Review: Project Zomboid: A Game I Love, and Can No Longer Love
Writing from frustration can sometimes be the only honest entry point.
Over the past several years, I’ve spent hundreds of hours inside Project Zomboid and the virtual world of Kentucky. In that time, I've developed dichotomous feelings for this zombie survival game; a deep affection for what the game achieves, and genuine concern for where it’s headed.
Early drafts of this post felt like a knee-jerk rant, but time has afforded me a considered attempt to take stock of a game whose atmosphere and ambition remain remarkable, even as its direction has become increasingly difficult to defend.
I'm writing this review based off the most recently released version of the game (42.13.1), which is the unstable beta you can opt into that introduces a number of new features that extend beyond the version that you automatically launch into when you first fire up the game on Steam (which is Build 41). In its current state, 42.13.1 is very, very buggy, and therefore I won't delve too heavily into the stability/bug-related issues of the game. While I find these bugs to be terribly annoying, it comes with the territory of new versions being rolled out, and quite frankly, the issues related to bugs are relatively small compared to other problems this game is facing in its current state.
What Makes Zomboid Great
The bones of this game are fantastic and have provided an excellent foundation for further mechanics to be introduced and built upon. Zomboid is full of memorable, heart-pounding experiences that leave you wanting to share those stories with friends and say, "you should pick up this game."
The atmosphere of this game is equally terrifying and humorous. A lot of love has gone into the small details of this game and the lore in its most recent updates. One of the best additions to this game is its newly found minutiae, which has helped separate itself from the oversaturated survival genre. After a few runs, you will never think of Kentucky in the same way you did before.
There is a remarkable amount of freedom you are offered in this game to pursue your own goals and aspirations for each character. Some players will struggle with the lack of a grand objective to achieve or end-game to reach. The ultimate objective is always to survive, and the beauty of Zomboid is that it gives you a number of different avenues to wander down with its different skills and occupations. I've been a lumberjack who has built his own log cabins, a mechanic with a suped-up mobile home that receives ongoing maintenance as I travel between towns and cities, a farmer who has become entirely self-sustainable with crops of different vegetables I manage, and much more. It's a game of personal freedom and creativity, which is refreshing for those who seek such a game.
The sandbox mode is helpful in allowing you to customize your experience, from changing the rate you gather experience to the volume of zombies in the map and where they are most concentrated. You can have very easy runs or very tough runs based on your preference and tweaking of the values. it makes playing with friends who are just dipping their feet into the game much more forgiving, and playing with those who are more experienced more challenging and entertaining.
I have enjoyed this game in singleplayer, but it truly shines when you are able to play it with friends and work on larger-scale projects that are far easier to accomplish with extra hands than by yourself. Planning expeditions into zombie-infested areas with friends and the best way to approach gathering specific supplies never gets old, and having different players specialize in certain fields gives everybody a sense of purpose in maintaining your community.
The modding community of this game is outstanding and right up there with Rimworld for high-quality player-developed content. I have thrown in my fair share of dollars to independent developers who have created what I now consider to be essential mods whose absences are deeply felt when the game goes through its inevitable updates and breaks mod compatibilities. I would (and will below) argue that this game is an incomplete experience without the efforts of independent contributions outside of the game's development team.
Falling Out of Love with Zomboid
I disagree with the online discourse I have seen that this development team is "lazy" - I think they're doing the best with what they, as an indie development group, have. With that said, I thoroughly agree with what previous reviews have said about 'scope creep'. The gradual accumulation of features and ideas The Indie Stone has introduced into this game has created a development cycle that has become overtly long, complex and evidently difficult to finish in a way that provides an enjoyable gaming experience while retaining the essence of what the game is supposed to be - how your Average Joe could survive in a hypothetical zombie apocalypse.
In its most recent renditions, Zomboid has become bloated with half-cooked mechanics like knapping and glassmaking that are simply uninteresting and an exercise in tedium rather than positively contributing to the game experience. Yes, you don't have to pursue these skills or level them in every playthrough, but there is such a thing as something being too niche for a broad audience, and the game has become littered with them over time.
There are many areas of the game that need greater degrees of attention than introducing skills like carving and blacksmithing. I don't have the data to cite beyond what I have read online, but based on my experiences in following this game over the past ten years, one of the most commonly requested mechanics from the community has been NPCs beyond zombies (such as other survivors, both hostile and non-hostile). Currently, the development team describes NPCs as being in something in the distant future, mods are actively developed by the community that introduce NPCs into the game. These additions contribute far more positively to the universal, for-every-player Zomboid experience than skill branches that are genuinely head-scratching in their incorporation into the game. I am not arguing that NPCs should be the #1 priority for TIS moving forward; it is simply an example of the bizarre priorities and direction this game has trended in in recent years.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I've had some very wonderful experiences playing Project Zomboid, but the priorities of the dev team have truly kneecapped its development and prevented it from reaching its potential.
I have reached a point where I feel like I cannot, in good faith, recommend this game to friends and online acquaintances alike.
If you feel compelled to play this game, be prepared to rely heavily on the Steam Workshop to enjoy the game to its fullest potential in its current state. B41 is, for all intents and purposes, a polished game that is enjoyable, but the gaps will become glaring sooner rather than later, and many features that you will ask "why aren't these in the base game?" will likely have heroes who have spent their personal, unpaid time developing free additions for the community that really should be part of the game.
I don't think I'll ever trust The Indie Stone to deliver on a fully "realized" project before 2030, and its more saddening than frustrating. I truly love this game and what it is trying to achieve, but its creators have simply dropped the ball, and there is no indication that the game will regain the focus it once had.