Draft:Don't Even Think

• Comment: This article unfortunately falls short of general notability guidelines. For video games, we generally expect that at the least, a game will have significant coverage from independent and reliable sources which typically is assessed as three reliable reviews from sources like those in this list: WP:VG/S. Using the user scores for GameSpot and IGN is user-generated and not reliable: only editorial reviews are useful here. Irrelevant to AFC but also the article needs a copyedit and I note someone has flagged many statements lack citations. Happy to discuss on my talk page if you need any help. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 23:55, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

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For the emphatic prohibition, see Don't even think about it!

Not to be confused with Don't Even Think About It (book).

Don't Even Think
Developer(s)	Dark Horse Game Studio, Perfect World Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Perfect World Games
Engine	Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4
Release	North America July 10, 2019 Japan September 9, 2019 Europe April 3, 2020
Genre(s)	Survival, battle royale
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Don't Even Think is a 2019 asymmetrical survival game with battle royal elements. The game was developed by Dark Horse Game Studio, and published by Perfect World Games. The game had an initial release date of July 10, 2019 for the PlayStation 4.Don't Even Think marked the first game launched by Dark Horse Game Studio, which was established in Beijing, China, in 2016.

On May 14, 2020 the shutdown of the game was announced, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the reasons for the shutdown. The game was shutdown on September 30, 2020.

Gameplay

Don't Even Think is an asymmetrical multiplayer game where a few players take on the role of the werewolf, and the rest are humans that drop on the map by helicopter.

The humans objective is to survive against other humans and werewolves on the map, as well as to keep warm. The werewolves take on the role as another human with an axe, and after a select time interval, they transform into werewolves and hunt the other players down.

As the map closes in, humans may acquire more supplies from supply drops across the map. Werewolves also have a higher healthpool than the humans, and are the only class that can regain health by consuming bodies. The werewolves must eliminate all humans before they escape via a rescue helicopter, which arrives near the end game. They are weak to silver bullets, and are the only team that is not affected by the cold temperatures.

Setting

Don't Even Think takes place on research base Prism City, established by the security company DET-i, in the year 2037.

Seasons

Season	Period	Description
Season 1	November 18, 2019 - April 3, 2020	Introduction of Battle Pass with new skins, weapons.
Season 2	April 3, 2020 - August 14, 2020	Introduction of Werecats as a playable type in the Beast Clan, with a different set of stealth-like abilities. Introduction of a map, Bloodclaw Canyon, and a human companion, an AI drone with modifiable attributes for attacking other humans and beasts.

Development

Farside

On June 8, 2018, Perfect World Entertainment announced a new mobile game titled Farside: An Athletic Game, in conjunction with the release of ReVolve. At this early phase of development, the game incorporated typical battle royale features such as the use of vehicles, skydiving into the battlefield, and a progressively shrinking play area. The project was later renamed to Don't Even Think during the 16th ChinaJoy conference, held in Shanghai on August 2, 2018.

Open Beta

In November 27, 2018, Dark Horse Game Studio released the open beta of Don't Even Think on PlayStation in Hong Kong. The game later debuted in North America in 2019.

Werewolves were not initially part of the open beta, and were instead a later introduction. The open beta ended on December 27, 2018. Vehicles were one of the features that were removed on it's launch in North America.

The player size of the game would also progressively increase during the game's development, starting with 8 during the open beta, 27 during season 1, and later 31 during Season 2 after a rebalance.

Shutdown

On May 14, 2020, the development team announced the discontinuation of Don't Even Think. The announcement, made when players logged into the game, cited the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic among other reasons for the decision. The developers expressed their gratitude for the community's support and outlined the schedule for the game's gradual shutdown.

The game was removed from sale on June 15, 2020, and the servers were shut down on August 14, 2020. Additionally, the game website and social media accounts were scheduled to be closed by September 30, 2020.

Reception

Don't Even Think received "generally unfavorable" user reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.

During the North American launch reviewer Jim Hargreaves from TheSixthAxis gave the game a low score of 2 out of 10, criticizing it as a rushed free-to-play battle royale that fails to deliver a balanced or engaging experience. He described the game as "an opportunistic trainwreck," pointing out the lack of innovative gameplay and the imbalance between characters, particularly the overpowering werewolves which, coupled with insufficient content and technical issues, led to a frustrating experience.

Shortly after the game's launch in Japan, and an update patch, Ayuo Kawase in their coverage of the game for Automation Media noted the developers had mostly improved issues of performance- involving matters such as frame rates.

External Links

• Official Don't Even Think website. Archived on March 13, 2020.