yes yes yes i know zombie media is inherently reactionary because it symbolizes the 3rd world hordes rising up to take back our undeserved products of exploitation
but fuck me if this game hasn't given me some of the most memorable multiplayer experiences ever. There's just something about driving down the highway in a sprinter van with your friends smoking cigs, reloading guns and reading books in the backseat as the rain comes down that's such a fucking vibe. Roadtripping across the map to the new city addition after scouring countryside towns for food and weapons is an adventure and a half every time. Covering each other's backs as you make your way into an infested part of town is somehow the most tense and exciting experience I've had in a multiplayer game in a long time.
Another big draw for me is that after the first few days of a run when you've gotten fully established the game can be as intense or relaxed as you want it to be. Don't feel like killing zeds? Stay inside and read, work out, listen to the radio, go fishing, build a fort, maintain your car, organize your loot, etc. The simulation depth of this game very consistently allows you to follow the "if you can do it in real life you can probably do it in the game" thought process. That's how I discovered that you can poison any prepared food with small amounts of bleach, that getting an open wound while you're covered in blood increases the likelihood of getting an infection, that drinking several bottles of wine and taking sleeping pills is not a good combo, and the list of needlessly detailed aspects of this game goes on.
The game has been in development since like 2011 and as a result the modding scene is starting to rival that of Skyrim or Minecraft. Something you want to do that isn't in the game? Almost certainly a mod for that.
The only games I've really played in the last 3 months have been this and Halo Infinite. It's on sale right now, ten bucks, get it now before the devs increase the price.
It’s on sale right now, ten bucks, get it now before the devs increase the price.
Can't:deeper-sadness:
Because I already have it :sicko-beaming:
Its a very fun game. I bought it right after the big multiplayer update game out and have 50 hours in it so far. There is a lot of depth in the game, and a hundred different ways to do a lot of things. The modding scene is also very active.
I feel like the modding scene has been cranked up to 11 the last couple months, there's now mods that add modifiable cars, solar panels, dance emotes, scrap weapons and armor, so much good shit.
I played it forever ago. there was no multiplayer and i think these 3d characters look worse?!
Its a cool game tho, doesnt the multiplayer devolve into sadism?
I only ever played with friends, so multiplayer for me was mostly "Hey when you guys go out looting can you try to find seeds and gardening tools?" and "Oh shit guys I'm not going to make it I'm going to stash my loot in a closet and go out to the forest to watch the sun rise" and "This is the fifteenth house we've looted that doesn't have an AR in it. What kind of trash ass dollar store Kentucky is this?"
PVP is a toggleable option. If you have it turned on you're able to attack any player even if they don't have it turned on but you get a big skull and crossbones next to your name. You just gotta find the right server. Most light-RP servers have rules like "if you must be a raider you have to verbally/textually engage with players before you attack them, no RDMing". A lot of the players that have been playing since before this big update generally understand that dying on a run is a real drag so they'll avoid just flat killing you. I got held up a couple times and only once have i just been straight fucked out of nowhere.
As Frank said this game really shines in co-op. Get some friends to pick it up, you won't regret it.
Night of the Living Dead can be summed up as about a black man who survived being attacked by a mob of bloodthirsty white people, only to be gunned down by an all-white vigilantes.
Haha, funny out of context plot summary. Then you go to Dawn of the Dead, the original, which have an entire subplot of the cops using the zombie outbreak as a pretext to literally commit pogrom on the urban poor. And of course, the well known anti-consumerism/capitalism subtext with the whole mall thing.
And to stretch it a little bit more, the Land of the Dead is basically about rich people living in luxury walled of from the rest of society being overran by an army working class zombies who have just recently regained their intelligence. Which is probably a metaphor for class consciousness or something. Well, there's also the non zombie working class who I think got away safely in the end while leaving the rich to get fucked, so there's that.
If Romero is politically left, then he's really good at hiding his power level. Or maybe the curtain is just blue.
Don't forget Day of the Dead which codes all the US military guys as Nazis and makes the zombies the good guys
I love PZ, never played with friends, but it's a wonderful game, I love all the nitty gritty details, makes it feel less gamey than other zombie games.
Definitely try to persuade some friends to pick it up. Singleplayer feels so empty to me now even though nothing about the experience has changed hahaha
I got it, feel free to hit me up on the Chapo Game House discord in the sidebar, now the International Society of Intersectional Socialists, or ISIS (no relation).
I played the old version. It's good and very weird. Unlike most zombie games it is not in any way a power fantasy, You're fragile and have to be very careful all the time. The game really encourages teamwork, but teamwork is a double edged sword because sometimes your friend leaves the oven on and your house burns down.
Team work is when your bitten friend asks you to put him out of his misery so you bash his face in with a lug wrench
It's all I've been playing since I got COVID, it kicks ass, singleplayer or multiplayer. Tons of mods too. Just died trying to set up a solar powered vertical farm downtown, last run was a cabin in the woods, have also been a nomad, etc. Fun all around, so far infinitely replayable
Zomboid almost instantly became one of my favorite games when I first played it and I only like it more with the 3d update. Zombies in the suburbs are perfect together. I really like the way skills work with the books and how they are relatively grindy, it gives me runescape style satisfaction leveling except it doesn't take literal months to progress. Oh and it's all customizable too so you can make the grind just perfect for you.
The only thing I don't like is how a zombie hit can be just rng death if you don't just outright disable it, mostly when you get locked into that animation. Idk how they could even improve but christ does it feel fucking awful to lose a progressed character and playing without it just doesn't feel right.
I barely played multiplayer because I don't have anyone to really play with. If there's ever a hexbear server I'd jump on that instantly. We could collect all the Soviet flags.
The only games I’ve really played in the last 3 months have been this and Halo Infinite
same
I would hop on a hexbear server so fuckin fast it isn't even funny
Sold. Btw when did it get multiplayer I just remember vaguely when it first came out it looked neat and then kinda forgot about it.
Long story. The game has always had multiplayer, but last year the devs released build 41, which was such a huge overhaul (added proper animations among other cool stuff) that it basically broke multiplayer so the devs disabled it. As they went on it became more and more clear that they essentially had to redo the netcode from scratch, so here we are 1 year later. Multiplayer was released in beta on December 6th and on the 19th the devs moved it to the stable release.
It's got a steep ass learning curve, so be prepared for your first 5-10 hours to be filled with a ton of deaths. Remember "this is how you died".
Oh yeah it's a fun game. Love the extreme level of sandbox, the fact that you can go everywhere and just do whatever you want.
Very fun, have done a bunch of single player on it.
How does sleep work in MP? Haven't tried that yet.
Depends on the server settings. Mine has tiredness disabled but the ability to sleep enabled so it's functionally identical to minecraft sleeping.
I don't play Minecraft either so idk what that means, is it just a communal fast forward button?
pretty much. time accelerates if everyone sleeps at once
The movies that popularized zombies were Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. Both of which have zombies in a shopping mall and military base respectively. Romero absolutely used zombies as an allegory for false consciousness and fascism. World War-Z on the other hand...
That scene with the zombies at the walls of Israel was painfully gross.
Oh yeah the Israel shit was extremely masturbatory and grotesque to watch
The learning curve is a vertical wall until you get a handle on two concepts: combat and how to lose large groups.
Getting a handle on combat is pretty much just acquired experience, but you'll have an easier time if you go into the options and look for the "aim outline" option, set that to 'any weapon'. You'll see a green outline on zombies that your character is targeting for melee as well as ranged weapons. :LIB: eral use of the shove mechanic will do you wonders as well, if I'm training a horde I'll alternate between shoves and attacks to keep zeds at a distance.
For losing large groups you basically have to break line of sight twice. Once to get out of their vision, and then again so they won't see you once they get to where they last saw you. So I'll run around a house corner, and then hop a tall fence or run through a building so they won't see me once they get to that same corner.
It's alright. Personally, I find it a pale imitation of Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, which is one of my favorite games, but also I get that they're going for different things.
PZ obviously has multiplayer, and is generally focused on a more teamwork based experience, is a slower game to progress, and you're generally more fragile.
Cataclysm is more focused on crafting, and while still slow to progress, has a much much higher power ceiling for the players, with more late-game monsters and areas to progress to. Its also free and open source, which is neat.
Personally, like, PZ feels pretty empty to me, with no real variance in enemies, and not terribly exciting crafts to work towards, but at the same point, its trying to be realistic, wheras C:DDA is trying to be more fantasy-sci-fi. Not to mention, I know people will consider no multiplayer and worse graphics dealbreakers for C:DDA, but neither really bother me.
