Project Zomboid

My buddy Matt says please release Build 42 with multiplayer officially. He wants to get the boys back together.

Really unique game, goes insanely in depth into survival.
Could play it for thousands of hours without getting bored.

The only bad thing is that there arent any achievements.

Incredibly addictive. I've logged 240 hours in 6 weeks (I never log hours in a game like this). It's open ended, you choose your own path, and incredibly sandbox. The modding community is extensive and the Devs update the game every 1-2 weeks like clockwork. They listen to community feedback and honor their community to the fullest, you just don't see that too often these days. I will say if you're planning to mod this game, I hope you have lots of RAM. 16gb isn't enough...

If I had to critique this game, I would say my biggest problem with this game is there's no end-game or ultimate goal. Sure you can max out your levels (massive grind) or you could set self goals like clearing Louisville (good luck) but that's all up to you to enforce that upon yourself. And achieving those long term goals ultimately gets you nothing in the end other than saying you did it. I wish this was treated more like a dungeon crawler like Hades instead of a solely sandbox survival game. It even starts each run by saying "and this is how you died" so logically that is the point. So why not get a score? Like number of kills, levels, rare items found, and time survived multiplied by negative traits. Then your score can can be added up in your account. Maybe scores can unlock new items for future runs or items to be used in multiplayer servers. I'm not a dev, just an idea.

My other critique would be the poor performance. Especially when its raining. It can be so bad that players consider rain a death sentence due to the lag and stuttering. I have a very high end desktop (7800x3d, 7900xtx, and 32gb ram) and this game is still a stuttery mess with my frame times jumping around constantly. And the issue is optimization because my hardware is barely being utilized, maybe peaking at 40% on the GPU and 30% on the CPU. This is annoying, but this is a small Dev so I understand the struggles here.

Last critique is no cloud save support. And this is because of how the game is optimized and uses memory. You might think "well that sucks, but I can just manually transfer my save to my laptop and continue playing on the go". And sure, you can until you start really exploring the whole world and have 40+ mods installed. My save file for my longest running save is over 400Mb, almost half a gig. And that save file is 10s of thousands of tiny files. Last time I transferred my save (not doing this anymore) it took an HOUR. Having a NVMe SSD like me doesn't matter when there's so many tiny files that need to be transferred.

I know it sounds like I'm railing this game, but I still love it and I think that just goes to show just how good it is. I'd say if you read this whole review and were wondering if this game is worth it, IT IS. It's not too expensive and will give you so much enjoyment, give it a shot!

My Favorite Zombie Survival Game Right Now

I’ll admit at first, I didn’t care about this game at all. Even though I’ve always loved zombie games, this one just didn’t grab my attention. I was deep into State of Decay at the time, which is a solid zombie game in its own right. But eventually, I started feeling like it was a bit limited. I wanted more freedom, more challenge.

Then one day, while I was watching YouTube, a video about Project Zomboid popped up. And holy hell… this game is insane. I couldn’t believe I had been ignoring such a gem just because the graphics didn’t look as flashy as other games. But let me tell you — this game is absolutely amazing. It’s fun, intense, and delivers everything I’ve ever wanted in a zombie survival game.

Here’s what makes it so great:

1. Total freedom — You can do whatever you want. You create your own story, make your own choices, and the game just lets you go wild.

2. Challenging in the best way — It’s super realistic. Injuries, status effects, and survival mechanics all make the game feel tense and rewarding.

3. Modding community is top-tier — If there’s something in the game that bugs you, chances are someone’s already made a mod to fix or improve it.


If you’re into zombie survival games, don’t let the graphics fool you. Project Zomboid is the real deal. It’s insanely good.

you need atleast maybe 20+ hours to understand 1/3 of the game mechanics, 10/10 would drink bleach again

It took 3 years to go from build 41 to build 42. That's just a staggering amount of time for an update this size.

Their own announced timeline has NPCs being complete in build 48, now only 18 years away!

This game has been in EA for 12 YEARS now, and quick math says the #1 most requested feature for the last decade will still need another 10+ years.

Unfortunately, I just don't have confidence in this dev team at this point.

For the most part the fighting mechanics are the weakest part of the game. The amount of times my character has done a push for the game to not recognise it, and the zombie just glitches straight into you. If its not that, its the character swinging above downed zombies, or struggling to figure out how to stomp on them. This is of course while the target is lit up green, meaning targeted. Developers seem more focused on putting more ways for the game to just kill you in, while the quality of life and general gameplay is GARBAGE.

I cannot recommend this game because i fear it will be in Early Access literally forever. As much as i have enjoyed the game for what it has to offer, I am left today disappointed because of the lack of progress made over a decade of EA. Yes the game play itself is hardcore, but the UI is clunky and hard to navigate. Sometimes my whole game will crash while navigating the build menu even. I also have grown tired of spending 95% of the characters life away from zombies/inside, cooped up doing burpees and sleeping for multiple real life hours just to stand a chance in combat. What has kept me playing this game, unfortunately, is not the base game itself, but online servers with mods included, because the amount of time you have to put into a character to give them viable stats is a harrowing task without stat boosters or a skill journal of some kind. i don't really have a rating for this game as its not finished. (also side note not a fan of all the "social media discourse" from certain dev/s concerning missing deadlines on multiple instances)

you probably know if you want this game or no so i will just say 3 things that can help someone to start

Probably the most realistic zombie survival game or one of them. Especially with mods

game good, survival good, mechanic good. two zombie chase is fine, 4+ zombie chase is kill
soundtrack good, graphic is runescape horror

i love it when naked people with a virus reach out to me for a hug. 10/10 game.

This is one of the most enjoyable game but it can get repetative and is only fun with others

i wake up in rose wood. zombies everywhere. i go to the school. i look in the lockers and find drugs. i gets high and die within 5 hours... best game ever 1000000000000/10 is that a dino on a skate board?

I've been playing Project Zomboid since almost its inception. Since it was a story based game, when you started as a husband and your wife was bitten (we now see that story only as a heritage background image). It's been more than a decade, I was in school, and I'm now a 30 years old adult, I love this game. I live my live and progress as this Project is growing. I've seen my little brother grow and get to love it as well. In fact he brought me back to it, just as I once showed it to him.

Love it and recommend it, game like no other.....

Somehow this game has slipped under my radar for a long time. Despite looking very simple, the game actually has an incredible amount of depth in it's mechanics. If you enjoy hardcore survival games, you might want to give this a shot.

i didn't think i would like this but after about 10 hours and learning how the game works i enjoy it. worth a try for sure

Make a build for 46 minutes, run around for 10 minutes then get killed and decide you don't want to play this game anymore

Start game, read books, level up. Die by swarm in house. start again. repeat. 10/10 recommend

The ultimate zombie survival experience, this is how you died. Nothing beats the sense of dread hanging over you as you come to terms with the fact that eventually the water will shut off, the power will cut out, and your generator will run dry. You'll go through your food supplies, the axe you used to use to collect firewood will wear and break, and your sanity (in-game only, hopefully) will degrade. Then it happens, you make a silly mistake and you get a scratch - hopefully a small one, it doesn't hurt much. It doesn't matter. The infection is going to kill you slowly and you'll become one of them. Was it all for nothing?

The game is extremely fun in multiplayer and the development is going in a nice direction too with exciting updates planned. There are tons of settings that you can customise as well for your own zombie apocalypse. You can make the zombies faster or smarter; you can tweak their bites or scratches to be more deadly; you can turn wound infections off if you like or you can change the amount of loot that spawns around the map as some examples.

Project Zomboid is a fantastic sandbox survival experience and well worth the money, I strongly recommend it.

Worst frame-rate i've seen in a game for a very long time. The graphics aren't mind blowing, it's a simple art style, i can appreciate that. I can't appreciate a game released in 2013, running this bad in 2025. Ok when you zoom in but when you zoom out, terrible, like 5-10fps. This is a survival game, visibility is everything. More disappointing than biting into a chocolate chip cookie and the chips being rat feces.

I wanted to love this game but there is so many little things and a few big things that get in the way of that.
You're expected to die a lot but its not fun to die at all. All the cool skills you develop are gone once you get bitten and it takes forever to build them up again on a new character. This means you end up playing essentially the first "level" of the game countless times while rarely getting to the others. It's really unbalanced for it to be fun and buggy enough to die from the game lagging :(

Great game, can't fault it at all, save for the annoying fuckfest that is server hosting. Only wish you didn't have to portforward and whatnot just to get a stable server running.

Best Game ever!

Its kinda like the sims in a Zombie apocalypse. And Version 42 is comming along nicely, have been waiting a while for it to drop and evolve but it's been worth it.

A True Survival game.

Most games in the survival genre don't put much empathizes on the survival part of the game. sure you have eat and sleep and fight but most of the time the challenge of survive is trivialized in a few hours or less.

In project zomboid you constantly feel the pressures of the survival aspect of the game. if your too sleepy you are weaker, if you exhausted you are slower, you can get sick from the weather, you have make you eat enough to keep weight up among many other factors you have account for. if you get injured you can't simple heal from a potion or food, you have disinfect, snitch or bandage your wounds also make sure to keep the bandages clean and with every zombie there is chance this one fight might be you last fight. The game constantly keep you alert and ready for anything truly a hardcore survival game sandbox and very much a one of kind experience

game's hard, pretty good, worth trying, truly a masterpiece.

You ever play a zombie game and think, "Yeah, this is fun, but it doesn't really feel like surviving?" Well, Project Zomboid fixes that... This game doesn’t hold your hand. It breaks it, infects it, and makes you amputate it with a rusty saw.

I spawned inside of a bar, got shiftface drunk off whisky, tried to drive a car and drove into a lamp post.
It was at this point I realized I was playing a masterpiece

Project Zomboid is one of the greatest survival games ever made. From its incredible depth to its brilliantly designed mechanics, this game sets the gold standard for what a true survival experience should be. It’s realistic, immersive, moddable, and most importantly, a hell of a lot of fun.

Every aspect of Project Zomboid feels grounded and believable. This isn’t just a game about killing zombies—it’s about long-term survival, resource management, and adapting to a world that wants you dead. Whether it’s dealing with injuries, managing food and water, or fortifying a safehouse, the attention to detail is insane.

The combat is engaging and rewarding. Every swing of a bat, every perfectly timed push, and every last-ditch escape feels intense and strategic. There’s no mindless button-mashing here—positioning, stamina, and awareness all matter. The fact that hordes actually feel like a real threat adds a level of tension that few other games can replicate. Survival isn’t just about fighting—it’s about building your future. Watching your character progress over time—gaining skills, becoming stronger, and mastering the apocalypse—is incredibly rewarding. The base-building system is flexible and fun, allowing you to fortify an existing house or create a fortress from scratch.

The world is massive, detailed, and full of life (or death). The game’s art style is simple yet incredibly effective, creating an eerie, immersive atmosphere that complements the gameplay perfectly.

One of the best parts? The modding community is insane. The game is already amazing, but the ability to tweak and enhance it with mods just makes it even better.

Unlike many modern games, Project Zomboid listens to its community. The developers actually care about player feedback, and it shows. This game is worth every single cent I spent on it.

The Only Downside? Car Lag
If I had to nitpick, the only annoying thing is the lag when driving fast. But honestly? That’s a minor issue in an otherwise flawless game.

Final Verdict: A Must-Play Survival Masterpiece
Project Zomboid is a godsend for survival fans. It’s deep, intense, rewarding, and endlessly replayable. More developers should take notes from this game, because this is how you make a true survival experience. If you haven’t played it yet, do yourself a favor and get it.

Long-lasting, realistic, and great atmosphere.

When i first played this game I was scared, confused, but eager to explore Project Zomboid with my new character.
Now when I play i'm still a little scared, not as confused and even more eager to explore Project Zomboid with my new character.
I may not be the best at surviving, but i love that this game keeps me on my toes and leaves me constantly thinking about how to keep my character alive.

I saw this game from YouTube and it drew me in completely, i was never one to think i'd enjoy a zombie based game at all, but Project Zomboid is one of my favourite games to play.

I 100% recommend you play this game if you love survival, zombies, base building, and hording canned food.

If you love base building and survival games - just buy the game already. This game has ruined every other game for me because I can't find anything else that scratches the itch that Project Zomboid does. There is a huge learning curve but I enjoy that. I enjoy the struggle of being bad and slowly creating a character that is unstoppable...until I make one little mistake and it's all lost. The community is always making mods that refresh the game and make each run a little different so it has high replayability.

one of those games where you have to accept dying a lot while learning to play to get into it, after that its real fun.

something that isnt mentioned on the store page is when your character dies and you continue playing with a new character you can find your previous character now as a zombie.

This may be fun for some people, but is frustratingly hard and un-intuitive for new players.
The idea is great, and the depth of the game is impressive. Its just not for me.

This is the most addictive game I've picked up in years! A really excellent game and it isn't even finished yet (although in a lot of ways it feels like a finished game!)

A post-apocalyptic life simulator. Civilisation may be ending -- and you can watch it end on tv or radio -- but that doesn't mean it's all over for you. This may be the story of how you died, but, with time, it can be the story of how you lived.

Originally I gave this game about 4 hours before giving up on it. Game mechanics are obtuse and the game is very difficult and unforgiving. But it is actually incredibly fun once you figure things out. A quick youtube video or two will help you get started if you find it to be too much like I did.

Project Zomboid – The Ultimate Zombie Survival Simulator
Hours Played: 14

Project Zomboid is one of the most hardcore and realistic zombie survival games out there. With deep survival mechanics, permadeath, and an unforgiving world, every playthrough is a tense, story-driven experience shaped by your choices.

The Good
✅ Deep Survival Mechanics – Everything matters—hunger, injuries, mental state, and even boredom.

✅ Brutal and Unforgiving – One mistake can cost you everything, adding real tension.

✅ Huge Open World – A massive map full of towns, forests, and abandoned buildings to explore.

✅ Incredible Customization – Tons of sandbox settings, mods, and character traits for replayability.

✅ Co-op and Multiplayer – Surviving with friends or in an online server adds a new dynamic.

The Bad
❌ Steep Learning Curve – The game throws you in with little guidance—expect to die a lot.

❌ Clunky Combat – Melee and gunplay feel deliberately slow and unforgiving, which some may find frustrating.

❌ Slow Early Game – Survival is all about patience; if you prefer fast-paced action, this might not be for you.

Final Verdict
With 14 hours, I can say Project Zomboid is one of the most in-depth and immersive zombie survival experiences out there. If you want true survival, deep mechanics, and an unforgiving world, this is a must-play—just be ready to die. A lot.

Rating: 9/10 – Brutal, realistic, and endlessly replayable. 🧟‍♂️🔪

12 years of EA, and the devs have failed to implement many of the original promises of the game (a story or narrative, NPCs in any form, quests, a world that responds to your behaviors).

Where is the game now? Pretty much the same state as in 2013. Some slight improvements in animations, but the UI is still very cumbersome and unintuitive. The game plays essentially the exact same, and I have the same issues as I did over a decade ago.

Most damning, it's just a boring game. Want to interact with the zombies in a zombie game? There's a high chance you will get infected and your character/progress will irrevocably be lost. Want your character to survive for more than a few days? Then better bunker in a home without ever interacting with the zombies in the zombie game. Want to level your character up? Then hope you enjoy having your character read (idle for periods of game time).

If 12 years isn't enough to release the game, how much time do the devs need? A game should entertain, and I'm not convinced this will be entertaining, interesting, or engaging, in any capacity, even in another 12 years in 2038.

OK GUYS THIS IS THE MOST INACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF A GAME EVER:
✓ Dietitian Simulator - because I never really paid attention to the nutritional value of foods and their effect on weight in real life
✓ Bookworm Simulator - because my character has read more books in three months than I have in my entire life
✓ Brown Pants Simulator - because I don't turn off jumpscare sound
✓ Gardening Simulator - because 90% of my time was spent growing cabbages
✓ Alcoholic Simulator - because whiskey from a dead man's kitchen cabinet is the only cure for depression
✓ Serial Undresser Simulator - because I stripped 48 corpses in one day
✓ Fashion Victim Simulator - because I died trying to steal a leather jacket from a zombie
✓ Pyromaniac Simulator - because I accidentally burned down an entire neighborhood trying to make soup
✓ Obsessive Organizer Simulator - because I spent 3 hours arranging canned food alphabetically
✓ Paranoid Simulator - because I barricaded every window in the house, then couldn't escape when the fire started
✓ Breaking and Entering Simulator - because I've broken more windows than I've killed zombies

✓✓✓ HELICOPTER PANIC ATTACK SIMULATOR - BECAUSE THAT SOUND STILL GIVES ME PTSD ✓✓✓

The game is so realistic that I'm now afraid to open my own refrigerator. Also, I stopped talking to my nephew after he decided to test his shotgun after I told him three times not to, and I was eaten alive in underwear with glass in my legs and a bag full of firearms. All I wanted was just to take the boots from the corpse...

Bought 2 more copies and forced my friends to play. Convinced several more to buy it. Now we're all lonely together.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME if you need a social life, job, or sleep.

11/10 - the number of days before I learned not to die from an expired mouse.

I can't recommend this game in it's current state.

Edit: After "unstable" patches 42.3-42.5.1 it seems clear that developers do not test their patches before putting them live, nor do they care about the average player base of this game.

Their changes are aimed at stopped meta player being able to make meta plays, and sucking the fun out of the casual/midcore experience of the game.
This game is not immersive. In fact, the few things of this game that held up it's immersion, the developers have nerfed into the ground due to meta players using this to their advantage.

To the developers if they read this or care: Balancing your game to the small and overpowered percentage of players does nothing except exclude the larger player base who wish to play this for what it was advertised as, a hardcore zombie survival sandbox.
Please optimise your game before you decide to nerf every possible enjoyable thing in this game.
Thank you.

Very fun game, more fun with friends, I would recommend

This is my favorite game of all time and I recommend you play this game. It is damn near perfect, has so much to offer, and has at least a thousand hours of replayability. Its the perfect zombie survival game and has the realism all masochists desire. One little trip, dead. Busy taking a sip while your deaf, dead. Miss a point blank shot with high aim skill, dead. The game is punishing but also very rewarding and engaging. With all its mods the game becomes even more of a trip and with Build 42 and its changes the game has entered a new era and now is the time to play if you aren't already. Its only $20.

First character was deaf. Lived for 9 months hearing nothing. Maxed passives and some combat and skills. Had enough food and water and general supplies to chill. Killed like 3000 zombies. Went out to get some clothes for fashion reasons since I prioritized supplies pretty exclusively. Store was alarmed. Got into car and tried to drive away. Some of the zombies randomly sprint. One sprints in front of car just as I pass a horde. Car stalls once. It starts up again. I try to go. I'm in dirt and the car won't go because I took Sunday driver and there's too many zombies around me now. I swap seats to draw them away to the other side of the car. I go to swap back and run. Accidentally click exit vehicle instead and instantly get swarmed. Died to Sunday driver perk and a misclick after ~100 hours on one character. 10/10 I can hear again.



Actually for real though this is the best zombie game I've ever had the joy of playing. Buy it. If there's something about it that you don't particularly like (everyone is different after all) I can almost guarantee there's a mod that fixes it. You like zombies? You'll love this.

Any game that needs workshop to make it enjoyable ain't it. Plus in "Early Access" since 2013 is a joke.

Nah but like, genuinely, this is one of the best games around.

Do yourself a favour and watch a 5 hour long Project Zomboid Challenge video on YouTube, then buy this game, you'll understand.

All of my characters died early apart from an old woman who killed every zomboid she came across without taking damage. Being old apparently makes you immune.

Probably the best Zombie Survival Simulator that's been made! The systems are deep and complex and the terror of trying to survive in the world is real!!

this game gives you the genuine tweaker experience of stealing anything you can while fighting off other tweakers and making some of the most scuffed food known to man. you can also crash a Mustang into a tree at mach speeds and die, just like an actual tweaker.

would recommend

The game has the potential to be amazing, however the pace at which the game is being developed makes it seem as though development will be finished somewhere in the 2100's. So if you are considering buying the game, don't expect much to change any time soon and would be best to consider the game will remain in its current state for the foreseeable future. Which brings us to the next issue...

The replayability of the base game is limited to say the least and any long term enjoyment will only come from either multiplayer or mods. Both of which will add to frustration as multiplayer servers are often running hundreds of mods and considering how badly optimised the game is, even quite beefy PCs will struggle to keep decent frame rates when in cities or when driving cars. And having hundreds of mods to fix issues / give gameplay content will run about as you expect.

The game also has a bunch of logical issues/inconsistencies such as requiring a magazine to learn how to use generator, but you spontaneously learn how to hotwire a vehicle after dismantling some digital watches and taking off a car hood a few times.
But Project Zomboid is after all a game so not much point in criticising it for inconsistencies in logic, however the game takes itself very seriously when trying to implement systems that are "realistic" which often detracts from the gameplay, such as the new muscle strain system added to prevent the player from killing too many zombies in a short amount of time when an endurance system already exists. Perhaps this was added to slow progression of getting settled, but it is not the right direction the developers should be moving in when so much is left unfinished/broken.

the best zombie open world survival game ive played u can do pretty much anything i love it smmmmm