because I need workers. But the new person increases the need in all categories. It is impossible to meet all needs and I have not managed to accumulate supplies for 4 days. This is very poorly done and actually led to me becoming very unmotivated.

I'll give the game a chance but I would wait. What is currently being offered for the price is not entirely fair. And no one can convince me otherwise.

Amateur game made by amateur developers. Random chance to completly lose a character during a fight, to then reload and completely mop the floor with said encounter. It's trying to be dead state, but fails horribly in the tone of the game. Everyone has ridiculous voice lines and goofy looking AI art. Most of the encounters are just against human enemies, whereas in dead state, the first 10 hours were mostly just zombie encounters, which ratcheted the tension. Here, it's against constant human enemies with laser point accuracy.

Not much more to say. There isn't much content here and what is here, is extremely dull. Constantly kill human npc's, to then sell that loot to build up your base. None of the characters are memorable and the loop gets dull fast.

Unfinished but fun

1/2 as good as Dead State. If Dead State was able to launch on windows 11 - I'd be playing it over this. Not bad just meh. Clunky, stuff vanishes from ur home loot, crafting is bare bones. Just not as good and payed 2x for this what Dead state cost me. Leaves you 65% satisfied compared to Deadstate.

for 40







For 40$ USD this game should be much more developed thin it is. Don't spend your money on this title until major movement in the finished product.

I regret buying this game.

Take Fallout 2, circa 1999, remove the great story, add horrible voice-acting, toss in a thin, crude strategic level, and you have Urban Strife.

The voice acting is a disaster, the interface clunky, the load times absurd, the plot almost non-existant, and much of the game isnt finished, but they still charge full price. This is a straightforward rip-off.

I think it's a great game. Sure it is true that it is not breaking new ground but does it have to to be entertaining? I have played all the way to the end of the current story and did not run into any kind of glitch or contradiction. It plays smooth and has an engaging but not terrible inspired or original premise. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. I just wish there was more. I am really looking forward to more game play. Good job, I wish you guys the best.

Good story. Fun game play. Well done turn based combat.

I loved playing Dead State, and this feels like a new and improved version. I hope the devs continue to make content, eventually add much more map locations and things to build in base, and sand box. Love the game so far, great work.

Kinda plays like fallout 1/2.

Urban Strife feels exactly like Dead State, one of my favorite games. This is both good and bad. Good, because I would like another Dead State. Bad because Dead State is by now ten years old, and Urban Strife already feels that old. Dead State now costs twenty dollars, while Urban Strife is thirty-four dollars. Should I say thirty-four dollars is too much? It is too much for a game like this. There, I said it. I will keep it on my wish list for when it is on sale and I read that a ton of content has been added.

good game

Finished the completed stage to include the cemetery. The game is excellent, has a wasteland II feel, with enough story to keep you engaged for a early release. Somethings that need to be added as they flesh it out. Stealing has to be a option, if you take something across town and no one can see you, it should not aggro you to everyone. For a early access there were not many bugs, there were occasions where loot would be trapped behind unmovable objects but this was mainly on the Gas Station map. They also need to create a local map (there is a global map but the need a local map). Improve smart travel where if you click to go to the map exist points your team does not move through a aggro zone. Additionally, being able to repair body armor (primarily helmets) and guns would be helpful. But it looks like that is already in the works. Think of adding it where when you recruit players they can join you there verse having to go back to the sanctuary. But the concepts are good, the combat is balanced (it is deadly at close range and are harder levels), the graphics are pretty (I got a high end machine and had no lagging issues or bogging down). I would get this game in early access and try and work through each one having bikers, army, or the church as your allies to give you a idea. I have done that and the church is the hardest in my opinion but they each is interesting. As this expands, there can be tones of replay times and hours of fun. Worth it.

Really reminds me of dead state so far its a good game like the story as well can't wait to see more.

Pros
Game is pretty fun.

Cons
Game is not very fun when you reach the supermarket map and the game crashes every 5th thing you click.

I got shot with a bolt by a cultist through 2 different chain link fences and a wooden wall. This made me believe in God and the cultists.

Looks very promising, has Fallout 1 and 2 + Dead State vibes. That said, I decided to stop after doing a couple of missions cause I want to wait for the release. I don't want to burn myself out on EA for this one, and I'm not sure if this is something with a lot of replayability, which is ok in my book for games like these.

It needs some more time in the oven, but based on the patchnotes & updates since EA release, they are giving it their all. Looking forward to play this fully in a few months from now.

Awsome game so far so ready for the world to open up more

if i could leave a mixed review i would. Gameplay is decent and engaging and is on par with most squad based rpgs. Definitely still needs some work. currently having some kind of crashing error. cant open the game just keeps saying fatal error. They need to revamp stealth. Makes no sense i can stealth kill zombies without alerting others nearby but if you try to stealth kill another faction itll automatically make their whole group hostile. not much in the way of character development if any feel no personal attachment to a single character in the game. (except maybe bubba but thats only because he's either special needs, a redneck forest gump, or has a very unbranching family tree.) Going to give it another couple hours of gameplay if i can get the game to start again and will update my review then.

update: dev team is absolutely amazing sat here and walked me through a bug i was having for over an hour you can tell they genuinely give a shit about the game i have high hopes and my games working now!

when i see this playing i like it lots loot and food and i got it there is no loot and food not much

just played through the first two missions and seems like a remake of dead state reanimated which isn't a bad thing so far it seems a little old school with the way the controls are laid out but i can see myself spending a lot of time on this potential gem

Beautiful game with an appropriate storyline and completely new faction “approach” toward the zombies. Three factions offered different gameplay, allies and building upgrades. The choices do matter. Every companion has his or her specific faction affiliation and such inclination is usable into the dialogs too. Even in its early access I`ll give it 8.7 out of 10 and expect to become even better with every following upgrade.
And last, but not least, nurse Li is such a cute, and her accent is sooo sweet ... Personally, I do appreciate detailed character creation of the main NPCs very, very much.

This game is a decent contender for the spot of spiritual successor to Jagged Alliance 2, a few problems held it back so far however.

1. Random headshots that basically knock off your characters in 1 shot, especially low tier enemies with shotguns.
2. Cover system is kinda jank
3. Survival elements actively hinders gameplay, you have to ferry stuff back to the camp for one, let alone they compete with crafting.

For an 'Early Access Game' I am very impressed. Looking forward to the rest of the game.

Games like this are hard to make work. Urban Strife works, in its current state. It isn't a finished game, but it has great potential.

For the devs I have three pieces of advise.

1.) Players typically know what they want, but they can also be finicky and have a penchant for following the crowd. They bitch a lot. Don't let it get you down. Few people have the "answer" when posting freely on the web.

2.) Stick to your principles and visions. This is your game.

3.) Let players guide you, but not in every way. I find players have great suggestions when it comes to QOL and UI, but are typically trash when it comes to storyline. Everything in between is up to you.

Keep up the good work. Game development isn't for the faint of heart.

Nice oldschool game. If you liked Jagged Alliance 2 you will also enjoy this one. This review was written right after the early access release. I would say you get 15-20 hours of gameplay right now. Still it's only a bigger demo, but already worthwhile.

Good entry into the zombie survival genre. Build your base up to cope with more refugees coming in, make alliances where most of the potential allies are deeply flawed, stay alive. Its currently at the end of chapter 1 so don't expect a finished product but its a good product to that point so looking forwards to the rest.

Gameplay is 3/5
Skills in game is stiil in WIP
Story is is still WIP
Factions were there (each with own must have blueprint)

Score is WIP meaning not yet.

Rather rough around the edges (mainly for me display issues), it's of course not complete. Seems to be missing features. Needs balancing and the entire quest line isn't complete. I do love the turn based combat and the decisions you make for your shelter (You get x days until your place gets hit by a zombie horde)

A zombie turn-based game that at first glance resembles Jagged Alliance. I thought it was a dream come true, but unfortunately it turned out to be a nightmare. Extremely stiff gameplay in every way, from killing zombies to using your inventory/crafting menu. After a few minutes I already knew enough, this is not going to go well. If it were similar in style to Jagged Alliance it would be a fantastic game, but for me this is one big frustration and irritation fest. A refund is therefore a logical next step, shame.

The Game is good, but the writing is not to my liking and lack of cinematic in combat really make it hard to stay immersed in the game for longer then 2 minutes at a time.

Tone Deaf Portrayal of the South Ruins the Experience

As a southerner, I went into Urban Strife hoping for an engaging post-apocalyptic survival game, but instead, I found myself constantly pulled out of the experience by how the game handles its setting and characters. The developers seem to have leaned into tired stereotypes about the South complete with exaggerated "hillbilly" names and forced, unrealistic dialogue that feel more like an outsider's parody than an honest attempt at capturing the region's culture or people.

This isn’t satire, and it’s not trying to be funny or ironic, which makes the lack of authenticity stand out even more. Instead of creating believable, relatable characters, the game relies on tropes that are more frustrating than entertaining. For a game that appears to take itself seriously, this choice is baffling and, frankly, off putting.

It’s a shame because there’s potential here, but the tone deaf portrayal of the South robs the game of any sense of immersion for players like me who actually live here. If you’re looking for a realistic or respectful depiction of southern culture, Urban Strife falls disappointingly short.

So let's get to the Good, the Bad, the and Kitchen Nightmares Makeover....

The Genre fits a missing RPG+ Strategy Niche similar to Dead State 2.0, there is the ability to recruit a party like most RPGs , go on team missions like in Jagged Alliance 1-3, and base building to some extent like Dead State. The world building aspect is appealing and it is necessary to go out into the world to scavenge supplies to improve said base or current equipment. The fighting UI is pretty straightforward and does not even need a tutorial to get the hang of.

As for the Bad, the party to the play is predetermined and would have been better if we can select or create our own party members like in Wastleland 2-3 to give us a variety of team options. Even NPCs we encounter do not get the opportunity to be recruited either dialog option or via quest, reputation. When siding with one faction or another, automatically a faction specific NPC joins your team anyways which takes away from that exclusivity.

I like the ideas of factions and there are unique plans that help augment that choice, but I would like to see more missions, recruitable NPCs, or support functions like a military "artillery per misison use" NPCs also do not react to previous missions, or actions and therefore seem inconsequential to the story.
As for the looting aspect which is generally fun in these games like 7 days to die, project zomboid, or any other RPG be it Fantasy Setting like Pillars of Eternity, the loot tables are pretty horrible. Every other bookshelf, cabinet or even safe seems to drop a plethora of broken bottles and cardboard boxes. I would get thru a relatively hard fight only to discover the locked room has junk or the 16th shotgun that has dropped so far limiting the novelty/rarity of finding something valuable.

The foundation of a good Strat RPG is here which is why I still advocate a buy option, however it is early access at its basic and will require more constructive feedback and community involvement in both suggestions and financial backing to get it to the true game we hopefully will see.

Some minor notes, would be the ability to pickpocket, or also recruit "npcs" that can serve as farmers, doctors and mechanics back at base so when you encounter them in the wild, it adds one more unique contribution to your efforts.

Thanks again and I hope people find this helpful. I will be setting the game aside until some further progress but I am looking forward to the game's progression.

The game still has some issues to work out. Combat feels very one sided for the enemies. They can shoot out of range, out of sight and through complete cover; where as your characters can't get better than a -3 on the left hand. Don't get me wrong. I am a fan of the game. I just love killing zombies.

Its good just light on content and not all the core mechanics are in yet.

Pretty good game for this genre. Kinda like Fallout 4 turn based. Still early in development, so it should get better. No voice acting, story driven (which is not complete yet). I'm an older gamer, so you know. I've enjoyed the game and still have some to finish with before completion.

I played Urban Strife a long time ago and had a great time, so I naturally bought it when it entered into Early Access. The core gameplay is still good, but unfortunately they have opted to use genAI for their character art. It cheapens the whole look of the game and has ultimately made me want to stop playing.

This has been on my wishlist for quite sometime, im about 29 hours in, and i restarted my campaign due to me not noticing a status ailment affecting kaylee, just to notice it a little bit to late when she just disappeared from my party when i was out on the main map, then restarting from my last save point and tried to send her for medical aid back at the shelter, only to find out i was a little too late and it triggered a zombie outbreak within the walls of the shelter. Ive no experience with early access games i just hope the developers do not ignore this title, its got great potential, and am personally loving it, if youre a big turn based tactics fan in a post apocalyptic zombie setting give this a go, big recommend from me.

ps noticed some loot cannot be accessed because its blocked by debris or cabinets, dont know if this is a bug, or i need a specific item like crowbars to open jammed doors.

This game is a great representation of turn-based-strategy combined with base building and RPG elements. All these aspects blend well, are fun, and the Developers are right on top of making it even better. It is a spiritual successor of Dead State (great old game!) and has some features from games like Jagged Alliance and its clones. It is a bit more than either of those however. A good game getting better each day (Excellent early access performance so far), and hard to stop playing. Grab the game and give it a try, it supports the kind of devs we need more of, and gives you a good game to play. I literally cant stop playing it!

A promising early access title for fans of the turn-based hybrid strategy genre and zombie or survival games. Takes heavy inspiration from Jagged Alliance 2 and various games I'm not personally familiar with.

Pros:

* Replayable storyline (divergent arcs, variant endings)
* Interesting story plots (both mechanically and intellectually)
* Responsive dev team (update frequency seems promising, too)
* Doesn't melt my GPU at high settings
* Strategically challenging (not formulaic)
* Not woke
* Plans for modding support

Cons:

* Small dev team (in development for 7 years)
* Early access (work in progress)

Love it or hate it:

* Cheesy (borderline cringe) dialogue - almost charmingly so
* AI character portraits - if enough people support it, maybe they could afford real artists

Miscellaneous:

There's a variety of bugs, features, and improvements that could be listed out, but considering how responsive (and small) the dev team is, it feels wrong to call them out, especially when many of the features are already on their roadmap. Such a list would steadily become smaller and more irrelevant as the months go by. It's an early access title, so of course if you're getting this now then you'd better not be expecting a finished product. (I'll try to remember to update this review after full release.)
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Experience:

The game starts out on the right foot - introduce the first two main characters while simultaneously launching into some combat action. Then go to the home base, where you're introduced to the main NPC and a variety of minor NPCs. This is where the cheesy really takes off, with Colonel Sanders or the Jurassic Park founder reimagined as a mayor, and you can either choose to love it in a charming or comical way (in line with JA series), or hate it because you think this is some AAA drama title like Mass Effect. It gets better (less in-your-face) as you go through the actual plot and faction storylines, but that first hurdle is large.
After that, the game turns into an expanding sandbox. You get a limited choice of places to go, and you can resolve the situations there in a variety of ways; the choices you make determine which of the three major alliances you start to pursue, and which factions ultimately get reduced. After you resolve that region, you get access to more regions with independent subfactions (you can oppose the faction you previously supported), and so on. Each choice is meaningful because you get different types of benefits from them. You work toward doing what's best for your own shelter, or what you think is right, or whatever you want.
Mechanically, the combat and tactical strategy feels impactful. Each major battle is unique; if you don't bring your A-game each time you'll get wrecked. This is not your typical "save all your resources for the final boss" situation. You'll have to use those resources along the way; this is a survival game after all. The AI enemies are actually not too dumb overall (and they don't cheat, except maybe infinite ammo reserves).
In closing, I'm not sure how to close this review, but maybe that's appropriate for an early access title... I completed Act 1 (the current limits of the game) in 22 hours on hardcore difficulty, with experience of the mechanics from having previously played the demo (the faction stories are very different from the demo). I'm looking forward to playing each new update as the full release is approached. I'm not sure yet if I'll start over from time to time to try out alternate plot choices or if I'll wait until full release to do that.
If you're looking for something polished and ready to go, then put this on your wishlist for later. But if you're fine with missing features, bugs, and providing feedback to the devs, and like the excitement of exploring new updates, then go ahead and pick it up now, especially on sale!

I have played Urban Strife for 12 hours now and i love it.
it is old school and It does have a few bugs but its nothing that cant be fixed

The game is amazing - EARLY VERSION is just 9 maps - just wait for the FULL VERSION of it - again i gladly recommend it !

I like it, it's got solid basis , I've done all I could in early access needs lots more work

Dont buy this game its not worth it !
It's a bad imitation of "Dead State :Reanimated"(not to mention a fatal bug: after a while playing the game crashes and NEVER runs again,even with uninstall /new install !)
A 27 EURO SCAM !!!!