Zombie Survival Online is an isometric 2D mix of a Battle Royale and a Survival game, in the style of games like Surviv.io, just with the twist of having a Zombie apocalypse in it. If you play online with up to 7 other players, than the game will be played as a Battle Royale with Zombies, that ends as soon as only 1 player is left standing. If you however play in the offline Solo mode, than the game turns into a survival mode, that only ends when the players get killed.
You play in an urban city with many buildings (which are way too empty and simplistic designed in the inside), where you can find weapons and items to survive against the other players and zombies. Sadly the whole city (and therefore the whole map) is boringly designed. There are no highlights, the streets and buildings from the outside all look very much the same.
Players start with a sword and can soon find a gun and some healing items in the surrounding buildings. There is a decent crafting system in the game, which allows to combine ressources to create better tools and weapons. There is actually a big variety of different melee weapons, guns and other items (around 100 or so), which is quite impressive for a smaller game.
There are 8 different characters in the game. Players can choose before each match, who they want to play with. These characters differ in their attributes. Some of them for example have better movement speed, but less health, or more ammo, but no melee and so on.
The game has a really fast day and night cycle (a day doesn't take more than 5 mins at most) and while you can meet a couple of individual Zombies during the day, the hordes start appearing at night. Every day there will be more of them and also more dangerous versions of them. After the second day for example Special Zombies will be able to shoot back at the players. Zombies can not run faster than the players, but through their masses can become an issue for inattentive players in the beginning and for everybody else after day 1 or 2 as well.
The Battle Royale matches I attended never lasted more than 1-3 days, since the players found and killed each other pretty quickly. There are no zones or anything else at the beginning in the online matches, it plays just like the survival matches, only that you also fight other people. After some days there will also be poisonous gas coming onto the map in order to direct players towards each other.
Controls of the game function okay, but there is honestly not much failure potential with the relatively simple movement and gunplay in this game. Controls can be freely changed around (except for the attack and pick up function) and the resolution and overall sound volume can be changed. Those are not the most extensive customization ever, but they get the job done.
Talking about the visuals of Zombie Survival Online, they are unfortunately pretty ugly. The whole visual style is just a very simplistic cartoonish version, that could probably run problem-free on Win98 Computers as well. Even a game like Among Us has high quality visuals in comparison to Zombie Survival (and visuals is probably the worst part of that game). Streets also look the same and buildings are from the outside only one coloured elements on the screen. I understand why you would go for a simple visual style, but this just looks boring and unattractive.
Pro:
- Mix of Zombie Survival and Battle Royale
- Extensive crafting system
- Many different weapons and items
Contra:
- Simplistic movement and gunplay
- Ugly visuals
- City really boringly designed
- Day/Night cycle too fast
Result:
Zombie Survival Online mixes a Zombie Survival Apocalypse with a Battle Royale approach. The crafting system and large variety of weapons and items are certainly the games biggest strengths. Nonetheless, I can't say that I liked it too much. Gameplay may get the job done, but in its simplicity doesn't feel rewarding either. The scenario may be cool, but I definitely prefer iterations in third or first person perspective (like Infected Battlegrounds or Dying Light Bad Blood). Visuals may not be the crucial aspect of most games, but here they are offputtingly ugly. The game world also completely lacks details, which just doesn't give me much survival immersion. The rushed day/night cycle also feels like a wasted opportunity. Players, who appreciated extensive crafting systems and the gameplay style of this game (should probably play Project Zomboid), may find some enjoyment in Zombie Survival Online. I however found the game too dull and can't recommend it after all.
4/10
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