Dirty Bomb vs Zero-K
When comparing Dirty Bomb vs Zero-K, the Slant community recommends Dirty Bomb for most people. In the question“What are the best free PC games?” Dirty Bomb is ranked 18th while Zero-K is ranked 39th. The most important reason people chose Dirty Bomb is:
The game is free to play
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free to play
The game is free to play
Pro Objective focused FPS
Game is an objective focus FPS, much like Team Fortress 2. It requires team work to win the game.
Pro Although it takes time, you are able to get anything
It takes time to get coins and all but it IS possible.
Pro Multiplayer online battles
You can create your own multiplayer battles, even password protected ones for playing with friends only.
Pro Expansive tech tree
Land, sea, and air. Choose your favorite play-style and use the appropriate tech tree. There are tanks, bots, walkers, planes, helicopters, boats, and submarines available to you.
Pro Flat tech tree
All units are available from the start of the game. There are no unit upgrades and you don't need to build certain buildings to reach the next level of unit.
Pro Awesome graphical effects
Despite it is an open source engine, the graphics are fantastic.
Pro Cross-platform game
There are versions for Linux and Windows. The easiest way to play in Linux is using Lutris platform.
Cons
Con Sometimes team play isn"t the best
Sometimes there are PRO players that help and everything but others just go with it and don"t care about a team.
Con Pay to skip
Much like other free to play games, this game has problems in paying to skip ahead of other players. Such as character unlocks and buying load out chests.
Con Bad visual design
Obviously this is an open soruce project so nobody expects AAA level gfx but this one looks exceptionaly bad. Some of the weapon effects are hideous to look at. Simple things like UI buttons and color scheme seem to be visually out of sync with the way unit models and the map terrrain look.
It seems like a mishmash of visual styles which is probably a result of many different contributors of varreying skill levels.
There definately are visually consistent and pelasant ot look at open source games so The visual design of the game needs to have some sort of strcut guidline or rely primarily on the taste of a single individual from the ZK team.
Con Flat balance
The economy is very close to a Total Annihilation economy (despite all the changes they introduced) but the unit balance resembles games with harder unit counters like Warcraft and Starcraft. In Blizard games, there are different ways to limit what unit type or kind you can build at any stage of the game, like tech structures which the opponnet can scout.
In Zero - K this is not the case since there are no tech buildigns focusing the player on a certain unit type which can be scouted. You can make all units at all times. The gameplay design feels amateur and not thought through From the broadest perspective. It also manages to miss the advantages of the Spring engine and mixes the need to micromanage units that counter each other with big Area of Effect Weapons.