Project Zomboid (PZ)has been a game I have wanted to check out for as long as I can remember. According to the games steam page, Project Zomboid has been around since November 8th, 2013. I have only now desired to play this hidden gem through watching my good friend Oxfurd stream it on twitch. The good people at The Indie Stone, the developers of PZ, were nice enough to give me a review copy of the game to record my first impressions. Although I did get the game for free, I always give my honest take on games whether I am sponsored or not. I hope you enjoy my first impressions of Project Zomboid.
As of the date of this blog post, the latest version that we are going through is known as build 41, which is a beta build that is currently undergoing testing and refinement before it releases to the live game servers. A developer from Indie Stone recommended that I play this version over the current version of the game and hence I would implore anyone else to also play the latest beta build when you check out PZ. To gain access to build 41, you simply have to go to steam and right click on Project Zomboid in your library. Go to the properties and select the beta category and then choose the drop down selection for build 41. The game should start automatically updating on steam and will be ready for play shortly thereafter.
So let’s get into the game shall we? The first thing that is recommended especially if you have never played the game before is to take the tutorial to learn the ropes of the game. This tutorial was very well done. It went over movement, looting, equipping new items, and basic survival mechanics in the form of eating, drinking, and bandaging wounds that you encounter along the way. The final encounter was a swarm of zombies that engulfed our character and killed him, essentially getting us used to dying a lot in game.
Now the real game begins. Although PZ is working on multiplayer, the only mode that was playable after the tutorial was solo. We decided to try our hand at the survival mode. Oh my lord was it hard! The traditional survival elements in the game are very punishing but on top of that, they have an assortment of other ailments that may also contribute to your characters short life on earth. For instance, the boredom ailment must be cured by reading books. There are other ailments of pain that arise when a zombie hurts your character, and this whole system of bandaging and trying to heal your character is very difficult to manage. Once bandages are dirty, you must quickly undress and redress the wounds so that your character doesn’t take a ton of damage.
It quickly became evident that as a new player who had no idea what he was doing that survival would be a very big challenge. As such, after a couple of hours at trying, I decided to try my luck in the more laid back and relaxing game mode of builder which focuses on construction, exploration, and farming. While I personally don’t like dumbing down my game experience, my sheer lack of knowledge of what is possible in Project Zomboid made me realize quickly that this was the way I would best enjoy and learn the game and not just get frustrated at the difficulty of survival mode.
Builder mode was much more my speed. I immediately noticed that there were not hordes of zombies immediately swarming me. When I was searching the multitude of housing around the area that I spawned in, I also noticed that the items I was finding were of much higher quality. I am not sure if this is just because I was lucky or if builder mode simply makes it much easier to survive. We learned the importance of sleeping in a safe area the hard way when we slept on a bench with the doors open. When we awoke, we quickly were swarmed by multiple zombies stun locking me. We luckily barely survived that altercation, but it proved to be the nail in the coffin for our gameplay on builder mode.
The magic of Project Zomboid lies in the deep gameplay that challenges you to learn something new in your quest to survive the zombie apocalypse. You are expected to die over and over again with the hopes that your next playthrough will be a little bit longer. While this particular game will not be for the feint of heart, I do believe that the builder mode is a great place for new players to learn the ropes. As I continue to play PZ, I plan to dip my toes back into the survival mode to see how far my learning has taken me. Once again, I want to thank the developers at Indie Stone for the review copy. I will be making a review on steam and recommending the game to my community. Stay tuned for further journeys in Project Zomboid on my twitch channel as we continue to learn and explore the wonders that this deep game offers.