The gold standard for survival-crafting-zombie-whatever-early access-genre-whatever games. It's still in early access and has a severe endgame problem (in that there isn't one), but everything in Project Zomboid is so, so good.
It's disappointing that development isn't faster, but from when I bought it until now, if it was a completed game I'd still be incredibly happy with it. If it ends up the way they've planned it, it'll be one of my favorite games of all-time.
It's top-down, doesn't rely on being a great shooter or gaming complicated AI or special infected or monsters or dinosaurs or some gimmick enemies-- it's just zombies. You can have 'em run, walk, shamble, or do some whatever combo. You can pick how many you want. And that's it. Just don't get bit! And feed yourself. And find shelter. Don't get too fat. Make sure you have ways to entertain yourself... Make sure you have an idea for food long-term... And heat for the winter... Oh god, there's so much!
If you're playing with a larger group and enjoy the base building aspect, you can essentially play The-Sims-in-an-apocalypse, which is super cool. There are tons of assets, you can organize a metric shit-ton of different items, there's mod support, there are just so many options in the game.
Unfortunately, once your base is 100% set up and self-sustaining, there's not a lot more to do. Allegedly we're two major updates away from the Big NPC UpdateTM, but NPCs have been added and removed from the game already during engine overhaul. There's a mod that adds them in, but it's a bit janky and doesn't work in multiplayer if that's what you're looking for.
So yeah, you can get your hours out of it and those are high quality hours, but it is 100% not a complete experience right now. So if you're looking for the survival-crafting-whatever-the-hell peak of the mountain because you like base building and survival, yep this is the peak. If you like mowing down hordes of enemies and breaking AI to survive (ala something like 7 Days To Die)... eh, I'm sure there are mods for that, but it's not really supported all that much.
Highly recommend, though. Especially with friends right now. I go back to it once or twice a year for a full "playthrough" until there's just nothing left to worry about and I've re-established a society consisting of like four people.
It's disappointing that development isn't faster, but from when I bought it until now, if it was a completed game I'd still be incredibly happy with it. If it ends up the way they've planned it, it'll be one of my favorite games of all-time.
It's top-down, doesn't rely on being a great shooter or gaming complicated AI or special infected or monsters or dinosaurs or some gimmick enemies-- it's just zombies. You can have 'em run, walk, shamble, or do some whatever combo. You can pick how many you want. And that's it. Just don't get bit! And feed yourself. And find shelter. Don't get too fat. Make sure you have ways to entertain yourself... Make sure you have an idea for food long-term... And heat for the winter... Oh god, there's so much!
If you're playing with a larger group and enjoy the base building aspect, you can essentially play The-Sims-in-an-apocalypse, which is super cool. There are tons of assets, you can organize a metric shit-ton of different items, there's mod support, there are just so many options in the game.
Unfortunately, once your base is 100% set up and self-sustaining, there's not a lot more to do. Allegedly we're two major updates away from the Big NPC UpdateTM, but NPCs have been added and removed from the game already during engine overhaul. There's a mod that adds them in, but it's a bit janky and doesn't work in multiplayer if that's what you're looking for.
So yeah, you can get your hours out of it and those are high quality hours, but it is 100% not a complete experience right now. So if you're looking for the survival-crafting-whatever-the-hell peak of the mountain because you like base building and survival, yep this is the peak. If you like mowing down hordes of enemies and breaking AI to survive (ala something like 7 Days To Die)... eh, I'm sure there are mods for that, but it's not really supported all that much.
Highly recommend, though. Especially with friends right now. I go back to it once or twice a year for a full "playthrough" until there's just nothing left to worry about and I've re-established a society consisting of like four people.