Day 24

Last night I heard a gunshot again.  Sure enough, come morning my formerly clean yard is swarming with zombies.  Luckily they haven't noticed me, but I don't know how long I can go peeking from behind the curtains before I am spotted.  To make matters worse, the water has shut off, and there are too many zombies milling around outside for me to dispose of without risking infection.  All of my carefully laid plans (fortified shelter, food, weapons, and the beginnings of a garden) have gone to waste.  I figure I can last a week with my current supplies. If the swarm doesn't thin out by then I will have to abandon my shelter, trusting that I can eventually evade them and perhaps start over again in another part of Muldraugh.  Until then, I have enough books and magazines to keep me sane.  If only the power had held out I could read into the night, like when I was a boy.  I can only pray that the swarm thins out so I can scavenge for food and water.



Project Zomboid is a isometric survival game created by British/Canadian indie studio, The Indie Stone.  While this isn't their first creation, Zomboid is their first commercial release candidate, and what a debut! What Indie Stone has done is not only to create a game to cater to the whole "zombie apocalypse" crowd (you know who you are), they have also married several concepts most likely to be featured in Rogue-like,  minimalist graphics, such as perma-death, (generally not seen in survival games of any kind),  line of sight integration with a large, open world, and a nice injection of logic.

Project Zomboid presents the player with a Western, first-world setting in the middle of a steep decline.  Gone are visible signs of the former civilization, replaced with hordes of the living dead, who mill around, and follow their zombie programming.  While other survival games (zombie or otherwise) take liberties with reality in the name of gameplay, the reality presented in Zomboid is nice and tight.  The attention to detail is amazing, especially for a game that is considered by the developers to be in its alpha state.  There is a ton of fun tucked into this humble, isometric view, from the considerate and deep crafting system (that doesn't go off the deep-end), to the RPG skill-leveling system (reading books levels up your crafting skills), and the surprisingly deep character creation, which includes selectable character traits.  Dig pretty much anywhere, and you will surely hit gold of some kind with this game.


As previously mentioned, there is a great deal of detail in the game. See that window on the house?  Behind it (likely) lies tools to assist in your continued survival.  You very well might be able to force it open, but the amount of times you try can make you tired (depending on your physical fitness level and how fed and hydrated you are). It is also possible that you might draw in any wandering zombies who happen to hear your racket.  Deciding to break the door instead of forcing it almost guarantees that you will be noticed by a much larger group.  And hopefully you don't cut yourself climbing in, which will require bandaging and could lead to infection (unless treated with antibiotics).   That window isn't just a gateway to possible valuable supplies, but is also a means of escape.  Jump through any available portal that breaks line of sight and as long as a following horde doesn't see your exit point, they will only move to your last known whereabouts.  Of course this means little if you run into a horde of them inside of the house, or are perhaps spotted while exiting. 

Escape is possible (though running is discouraged), but don't think that line of sight only works in your favor.  While the landscape doesn't disappear in the fog of war, the zombies do, so not taking care of your own health (which affects your perception) will most certainly lead to surprise encounters while forcing entry into or out of buildings.

Day 32

I'm going to die.  Hiding in the bathroom of one of those double-wides on the north-east side of town and the zombies are beating on the walls trying to get in.  I was spotted while checking my animal traps. Tried climbing through house windows to lose them but there were too many zombies.  I just heard a window break.  Nowhere to go now.

Just as with real life, in Project Zomboid you will have to worry about everything that it takes to survive, minus the massive infrastructure behind your fragile world.  Power and water are still there (more on that later), but everything else is gone.  No more deliveries of yummy lamb chops, orange soda, or canned beans.  No more gasoline for your ultra-compact, or water filters for your tap water.  You will have to make due with what you can find either in markets, corner stores, abandoned buildings, or the corpses of zombies you have slain. Pretty much everything has to be scavenged, from food and water, to weapons, tools, and clothes.  What you can manage to find and horde will determine your ability to survive into the next day, whether it be simple food items or carpentry tools for building/fortifying your shelter.

And don't even think about eating that slab of hamburger without cooking it first!  Getting sick and dying of a food-born illnesses is not a very elegant way to go, but neither is burning the house (or neighborhood) down when you neglect to turn off the stove or light a campfire in the kitchen to keep yourself warm in the late autumn.   Of course, food-born illness isn't your only concern.  Not replacing that shirt you ripped up for bandages earlier could have dire consequences, especially while out scavenging in the rain or in the wintertime.  The cold is a serious obstacle in this staying alive business, and can affect your ability to grow your own food once the salvage finally disappears.  Since the available town is rather large, it's conceivable that it could be quite a while before the canned beans and chips finally run out.

Day 41

I'll leave the details alone, but suffice to say that I escaped.  I am now resting on the couch of a posh two story house in a previously swanky neighborhood.  Not quite the house I always wanted, but it should suffice for a while.  Pull shades and placed sheets over the windows to discourage the stray zombie looking in on me. Little in the way of food but there is medicine, which is great since I appear to have caught a cold of some sort.  Not surprising, considering the amount of rain we've been getting and me out ten hours a day skulking from house to house scavenging for supplies.  I'm near a grocery store that I hope isn't too picked over.  I'd kill for a some fresh fruits and veggies, but I'll be more than happy to find canned foods.  Mother, I'll never complain about beans or stale chips again.


It is quite amazing just how together and bug-free this game is for an alpha build.  But at the end of the day, it is part of the "early access" model, so despite its playability, it is still missing features.  For instance, winter lacks visual or aural effects to indicate the season.  The game also hints at NPC characters though there are none to be seen.  Various kinds of gunshots will sound throughout the night, but outside of the often massive zombie migration this seems to signal, there are no NPCs.  Screams echo while you forage around town, but there is not a soul in sight.  Also missing are visible animals, which is strange considering that once you craft, place a trap, and leave it for a while, a dead animal will appear in it.  And despite the impressive level of realism the game exhibits, there is no way (or need) to actually use the bathroom.  It would be interesting to worry about a full bladder/bowel whilst on the run from the living dead......but then again, maybe it wouldn't be.

All things considered, I had a lot of fun with this game.  My only real complaint is that the "loot" windows that you have to sift through when in close proximity to a loot source (be it cabinet, refrigerator, or corpse) are not very intuative.  A simple right click might be better, and there is always time for improvement.  This is an alpha, after all and there is an excellent chance that the game will probably change radically by a year from now and not be the same game you play today.

If you are big fan of so-called "survival games," or are just really curious about your chances of survival in a zombie apocalypse, give Project Zomboid a shot.  You will certainly end up dying at some point (as the intro screen gleefully informs you), but the depth and respect for reality could be the thing that brings you back.  Sure, there is no parkour, electric weapon mods, typewriters, or tank controls, but instead, the game focuses on the very essence of survival, something that most of the other games in this genre have given up for dead.

Day 45

The store was packed with goods, but also the expected horde of zombies.  I managed to get what I need and even lose the skulking horde that followed the sound of breaking glass.  One would consider it a  miracle really, if I hadn't been bitten by a zombie crawling through the bushes during my dramatic escape.  I tripped over it and he got little nip on my leg. Didn't even tear my jeans. Shouldn't think that would be enough, but it was.  My luck to literally run across a dead goth with sharpened teeth.  Well, my formerly receding sickness has come back with a vengeance, along with ugly red lines around the wound.  Four little tiny pin-pricks.  Burns too, and I am starting to loose feeling in the tips of my fingers and toes.  Necrosis?  I don't know.  I made it back to my shelter unseen, and plan to pass the next few days powering through the canned goods and bottles of orange soda I picked up, curling up with a good book whilst doing so.  I'm so sorry.  I wanted to make this journal longer, filling it with my thoughts and ideas, my life and my experience.  Now I can only offer you regret and sorrow.  My life, wasted and lonely, will end too soon.  Goodbye.  I hope you fare better than I.

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