Game Boost: Project Zomboid · 3:44am Jun 7th, 2020
Heyo!
I'm playing a lot on stream and I'm playing a sandbox game called Project Zomboid.
It's a long term perma-death survival indie game that I've been tracking for a long time. I am very much reminded of older games like Dungeon Crawler: Stone Soup, where the game appears to be simple but is very in depth. Looks like Sims meets zombie survival.
You gotta eat, sleep, fight off zombies, build a base, manage noise with a lot more "hardcore" settings. If your character dies, from starvation or zombies, the world is done.
It's a "story" about how you died. The game expects you to die eventually.
The systems are very in-depth when they are fully introduced. Your body is comprised of multiple locations for example. Your head, neck, upper chest, lower chest, groin, upper l/r legs. lower l/r legs, l/r feet, and each of your l/r hands all can be injured, protected, need first aid and get warm/cold. Clothing that protects can be ripped in those locations as well, removing protection specifically for that location. All shown on character model.
For instance, A zombie attacked me and hit my jacket. I got hit but I fought him off. I was scratched on my chest and had to heal myself with a bandage. Now I looked at my character model and thought there was a glitch, like my female model's tits were too big and the inner shirt was clipping through a jacket model that was thinking was on a male body. I could see the shirt I was wearing underneath. However I could inspect my clothes, and it showed that there was a hole in the chest, obviously. This is one of the very few games where real-time damage is somewhat reflected, and it's an indie game.
Then there is building of course. If you also find something in the world you like, such as some house's shelves, you can take them. You might have to do a skill check, but you can almost always take it. You like the curtains on the window and want those in your place? Take them. You find a painting? It isn't attached to the wall tiles, just take them. You can place a radio on any table or whatever in your base and have it turned on and playing. If you enjoyed the house-building of the Sims too, it is somewhat reflected here.
I have stolen an old-school jukebox from a bar, and taken a soda machine.
The Sandbox options are VERY in-depth. You can even adjust how the zombies cluster in hordes and groups. You can drastically increase spawns for food, or turn off zombie infections ENTIRELY (you can still easily die, oh trust me you can still die). Hell, if you just want a "How long can I survive if everyone VANISHED" scenario, you can even turn off Zombie Spawning. That is even a game there to be honest.
My only criticism is that it is a ten year project. However this reminds me of games like Dungeon Crawler: Stone Soup, where it is never going to be done. There is always some addition that can be made, some system that can be more in depth. There will always be ongoing development, so you can play it, come back in two years and BAM! New content. They went WAY DEEP on a few of them too. Each tire of your car has it's own health and air pressure. Engine condition affects starting up (I've had an engine turnover and almost not start up when a horde was coming at me) as well as noise. Being more educated on mechanics (through reading and actually taking cars apart) will rewards you with easier repairs and an efficient model. You can swap parts too, so if your trunk is damaged, you can replace it with a deeper storage trunk, but you need to be skilled to do so.
If you're into this kind of niche, check it out!
This game has so much depth. I fire it up every now and then and have to spend about a couple hours trying to relearn everything lol. Happy to see someone play it and enjoy it.
5279675 IWBUMS41 has been amazing. The animation update has been super solid and the vehicles are dope.
Sounds like an interesting game but not sure if I would be able to play it well
5280907
The game fortunately has a VERY well done Sandbox Mode. You miss out on ZERO content (unless you change ones option). The game does expect you to die eventually, this does open up with "This is how you died".
The game has a lot of difficulty you can spike or decrease. With there was more construction material spawns? Jack it. Too many fish? Decrease it.
The game has 100% fatal zombie bites, I turn it off. The game has a mechanic where 5 zombies can drag you down, I kept that on. You can even adjust how smart the zombies are, giving them shit memory, making them deaf as a bat or BLOOD SEEKING HELLHOUNDS. You get my point.
Mods also exist, direct Steam Workshop interaction.
5281145
dayum, now that is customizable for sure