Why Project Zomboid is the BEST Zombie Game

this video is sponsored by cover 19 omicron edition just when you thought the pandemic was over coming to an urban center near you remember when zombies were cool like 10 years ago i don't think it's particularly controversial to say that the zombie crazes well and truly died out in video games after being replaced with the every game is minecraft era that started in the early 2010s so why is it that project zomboid the rather obscure early access title that originally launched back in 2013 about a craze that hasn't been popular for years has exploded in popularity over the last month or so well it'd be hard to argue that the long-awaited release of multiplayer certainly hasn't helped to draw the crowds in but i know why i've been pumping some serious hours into project zomboid because it's the best damn zombie game there is i'm sorry gabe i know i'm a big old valve fan boy i still love me some left for dead but zomboid takes the cake unlike much of the genre this isn't just a game about zombie head busting action it's about what it would genuinely be like for an everyday idiot to try and survive a zombie apocalypse now i do want to say that i haven't just completely jumped on the zomboid multiplayer hype i actually bought it around midway through last year during the build 41 beta after having it on my steam wishlist for several years though i have been playing a hell of a lot of this game since the recent update and i also understand that it's a game that's been in early access hell for an awful long time but in its current state zomboid is already an absolute gem and is well deserving of all the attention it has been getting as of late if you've never played or seen zomboid before it's an open-ended survival sandbox game that's almost rogue-like in nature you'll tend to lose a lot of characters before you really ever get going and you'll take that expertise with you into your next run set in the 90s during unsurprisingly a zombie outbreak it takes place in the exclusion zone in knox county a frankly massive map that's based on the areas near fort knox in real life northern kentucky the map has several urban rural and wilderness areas with the bulk of the main antagonists your undead friends being centered around more densely populated areas of the map but zombies are not the only threat to your existence you need to manage your hunger thirst sleep exhaustion body temperature weight health happiness stress boredom and many other things to ensure that you survive for as long as you can and the game has some rather in-depth systems for some of these as well the gameplay in zomboid revolves around many different things to begin with you'll find yourself scavenging for food or fighting off little groups of zombies though later on you can find yourself growing crops foraging for food in the wilds and being a little more adventurous with your looting trips but the big thing to understand about zomboid is that it is not a story of triumph it's not a game about superhuman survivors that cut down zombies in massive droves that are perfectly immune to the zombie virus that has ravaged the world from the very start the game makes a point of telling you that there is no hope of survival this is how you died i would say that the most common thing that you'll be feeling while playing zomboid is a constant feeling of dread as if something terrible is about to happen and honestly for a game like this that's a good feeling to have because staying vigilant at all times is important all it takes is a lapse of concentration or an extra risk that didn't need to be taken to end a run the importance of being vigilant is further embellished by the game's line of sight system as well as keeping an ear out for noise as you will often be able to hear zombies before you see them whether that's the sound of an idle zombie moaning nearby or a zombie thumping on a window or door death is a fairly common occurrence especially for newer players and that's not to say that you will always die to zombies you can sure as hell die from exposure or by eating something poisonous but more often than not you will find your end at the hands and mouths of the ravenous horde zombies find strength in numbers and while you might be able to deal with them on their own or in small groups quite easily when faced with a crowd of them things can go south very quickly they also have an annoying habit of coming out from behind trees and closed doors to surprise you and the game also makes sure to throw in a nice little jump scare noise to really hit home should a zombie get too close they will have a chance to do some damage to you or worse drag you down or trip you over to let more of their friends at you as well and unless you're lucky enough for your character to automatically push them off it will come in the form of scratches lacerations and bites also depending on what part of the body it hits and how well defended it is by your clothing the most deadly thing about being damaged by a zombie is that it brings a risk of infection only a measly seven percent went scratched the less measly 25 percent when lacerated and a rather unfortunate 100 when bitten and once infected there's no coming back you can drink all the bleach you want once you have the disease over the next few days you will slowly succumb to it leaving you as just another undead terror to roam the countryside and that really is one of the most pain inducing things about zomboid knowing that a run that you spent maybe 20 or 30 hours playing can be all over in the blink of an eye but that's how the game teaches you to remain aware and what helps keep it exciting even once you have a well-established character but i don't want to say that the game is super hard or anything at least not once you have the hang of it the best thing to do in zomboid is constantly set yourself short-term goals whether that's making sure you have enough food finding a working vehicle or making sure you have somewhere safe to sleep and it's also important to be setting yourself the long-term goal of continued survival after a while water and electricity will shut off and you won't be able to loot forever eventually you'll need to become self-sufficient or at least have somewhere to properly bunk it down and keep safe but the most important thing to learn is that you're not the superhuman survivor that you think you would be in a real life zombie apocalypse real talk mate you'd be dead within days zomboid is as much about learning your limits as it is about learning to play the game and that limit will vary depending on your character's skills and traits like any good sandbox game zomboid has a good sense of replayability and considering its hardcore deaths and unforgiving nature it's probably a good thing that it does the most obvious way to showcase this is through its character traits and occupation system which basically allows you to customize or spec out your character to start with certain skills pre-leveled and also to give you a bonus xp gain for them as well as other extra abilities or hindrances that will greatly affect your run you can play as a sneaky burglar and stealthier way around you can play as a fireman and use your extra prowess to bust some zombie heads or you can play as an engineer and solve practical problems your character also has a number of different levelable skills all affected by your traits including your passive strength and fitness skills which are also affected by your character's weight as well as weapon proficiencies crafting and maintenance skills and survivalist skills or gaining experience in the usual way by using them skill gain is incredibly slow but can be greatly sped up by reading skill books they'll provide you with an xp multiplier which will also stack on top of any xp bonuses gained from professions and traits if you really want to master a skill and by that i mean get past the first couple of levels the skill books are more or less required unless you have an awful lot of patience another way to gain valuable skills just like in real life is to watch tv certain shows for things like cooking or carpentry will be broadcast every now and again and you can also obtain vhs tapes for shows that can be watched again xp as well it's definitely a handy strategy in the early game to read as much as you can and watch as much tv as you can for free xp especially before the power goes out freedom is also an important quality for a sandbox game to have and zomboid gives you plenty of it you're a little more restricted as to what you can accomplish to begin with but once you get further into the game and get your skills up you'll find that your capabilities expand a lot and the game has a good sense of progression once your combat skills go up you might just be able to take on a few more zombies at once once you manage to secure a working vehicle the map and your scavenging potential opens up a lot more once you manage to get a generator home you can store perishable food and keep it fresh for a long time and as mentioned earlier there's many different ways to go about surviving in zomboid and the game doesn't tell you how you have to do it you're dropped into the world and can go off and do as you please from there just how a proper sandbox should be you can hang around town and live the life of a scavenger at the risk of facing more zombies or find a quieter life out in the sticks and liver camping survivalist lifestyle there's a great choice at hand at how you tackle this game and it's good to find what works best not only for your character but for you zomboid's map is the same every time you play but it is massive [ __ ] huge really there are four different starting locations in urban areas to choose from as well as several other areas that you'll discover as you traverse the map it also features multiple different game modes as well as challenge scenarios to further embellish its replayability the game also features a custom sandbox mode which allows you to change and toggle basically all of the game settings to create a totally customized experience another cool feature is the option to continue a save by making a new character after you die allowing you to then find and kill your old and now undead character to get your loot back and while it's definitely a nice idea it's not something i typically do especially if my character's been alive for several weeks before i die it wouldn't make a lot of sense for people to just be sitting in a home for several weeks before they actually did anything about that whole apocalypse thing going on outside another way that zomboid embellishes its replayability is by making zombie population and movement dynamic rather than static it is worth noting that zombies do in fact respawn in this game which some people might not like the idea of but it would simply make the later game boring if you could just wipe them out completely zombie population will actually increase each day up until it hits a peak meaning that to begin with the game will actually become more dangerous over time and from what i've found clearing out areas of zombies will tend to leave less zombies respawning there as long as you pass through regularly enough plus if you hate the idea of zombies respawning enough you can always just turn it off meta game events are also an important part of the game most commonly manifesting in the form of a scream or gun shot off in the distance that will cause zombies to migrate towards the source of the noise even if it means that they need to part directly through your safe has to get there zombies do slowly mill around and migrate on their own however including one time when they happen to migrate into a previously quiet forest part they used to walk through to get back into town and all of a sudden they were coming out of the trees like it was [ __ ] vietnam and speaking of vietnam flashbacks the other metagame event that is by far the worst one is the helicopter event whereby some absolute [ __ ] in a helicopter decides that it's a great idea to follow you around while simultaneously attracting the attention of every zombie in a mile radius to your exact location ah for shit's sake not the helicopter piss off i'm inside you can't even see me [ __ ] i was really off man i hate this shitty game every time the helicopter event happens i just imagine the news reporters in the helicopter doing the soy jack point at me as they follow me around god i hate helicopters if i see one in real life i will fight it one thing i will say about metagame events is that apart from the helicopter which stank feeling only happens once unless changed in the settings gunshots and screams still seem to happen just as often even more than a month or two into the game which doesn't make a lot of sense perhaps further into the game hordes should just tend to move around on their own a bit more one fairly sizable portion of the game is its combat which many people don't seem to be a huge fan of but i disagree it's fairly simple yes but it works well for the game and i personally find it quite satisfying especially the melee you have two different kinds of melee attacks a swing with your weapon or a push which can be used to distance yourself from zombies or successfully knock them over allowing you to attack them while helpless on the ground and do extra damage hearing the squelch of a zombie skull being crushed by a crowbar or by the heel of a boot is truly a glorious sound alongside the melee combat is the use of firearms which if you like attracting giant hordes to your location is a great option along with the fact that unless you have a fair bit of skill with them you're liable to basically miss everything without using a shotgun and even then the combat being fairly straightforward and often encumbering when facing large groups of enemies simply makes sense for the kind of game that zomboid is there's no need for it to be an overwhelming massive input combos and dodge rolls again you're playing as a regular joe not a tekken character you will find that over time or with characters that have trait suited for fighting that you'll be able to handle bigger groups of zombies at once but remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer but look i don't want to just sit here jerking the game off because it's far from perfect there are several things that could do with a bit of a revisitation and before i get the eventual comment of desu mod to fix that i'm not reviewing a mod am i if something is enough of an issue that you find it necessary to modify the game in order to play it then you'd agree that it should simply be a part of the base game probably the first thing that comes to mind is the trait system which needs to be made more dynamic while some traits can be removed or changed specifically those that are tied to your character's weight the vast majority of them are things that permanently affect your character without any chance of changing them one type of trait that should definitely be made dynamic is anything to do with panic traits like cowardly should probably be removed after a certain number of kills panic does slowly reduce over time but it irks me a little bit when my survivor who has murdered over a thousand zombies in melee combat still has a mini heart attack when two of them are following him characters that are smokers should probably get over their addictions after going long enough without a smoke and a hemophobic character should eventually get used to seeing blood after a while because it's basically unavoidable of course not all traits should be dynamic but perhaps there should be some additional traits gained after certain milestones are hit such as total zombie kills or days survived to make things a little more realistic i think that the zombie apocalypse would be enough to change most people the game also really needs to flesh out mood systems more the one that needs the most work is sadness the vast majority of the time it is dictated by food if your character eats something that isn't fresh or is just unappealing to eat they will add extra sadness points to their how depressed i am total yes sadness is also affected by things like stress or boredom but i often find that what makes me sad is just having to eat canned beans like they're so terrible or something maybe my character should come to terms with the fact that they're in the literal apocalypse and get the [ __ ] over it the easiest way to remove sadness is just to pop some antidepressants or read the book which is exactly how it works in real life you can also eat happy inducing foods like chips or soda which is any dietitian will tell you subsisting only on high sugar and calorie foods will definitely improve your mood in the long run i think that sadness should be more affected by things like whether your character gets enough exercise whether they take actions that suit their traits or whether they suffer trauma and i think that when npc interaction is properly implemented things like losing a fellow survivor could prove to really overhaul how sadness works because for now it's a rather shallow mechanic one pet peeve i have with how water works is that it can either be safe to drink or tainted which is fine but you can also use containers or build a water catcher to catch rainwater which for some reason is tainted and has to be sterilized i don't get why rainwater is tainted if it hasn't touched the ground another thing that annoys me is that with the building mechanics you can't actually build a roof per se you need to build a floor over your walls to act as your roof but the only way to be able to do that is to be on the same level as your roof meaning that you need to build stairs up the side of your house first i guess it works but it's kind of a weird way to have to go about it the late game can also tend to drag on a bit once you've secured a place to live and have a good supply of food the game can start to feel a little bit too safe it could do perhaps with some more content or more things to be able to craft or work towards in a future update the ui is a bit crap and the inventory system can prove a little cumbersome and the game can tend to feel a little grindy at times though in all honesty for a survival game like this that's something you should probably expect multiplayer in video games is inherently fun as it adds an extra social aspect to it and being able to play zomboid with friends is a lot of fun however the multiplayer does have a few issues aside from the extra bugs and lag that it brings issues that you don't really come across in single player firstly you can't change the game speed in multiplayer which makes certain tasks a lot more tedious particularly reading books which is a mega pain in the balls you also never feel drowsy or tired at all meaning that sleep is simply not something that you need to do this does give you plenty of extra time to read books but it also means that you just have to sit through every night inside waiting for the time deposit normal speed which kinda sucks and sure you could go out raiding and looting at night but what was that about taking unnecessary risks plus it takes the need for sleep out of the game entirely meaning that's one less thing that you need to worry about being drowsy is bad really bad when you're in combat so removing it only serves to make the game easier another thing about multiplayer is that there's generally less of that hardcore feeling that the single player games have sure you can die just as quickly and easily but if your mate's still alive he can just gather your stuff and you can meet up again with a new character it just takes away some of that edge and provides a more casual experience which i suppose some people might be looking for look the multiplayer is still heaps of fun and it's not like it totally ruins the game or anything but zomboid is the kind of game that just feels like the proper way to play is in single player especially since the core of the game's identity is its unforgiving edge but it's also worth revisiting the fact that zomboid is an early access game and the indie stone have certainly been in no rush to push updates out the door without getting them to an acceptable standard first zomboid first released on steam back towards the end of 2013 meaning it has been in early access for over seven years now and i'm sure there are some people that aren't so happy with how long this game has taken to get to the stage that it's at but from the developers perspective you can't argue that with the recent influx of players that it hasn't paid off and there is still plenty of content planned for the game including animals and a hunting system as well as a planned tech tree of sorts to expand the late game which as previously mentioned is in need of some extra content probably the most anticipated update however especially for longtime followers of zomboid would be the addition of npcs something that could do wonders for the emergent narrative that comes about in each playthrough i'd personally really be able to like to recruit them and build a sort of post-apocalyptic society and have them fill orders in complete tasks like growing crops and preparing food while i get on with the nitty-gritty of things it is something that they really need to get right however i have played the superb survivors mod and the ai and that could do with more than a little bit of work but seeing how prudent the developers are with releasing updates i have hoped that the npcs that we see in the future will be a great addition and when it comes down to it i suppose i am glad that i waited quite a while to get into zomboid because it has come a long way over the years and is now in a state that's well worth what you pay for it and with some further updates around the corner the indie stone could take this game to even greater heights it's been a while since the game has hooked me quite like zomboid has and having now pumped over a hundred hours into it and with the replayability freedom and dynamism it has to offer with each run i can see myself quite easily putting in another hundred more if you're considering getting zomboid for multiplayer but don't have anyone to play with then i would wholeheartedly recommend getting it anyway for its single player if you're partial to games like kenshi then i reckon that this is a game that you would have a great time with because like i said this is the best zombie game and if you're sick of games treating you like an almighty demigod-like figure that would survive through nuclear armageddon let alone a zombie apocalypse then it's time you gave project zomboid to go [Music] you

Channel: davo_

Views: 385,641

Keywords: Project Zomboid, Zomboid, The Indie Stone, Zombie, Zombies, Left 4 Dead, Kenshi, Survival, Sandbox, Roguelike, Mulitplayer, Build 41, Early Access, Review, Shitpost, Critique, Dave, Davidson, Wooper

Id: SYjGVzMdpyc

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 29 2022