After 12 Years of Early Access, This is Still the Best Test of Your Zombie Survival Skills

Ah, zombies. We’re all so damn tired of them. But you know what? I recently got done watching All of Us Are Dead, the hit Korean series about, you guessed it, zombies. And it awoke a long-dormant itch… to try my hand at surviving the zombie apocalypse.

So, what shall I play? Left 4 Dead? Days Gone? Call of Duty Zombies? Okay, that last one’s just there for a good laugh. In the end, there’s only really one game I know that will test your zombie survival skills to the limit.

That game is Project Zomboid.

What’s a “Project Zomboid?”

Back in 2013, this random little game popped into existence. It had a rough story, mediocre graphics, janky physics, and, thankfully, a massive amount of charm. The tutorial was fine and all, but where this obscure little game shone was its sandbox.

Alright, you couldn’t do all that much back then, if I remember correctly, but it was a great start. I mean, it was only in early access, so it had time to get up to 1.0 without losing player patience, right?

It’s been 12 years. Well, it will be, come November.

These days, there’s nothing janky about Project Zomboid. Well, weird stuff still randomly happens, but it’s a highly polished title where you can do pretty much anything you can imagine. Want to build your own castle in the middle of the woods? Be my guest. Want to turn an elementary school into an impenetrable fortress? Go ahead.

But do be careful, because just one bite, and your death clock begins to tick.

“Oh, I can handle a few zombies without getting bit just fine.” Is that so? Why don’t you give it a try then? And don’t you dare play on anything below Survivor difficulty… at least not for your first try. See how long you last, then come back here and drop your comment.

This game is brutal beyond just about anything I’ve ever experienced. You can spend months carefully levelling up your perfect character, gather all the best gear, and then, through one mistake — one slip of focus — it all vanishes in a puff of bleach-induced death. Oh, if you’re wondering, it’s pretty common for players to drink a bottle of bleach when they get bit, which is something else you can do in the game, just by the by.

The map is absolutely massive, and if you don’t mind playing on the unstable branch, it just got a whole lot bigger with a few new towns in build 42. If you want to explore the whole map, you’ll need a car. Several, more likely, since you’ll probably hit a tree at some point.

Before I go too far off on a tangent, this game is still in early access. Yeah, almost 12 years later, and The Indie Stone hasn’t even given it the big 1.0 just yet. Crazy, right!

But my gosh, there’s so much you can already do in the game. You can really build that castle, cook a stew, live off-grid, fish for your dinner, hunt (as of build 42), collect and purify rainwater, start a farm, and all this even in multiplayer.

Oh, and naturally, you can kill lots of zombies.

Righty then, I’m done gushing. I freaking loved this game back when I played it a lot. And yeah, it’s scary as hell, but I got used to it. Given this recent itch, I got back into it, and I was no longer used to it. It’s scary. So if you’re interested in giving it a go, here’s their Steam Page, where the game’s on sale for another couple days as of writing.

Now, in case you do want to hear more about this absolute gem, here’s how my re-introduction into the game has gone so far.

Survivor Stories from Project Zomboid

Ah, it’s so good to be back. I figured I should pick a police officer as my first character back. They’re usually pretty fit, can handle themselves in a fight, and should have a gun handy. Even though you shouldn’t use guns unless you know what you’re doing. They tend to be noisy. You know what loves noise? Zombies.

Anyway, Boyd Valentin, my first character, got off to a shaky start. I didn’t have a weapon and couldn’t find anything decent. Just 12 hours into my first game, and Boyd got ended. I decided to walk through a slim treeline to the next house over, and a zombie awaited me in the bushes.

I didn’t react fast enough, so he took a chunk out of my left forearm. That’s it, the end of Boyd’s story. I had some time before I turned, so I killed as many zombies as I could, which didn’t turn out to be all that many.

Boyd died surrounded by a small horde on a football field. Rest in peace, zombie Boyd.

My next character only lasted four hours. Yeah, welcome back to Project Zomboid.

This came about after I ran down a narrow alley to get away from some zombies. While exploring the video store, I managed to attract a small horde out the front. There were no other doors. So I had a small horde at the back door, and one at the front. Goodbye, Evangelina.

That’s just the nature of this game. It’s tough. One bad decision, and you’re done for. It sometimes takes a miracle to get out of these situations, and it paints a picture of just how dangerous a zombie apocalypse would be in real life.

I didn’t give up, of course, I tried to smash my way through the zombies at the back door, but given the small space, I was inevitably bitten a good few times, and ended up bleeding out in the parking lot.

The next character lived for a day and 2 hours before a missed swing with a bat led to death after killing just 21 zombies. And, finally, I got the hang of it, since my next character managed to establish a safehouse, gather plenty of food and meds, and enough weapons to kill all the zombies in town.

But again, one single slip, and the very first zombie attack led to a bite on the chest. And that’s the end of that. Over five days, 101 zombies, plenty of skill-building and scavenging, all for nothing. That is the fleeting nature of human life perfectly captured in a game. An early access game, for that matter.

I may be wrong, but this may be the longest-running active game that’s still in early access. I know there are some abandoned games that have a longer early access period, but they’ll never see a 1.0 release. Project Zomboid will, and it’ll be truly amazing.