Scavenge for supplies, kill the undead, and survive
Project Zomboid is an action post-apocalyptic survival game. The setting is a fictional town in Kentucky, USA, where a mysterious virus has turned most of the population into zombies. You’ll take on the role of a survivor and must scavenge for food, water, and supplies while avoiding or fighting off the undead.
Project Zomboid features a detailed crafting system that allows you to create weapons, fortify buildings, and create traps to fend off the zombies. It also has a complex character development system, where you must manage the survivor's hunger, thirst, exhaustion levels, and mental health. It’s in early access.
Post-apocalyptic
In Project Zomboid, all players must scavenge for supplies in abandoned buildings, such as houses, grocery stores, and warehouses. However, the entirety of the game also features a dynamic ecosystem where food and resources will run out over time, and zombies will become more aggressive and numerous. The gameplay is open-ended, meaning there is no set goal or endpoint, and your success is measured by how long you can survive.
The game has both single-player and multiplayer modes, where you can join forces with other survivors or compete against each other in a hostile environment. The game is known for its high level of difficulty and its focus on realism, with you needing to carefully manage your resources and plan your actions to survive in the game’s harsh world.
In addition to managing your character's needs and resources, you must then also deal with the zombie threat. Zombies will be attracted to noise and movement, so the player must be careful when exploring and scavenging. All players can choose to fight or avoid the zombies, but combat can be dangerous and attracts more zombies. However, the multiplayer mode can be unstable and laggy at times.
The dead never sleep
Despite being in Early Access status for years now, updates come regularly for Project Zomboid. It addresses various bugs and issues being reported by players, as well as making adjustments and improvements to the gameplay experience. Compared to other games that try to push out large content, it takes a more conservative approach, releasing small patches that fix minor yet impactful problems.
In an attempt to speed up updates and encourage more player involvement in the development process, the devs have opened a beta channel, which contains up-to-date changes and fixes as they are implemented. Players can opt to subscribe and be part of this channel, with the caveat being that the gameplay experience will be unstable or even game-breaking at times, as prefaced by the dev team.
If you want a more stable experience or are not comfortable with risking your game progress and saves, you can still play the game in the main stable channel. Note that changes and bug fixes will come a bit later, while they’re being tested and prepared for release from the other development channel. If you’ve been a long-time player of Project Zomboid, you can consider joining the beta channel.
A great zombie game
Despite the occasional lag in multiplayer mode, the overall gameplay experience of Project Zomboid is challenging, immersive, and highly realistic. The game puts players in the shoes of a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. Players must manage their character's hunger, thirst, fatigue, health, and mental state, while also scavenging for supplies, crafting weapons and fortifications, and avoiding or fighting off zombies.
