This review is about a game that is a ghoulishly brilliant addition to anyone’s Indie game collection. Project Zomboid is an independent game created by The Indie Stone Studio. It is the most unique implementation of a zombie game I have ever played.
The game’s aim is one of it’s unique aspects when compared to others of this genre. In many Zombie games, the goal is to escape the hellish Zombie infected areas in which you find yourself. In Project Zomboid, however, your only goal is to survive. Unlike Dead Rising, your aim is to survive for as long as possible, what’s the point of running if there is no chance of escape? So, unlike most other Zombie games, your story ends with your unpleasant demise (while Zombies launch themselves at your remains).
the finality of death in the game. The fact that your decisions have real consequences that can’t be solved with a quick load. Nerd-age Interview
The current release is an alpha tech demo, which means that it is slightly lacking, but the features that are already implemented are more than playable. The RPG game play is really engaging. However, at the moment the only way your character can gain new skills, is at the beginning of the sandbox mode where you can choose different attributes. In the game you can craft items such as, Molotov cocktails or bandages, and there are many more crafting recipes available, with more to be introduced in later releases. Like many of the aspects of this game the story-lines are still to be fully developed, but, the “Till death do us part” story is fun and challenging.
In some ways Project Zomboid is more ambitious than most triple A games, because, it’s less about an elaborate story and more about a realistic experience. When I was speaking to a friend of mine about the game he said “as an indie developer they have to sacrifice the graphical side, and focus on features and gameplay”. I would disagree with that and say that the graphics are really well made and add to the type of game they are trying to achieve.
This game already has a thriving community. There are many Mod developers who are expanding the game’s mechanics, and the in-game assests. The Indie Stone Studio have many features planned and have already implemented several, as shown in development demo videos. Some of these can be found here, here and here. We can expect all of the features show in the videos to make it into the next alpha release, along with a more advanced lighting system as well.
So all in all, if you hadn’t gathered already, this game is brilliant even at this early stage. You can buy it on Desura for the tiny amount of £4.99. Go now, what are you waiting for?
Hopefully you have bought the game and came back to finish reading this post, if not go and buy the game now! Anyway, one last thing here is the Mod forum on the Indie Stone website, for when you get bored (although I can’t see that happening) of the vanilla game.
