The Walking Dead: Betrayal Reviews
Betray your friends in this 5-8 person game of cooperation and social deception set in the universe of The Walking Dead. Work together to survive, but trust no one! Traitors have so many ways to sabotage the team, the walkers are the most predictable threat.
App ID | 1877320 |
App Type | GAME |
Developers | Other Ocean Interactive |
Publishers | Skybound Games, Other Ocean Group |
Categories | Multi-player, PvP, Online PvP, Co-op, Online Co-op |
Genres | Casual, Early Access |
Release Date | 14 Sep, 2023 |
Platforms | Windows |
Supported Languages | Portuguese - Brazil, French, Italian, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Russian, English, Korean, Turkish, Swedish |

4 Total Reviews
3 Positive Reviews
1 Negative Reviews
Mixed Score
The Walking Dead: Betrayal has garnered a total of 4 reviews, with 3 positive reviews and 1 negative reviews, resulting in a ‘Mixed’ overall score.
Reviews Chart
Chart above illustrates the trend of feedback for The Walking Dead: Betrayal over time, showcasing the dynamic changes in player opinions as new updates and features have been introduced. This visual representation helps to understand the game's reception and how it has evolved.
Recent Steam Reviews
This section displays the 10 most recent Steam reviews for the game, showcasing a mix of player experiences and sentiments. Each review summary includes the total playtime along with the number of thumbs-up and thumbs-down reactions, clearly indicating the community's feedback
Playtime:
345 minutes
played 4 hours of it. and i saw how it lost a lot of players. now no one joins even host it's like im alone and cant play this game. i cannot refund it too.
👍 : 5 |
😃 : 1
Negative
Playtime:
174 minutes
Huh, don’t know what to say yet except that I bought the game and lobby is empty when I wanna play, only couple of players join but I guess the game cannot be started unless we have all 8 players. Little disappointed with the investment if I can’t even play.
Will update review when this changes.
👍 : 3 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
237 minutes
I'm a big fan of the social deduction genre and will provide some insight from the over 1000 hours I've spent between Among Us and Dread Hunger to see how this one compares.
I was really hoping for this game to be good, but...
This game involved almost zero social deduction. Here are the reasons:
- The combat is overpowered, by a lot. 90% of this game is combat, 10% is social deduction. In Dread Hunger, to get really powerful weapons (muskets) the team needs to cooperate to put in codes to a safe. This mechanic creates the main incentive in the game for one of the baddies to "blend in" with the crew, since we can't risk giving a blending baddie a musket. The only incentive in Betrayal is exile, but it's a very weak mechanic, comparatively.
- The map is big, meaning few encounters unless constantly moving in a big group. Comparatively, Among Us and Dread involve 90% more frequent sightings of other players if you're not running around in a gaggle, which is sort of boring anyway.
- There are no events that bring people together throughout the game. In Dread Hunger, the night time cold brings most of the crew to the ship, while the thralls (traitors) need to stay out and build totems to power up, letting you suspect who's bad. In Among Us, you have the report button and meetings.
The game play loop got stale after a few games of traitor. Just find better guns, group up with your partner, and wait in the safe zone for the others to come back through the gate into a few traps. Game over, every time. The combat in this game is the same as browser games I used to play 15 years ago on Miniclip. That's the cycle of this game. There is virtually no social deduction, and if I want good combat I can think of 100 far better options.
Huge disappointment for me.
👍 : 15 |
😃 : 2
Negative
Playtime:
847 minutes
EA Update #2 - Nov, 3rd, 2023
Game is still a buggy mess. Not even a few minutes into the tutorial and finding new bugs. Corpses burning forever until they get culled (minutes later - then it'll just be the burning sound forever in the location...) Melee combos not working on some barricaded doors when using a weapon. Even the the game's patch notes disagree with the new text written for the negotiator role. In the game it states player will take less damage from votees, but in the patch notes its 50% additional damage. A new revolver cosmetic in store does not even match the player model appropriately (the model will pose as if holding a two handed ranged weapon). Most of the old bugs are still there, including the looping sounds and areas of the map to get stuck in (despite having listed as fixed).
There are some promising notes of improved matchmaking, but the game still isn't there yet for me to give a positive review. If anything, this update just comes across as sloppy.
Original Review:
The game is currently generally fun in small bursts and seems promising, but is far too under-cooked at the moment. For a game that is built off of Project Winter, I was expecting far more polish out of the gate.
As of writing, you will struggle to find a single public lobby being hosted, though I personally prefer to play games like this with friends. If you're looking for a public game, expect to wait and/or make use of external channels to find a group. In my opinion, it's not surprising lobbies aren't hard to find on a game this new and unknown. (I only found out about it seeing it in my Project Winter news by chance.)
The real issue this game suffers from is lack of content and BUGS. As for content, map variety is extremely limited, and the game balance is questionable. Despite this, you can expect to get some decent fun out of what's here for a good deal of rounds as you learn the game in the short run.
As for the bugs.....
The game soft locks, players get dropped from lobbies, some zombies become invincible, others invisible, some just don't exist where they should. Sounds cut out or get stuck on loops, objects you craft disappear, the UI gets stuck or displays incorrect values/labels, voice chat will randomly stop working. The world's collision can cause you to get stuck and will often not line up with the visuals. In some cases, objects can be exploited by walking on top of or directly into objects. Damage values are calculated incorrectly at times causing rapid death or hardly any damage at all. Sometimes throwing/shooting an object will aim it at your feet. Some animations don't play properly or do not line up with the player model, sometimes enabling a player to kill where you were on the escape bridge, even if you've already escaped.
Overall, it's a buggy mess, though [b]it is still generally playable most of the time.[/b] I actually enjoy the world setting and PvE elements far more than Project Winter and can see this turning into a great title after some substantial updates. Unfortunately at the moment, given what's here for the price, I can't recommend this game currently.
👍 : 4 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
220 minutes
This game has been so much fun my friends and I have wanted to just sit and play it like a survival game lol. That being said, we can't play customs without 2 more people, and the public matches we have played so far people aren't really the nicest, (and we have to wait a while for people to show up) so if there are any nice people who want to play this every once in a while, add me! We are no mic friendly :)
👍 : 4 |
😃 : 0
Positive
Playtime:
10132 minutes
Update: I feel ratings are being manipulated. Went from 45% to 60% yet game population remains the same. The regular 10 or so folk that play have basically moved on or can't even play anymore with the recent matchmaking changes. So whose voting positive? One of the devs streams fortnite all day instead of this game, you know something that would try and draw attention?
Not saying it's a cash grab but.. Devs have confirmed there will be no loot boxes. Premium currency limited to one per day when cosmetics cost 25+ and time limited. Despite early access, balance updates are monthly. Early access had 900 players and it barely retains 10 throughout the day after.
Streamers praise the game (Free copy) yet where are they? Where are all the players that think the game is perfect in the state its in now? Any criticism on their discord is labeled as toxicity. This is not a social deception game like Project Winter, its just poor pvp. I await the copy paste message from Devs.
New unannounced update it seems today..
•They removed lobbies and implemented a global matchmaking service except there seems to be an oversight that you're stuck to whatever region you were in previously..
•New cosmetics: More palette swaps for free to play. Paid cosmetics have reached just about 95$ USD with this new batch.
•You're still limited to one bone a day if you play a single game.
•Even with the price drop, you'll still find about 10 players daily if you're lucky. Its almost as if the price wasn't the problem..
👍 : 16 |
😃 : 0
Negative
Playtime:
1297 minutes
Disappointing Game Experience with Unfair Support
I've recently had a frustrating experience, primarily due to their subpar support system. As an experienced player who previously enjoyed "Project Winter," I had a head start in TWD: Betrayal, which led to my winning most games. However, this seemingly harmless advantage resulted in a barrage of reports from frustrated players, ultimately leading to my ban for alleged trolling.
When I reached out to the game's support team for evidence of my supposed trolling behavior, I was met with nothing more than vague claims that I had been reported multiple times. When pressed for specifics about which in-game rules I had violated, their response was both baffling and unhelpful. They cited "rule 7," which allegedly involved killing other players without justification and intentionally ruining their game experience.
The problem here is that such a rule is entirely out of place in a game like this. In a title where the objective often revolves around eliminating other players, or at least those suspected of being antagonistic, the notion of "killing without justification" becomes absurd. This policy seems misleading, as it essentially punishes players without concrete evidence, employing rules that make little sense within the context of the game.
My overall experience with TWD: Betrayal has been tainted by this unjust ban and the seemingly arbitrary application of rules. I had hoped for an enjoyable gaming experience, but the game's flawed support system has left me thoroughly disappointed and frustrated.
In summary, TWD: Betrayal falls short when it comes to providing fair support and maintaining a logical rule system that fits the concept of the game.
👍 : 19 |
😃 : 1
Negative
Playtime:
3117 minutes
Why are the devs not making this F2P on weekends or something to try and boost the player base. Like these devs create decent games but have 0 brains on marketing. Some dev tried to compare this build out to driving a big ship LOL
👍 : 24 |
😃 : 1
Positive
Playtime:
293 minutes
Never have I played project winter, but heard of it, I saw this was pretty much the same but in TWD Universe, being a hardcore fan of TWD, I had to give it a go and I am happy I did! Its super fun to play and have played a handful of games, the community so far seems to be really cool and helpful when crafting and guiding you. Honestly, for $17 its worth it, its a fun game to kill time and play with friends!
Congrats to the devs on the launch and be proud of the game you created because I can see this being a game being played for some time :)
👍 : 40 |
😃 : 13
Positive
Playtime:
166 minutes
What a shit show, huh.
This was written largely to allow me to process my own thoughts on the game, as well as air out some frustrations I have with it before its gone for good.
For those unaware, the game will be permanently pulled from steam in the coming days. This is because the games daily peak players has been around 5 or 6 for the past few months, meaning its almost impossible to play the game. Personally, I'm glad they are giving full refunds as I would have expected them to just take the money and run, so that was a nice surprise.
The thing I find truly amazing about this whole situation is how the developers managed to screw this up. This should have been a easy game to make. Take the fantastic core gameplay loop of Project Winter, mix up the gameplay and items a bit, throw on a Walking Dead coat of paint and you have yourself a successful game. Not only can you attract Walking Dead fans, but as its so similar to Project Winter, you can attract that dedicated group of players looking for a new version of their favourite game. It's almost fool proof. Almost.
The main problem was the first beta test that took place between the 10th and 14th of August. This beta was only really known to the Project Winter community, which, if successful, would be the bedrock on which Betrayal could built their own player base, so it was really important that they did this right.
I cannot describe how catastrophic this beta was. I've played all manner of early access games, and this blew me away with the utter incompetence on display. I spent THREE FULL HOURS playing, and had 1-2 games where nothing major broke.
Here a small list of massive game breaking bugs that I can remember off my head:
- The voice communication would often break, meaning we could not type, talk, or hear each other.
- The regular audio could just break.
- Very frequently, trying to load into a game would just fail and kick all players back to the main menu.
- Changing the graphics settings would cause a crash.
- Sometimes, the frame rate would just keep going lower and lower, until you are trapped in a 1 fps hell hole until the game was over.
- Sometimes, the "listen to yourself" button on the microphone would just stay on permanently, meaning you could hear yourself talk until you restarted the game.
- Often the zombies wouldn't spawn for some players, but they would for everyone else. At the same time, a couple zombies would spawn but they would be invisible and exclusively attack those who couldn't see the rest of the zombies.
And many, many more. If you want to see some of these in action, check out the video I posted on youtube, the channel name is "Project Pybro".
Its very clear to me that the developers made no attempt to playtest the game on the patch that went live, because any attempt to play the game would have brought up these issues immediately. These weren't some niche problems that happened solely to me, every single person trying to play this game found it incredibly difficult to play the game. A minimum of 500 people played this beta (that was the steam chart peak), with undoubtedly many more having played it. Those who didn't try it out were likely told that it was a disaster of a game, so they themselves steer cleared of it. In one fell swoop, the developers managed convince an entire community that this game wasn't worth playing at the moment.
After this unmitigated disaster, what do the developers decide to do? Just hold another free weekend with most of the bugs fixed and then release it in early access for £15. Because, when you convince your main player base, the people who you need to play your multiplayer game for it to function and attract new players, that your game is not in a playable state, you lock it behind a paywall, so even fewer people will play. Most people didn't bother to pay, and for the few (like me) who did, they didn't play the game because it was devoid of players.
They cut the price in half in a bid to attract players, but never did they think to hold a free weekend, a strategy that worked out fairly well for Project Winter. In addition, no advertising was done post early access on the Project Winter discord to try and attract new players. Did the developers do any work on the game in the meantime? No! A couple of bug fixed and balanced tweaks here and there, completely unnecessary additions like adding 4 player lobbies and a matchmaking queue system, and adding the all important shop, because making sure players can purchase some cosmetics with microtransactions takes precedent over actually building a community. Then, after 3 months of adding little of substance and no real effort to build a player base for a game that requires players to be able to play the damn thing, they just delete the game.
Above everything else, the thing I want to know is whose fault is it? I've just been saying it was the "developers", but who really caused this? Was it Other Ocean Interactive? Was it Skybound Games? Was it some higher ups at either company who forced them onto an unrealistic schedule? Was it some mix of all of those factors? I really have no clue.
I didn't make this to hate on the developers or anything. I can't imagine how miserable it must feel to work on a project for what I have to assume was at least a year, only for it to just be canned one day, never to be spoken of again. It just feels insane seeing this collapse from afar. This could have easily been a moderately successful game if handled properly, and could have likely been saved with free marketing on the Project Winter discord and some free weekends. But instead, it just gets deleted, leaving Project Winter to it inevitable fate of bleeding players until it dies, with no successor to carry on its legacy.
👍 : 41 |
😃 : 0
Negative