Project Zomboid: The Review

With American popular culture, comes a massive influx of anything zombie or undead related, for example, from movies, TV shows and of course, video games. Project Zomboid, a 3rd Person, over the shoulder Isometric view, Zombie Survival game has created quite the buzz amongst PC gamers these past few months.

Since Project Zomboid is still considered in alpha (early phase of playable development), the developers at Indie Stone have relied on the support of the players and their contributions of buying the game to further the games production. As with any game in the alpha phase of development there are bugs to be dealt with and the player base has been hard at work not only buying the game but reporting every bug they might run into. If you seem turned off by the fact that you are paying to play an unfinished game, take heart! Since you've already bought the game you won't have to buy it again when it is a finished product and you can have the joy of knowing that you helped create a great game.

Project Zomboid was released on Desura, an online PC distribution system for PC games.The team at Indie Stone has been working through break-ins at their office that hampered early development. However, finding a new office and continuing to update the game have helped towards making the game a finished product as quickly as possible. As of June 12, 2014, Project Zomboid is on its 27th build and it doesn't look like the developers are going to slow down a bit. Seeing that Indie Stone has seen it fit to allow the game to be easily modded, players have already come up with systems of their own for this title which have actually been implemented in-game by the developers.Thus, demonstrating a dedicated development staff and a true ear for their fans about their wants and needs for Project Zomboid.

What sets Project Zomboid apart from many games that are based on survival or the undead, is that no matter what, your character WILL DIE. Whether it be by hordes of the undead or by starvation, the player's character will meet their end at one point or another. With death always close by, the player must scavenge for supplies and build fortifications against the zombie hordes, all the while trying to keep your character happy, entertained, fed and healthy. Not only do the hordes have a player on their toes, but having to monitor your character's mental health is just another piece of this paranoia inducing survival game. To make matters even worse, Multiplayer has been introduced so now not only does a player have to deal with the undead, but the living aren't so nice either.

Another great element is the leveling up of the player's character while they're still alive. Based on how much the player tried to sneak around zombies, their sneak skill gains points that can eventually be leveled up, making the skill more useful. If a player cooks, they gain points in the cooking skill that will allow the meals they make to become more useful to the player, thus keeping the player's character alive a bit longer. With the RPG element mixed in, Indie Stone has made the game's experience that much more rich and engaging. All of these ingredients mix together to create a wonderfully, gory and fun recipe for undead fans. Another great feature; its price $14.99 on Steam.For a game with such replayability $14 isn't that much of a loss. If you are a cautious buyer though and like to give games a test run before you commit, there is also a pretty lengthy demo available not only on Steam but on Desura as well. Remember though, This is how you died…