Project Zomboid

-- There are alot bad things to say about that game, but then again, im still here. -- Took me a while to get this review started, since i've always felt not ready enough to give the review it deserves. Even after 10k+ Hours... what, you dont know what i mean? So, uhm... i better start with this: - learning curve : After the first 100 Hours you think you are pro, but your next death reminds you, that you barely got out the tutorial. 1k+ Hours & you think you are getting the hang of it, but then again you keep learning new things constantly. 5k+ Hours, you survive longer because of your past mistakes, but you still discover little things here & there, notice the devs love for detail, & get some "i was today years old"-moments. 10k+ you are questioning all your lifechoices, but reminiscing about all the things you been through. --- & you are still not done learning new things! personal history: My game was a gift from a friend who wanted me to try out this ugly game. I was so grossed out by the graphics that i didnt wanted to even touch it, but he said once you get beyond the looks & the clunkyness, you will like it. I complained nonestop as he dragged me into the tutorial, but he was right. I did start enjoying the horrors. Getting scared by every noise in the wind, watched him fight off the zombie hordes i accidentally attracted while i stood there like a frozen deer watching him getting exhausted while i didnt know what i can do. I died to everything he didnt warn me about - I also died to the things he warned me about. I made the same mistakes more than once, more than twice, but he was a good teacher. After a few games he moved to other games, he never lingered long in one - but i stayed. After a few solo sandbox games it started to feel lonely tho. So i dared to chose a small multiplayer-server, that advertised for beginners. Entered, got out of the community-center & got a full horde-night horde 2 mins later on my butt. Running around like a scared chicken & got munched paltrily. As i hurried back to my corpse, i saw an Admin standing guard at my backpack, & returned all my stuff - was the nicest, unexpected, first interaction i had with the PZ community. After this i settled in, learned the differences from solo to mp & how nice it can be to have People around, not just an empty world. Players helped each other, drove together in cars to go for loot runs, protected each other, collected stuff for newbies in the community center, shared resources with neighbors & answered questions in allchat. Soon i managed live longer, got my base fully protected & i felt like i finally grew out of my babyshoes to try out something more daring. My next choice was a light-rp Server and-oh boy- was i feeling like the worst noob again. No resources or food, most homes taken, a small custom map that squeezed over 100 Players together. I remembered what my Mentor taught me & managed to get by with a forage-build instead of combat. It also turned out, i knew alot more basics & a few veteran tricks that the most players with the same amount of game-hours didnt had. Thats why my learning curve was skyrocketing - made me appreciate my mentor even more. I played through the Season, got pk'ed alot, screwed over by bad Drivers, still died in the most ridiculous ways possible & found Friends along the way. This was how most Servers been for me from then on. Always something new, mostly something surprising, some bad times & lots of good times. Now this wouldnt be a review if i only point out the nice community. Even bad games can have good communities, right? Here are some downsides of PZ: I got the game at the period of prosperity - as stable b41 just got out. Lost of People, full servers, everything was flourishing. But over the years the playerbase faded, since the devs tend to leave their game without updates for too long -- well it can be a good thing? Because when there was a patch, it ment mod-fixes! Some days were so restart-ridden that it was hard to get anything done. Whole evenings gone. Sometimes steam itself caused the game troubles. There were days you couldnt play, not just because the Serverprovider was down for some reason, it felt like half of all bigger Servers ive ever visited were at least once afflicted by hackers/ ddos attacks/ blackmailing for over a few days or even whole weeks - all because PZ lacks the proper protections. But i was used to that 41 Version ever since, so much, that stable b42 felt like a total new game to me - a worse version of the game. Concidering the devs did a 2 years testingphase with b42 before even making it stable, the final version is more bug-ridden, sure...double-pretty but also tripple-boring. They took away many conveniences & fun, added so many hassles. Small things causing microagressiones now, like -grrr, why! This was working in b41 ?!" There are a few little QoL things, that makes you go "Hm this is nice?" but you will get used to it fast. it doesnt outweight the amount of tideous one-by-one-placements and craftings or the worsened UI. You can never again kill hordes with your team like you used to - Maybe not even when you go back to b41 now, since most of the playerbase is in b42 - which will never have the same prosperity-feeling - everything feels "less", smaller, cold, player-unfriendly , not epic. No more Horde nights in your base with 200+ zombs, no more admins spawning 5k Zombs in your pew-pew-events, because now your muscles getting tired. Not so negative...this is a positive review! Ok, ok now some good parts: The beauty within the ugliness - the game looks ugly from the outside, when you are used to peak graphics of other games,...erm sure? But you can not take twilight sparkle out of mlp & put her next to a photorealistic horse & say thats an ugly pony! No, the game within its own universe has some stunningly beautiful things. Uglyness highlights beauty. If everything in a universe is tuned to max. beauty, you would not appreciate it as much. Its apparently in many places - a nice fishingspot? clothes your char looks really nice with? or the base that you have created. Maybe your favorite plant or painting or plush? Perhaps something from a mod. You can sit by a campfire with Friends & spill all your collective knowledge at the newbie that just bought the game, to then see them get up & touch the campfire to go up in flames within 2 secs - pricelss. I will shorten this part, needs no explaining -- Its like sims - but with zombies. And more! Also high realism. You can play alone or with others. Every new game & server will always feel different. Every start feels fresh. Its very mod-friendly. You can make your own mods. Its alot, and i mean ALOT Content for the little Money. Also, No hidden costs/ no DLCs/ no gambling or lootboxes/ no monthly fee/ no pay to win/no pay for QoL/ no Pay for Fashion or mounts /no paywall for mods,& in comparison more content than most games in that price-range. Other small nice things? Ok. The forage window shows the moon phases that make a night go brighter or darker depending on the moon! The pet-mouse that gives its little paw when you pet it! Weather influences your reallife-moodle. Will i go min-maxing or fancy into the apocalypse? Seeerious question! The feeling you get when you sit at a cosy campfire at night, safe, with Food & maybe some Company. Aboslute best! And final words: Bugs can be fixed. Maybe in future devs will bring us even more of the stuff we want - after all.. these devs listen to their player base. And maybe thats what keeps so many players here through all these years too - hopes for the future, appreciation for an underestimated gem that only needs polishing, always new challenges and refreshed experiences, nostalgy for all the good old memories that you want to create anew? So, my review is capped to this point in time. What the future brings i can only guess. Until then - Dont die too fast!

overall i give this game a 10/10 project zomboid is easily one of the best zombie survival games ever made. it doesn't hold your hand, and every decision matters. whether you're scavenging for food, fortifying a base, or simply trying to survive another day, the game constantly keeps you on the edge of your seat. every death feels like it was your own mistake you could have easily prevented, which makes surviving even more rewarding. what makes project zomboid an amazing game is the amount of freedom it gives you. there are countless ways to play, from building massive safehouses to living off the land or surviving entirely on the move. the realistic survival mechanics, detailed skill progression, mod support, and multiplayer give the game endless replayability. no two playthroughs ever feel the same. for the price you pay, it's definitely worth it. i've easily gotten hundreds of hours out of it. even though it's in early access there's already a huge amount of content, with the developers continuing to add updates and improve the game. if you're looking for a challenging survival game with an open sandbox world tailored to you, endless replayability and love zombies, project zomboid is an easy recommendation.

It's like "Sims 4" but if it was good. And there's Zombies.... a lot of Zombies. This game has a steep difficulty curve that might frustrate you, but trust me, if you stick with it, it will be more than worth it.