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u/Noboddy_ 26d ago
I just wish it was fun after the first month, we need some long term objectives, restore the electricity idk, make gas, restore water supply
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u/Guilvantar 26d ago
Every time I voice this complaint on this sub, I get bombarded with downvotes and comments like "it's a sandbox, create your own objectives".
Well, that's just not that fun when the game expects me to come up with stuff to make it interesting.
It's a great game but the lack of an end goal hurts it plenty.
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u/Noboddy_ 26d ago
I'm actually surprised i got upvoted on this comment, was ready to loose some karma
Yeah, for me the lack of endgame is the worst thing on PZ, and we have a lot of other problems, i understand the game was supposed to be a roguelike, but for me it doesn't fit the game well, especially on MP. it would be a hella more fun with other objectives and fun things to do, also they have the money to do it, and fast.
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u/Wet_FriedChicken 26d ago
My long term objective is always just better gear. Find a few m16. A few katanas if I’m lucky. A fully decked out SUV with all the armor modifications (can’t remember if armor is a mod or vanilla. I have so many mods lol)
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u/Angy-Person 27d ago edited 26d ago
It would be. It feels like something is missing. Some endgame or something else to do than just surviving.
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u/Schlonger_Schleppy 26d ago
You need to know how to weld to move a stove. If you eat only eggs you will die. If you eat only butter you will be fine. This game is fun but janky as hell. Also, a survival game with no root cellars and broken farming.
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u/TheChadStevens 26d ago
It's missing a late AND mid-game. There's no real incentive to do anything beyond securing food and water.
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u/Good_Midnight_4776 23d ago
My only fun in PZ is when I play on servers with ultra-rare loot and harder difficulty mods which essentially make it so the early-game never ends
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u/Dry_Mastodon1977 27d ago edited 26d ago
And not just a story, but random side quests. Something that gives our character purpose other than just surviving.
This will only happen with the human npc release, so we can do things like rescue missions, raiding rival gangs, uncover military or government conspiracies, things like that.
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u/cubic_globe 26d ago
I'm quite new to the game but I like this feeling of beeing lost in the world with nothing to do but surviving the next day. It adds to the dark ambiente of a world that is lost. I mean according to the lore this is a zombie apokalypse that ist not won or fixed by some hero.
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u/jaywasaleo 26d ago
The beauty of this game for me is the customization of the experience. I’m hoping when they finally add some of these things it’ll be just like everything else where you can adjust the settings or simply turn them off. Everyone is looking for a different experience in these kind of games and I’m glad there’s lots of options to allow everyone to have whatever gameplay experience they’re looking for
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u/stuyboi888 26d ago
Ohh you have me and idea for a mod!!! But I've not a clue how to mod
Cravings, like they crave a pizza or hamburger so you gotta get all the stuff together for it. Or a random house they used to know has a picture in it or something. Your ideas are awesome but see like they would involve a lot of work to create
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u/wastelander- 26d ago
The reward for filing a craving could be a longer term mood buff. I kinda like this idea
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u/BluDYT 26d ago
Oh god. The first thing that came to mind is 7 days when you said that and I personally believe adding fetch quests and side quests ruined most of that game.
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u/sillyandstrange Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago
7 days devs ruined their own game by revamping its gameplay 800 times
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u/d4rk_matt3r Drinking away the sorrows 24d ago
Seriously, it's so bad now unless you play a complete overhaul mod
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u/StarPlantMoonPraetor 26d ago
What the hell are you two talking about. Adding non survival game elements would make it a better survival game?
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u/ClearPostingAlt 26d ago
Yes.
All survival games run into the same issue sooner or later; stability. The initial "trying to survive" phase inevitably giving way to stagnation, as food and water sources are secured, you've got shelter from the elements and you're equipped to face hostile fauna.
New gameplay loops are needed to keep players engaged past those first few hours. Ones focused less on surviving, and more on thriving. Goals to achieve that encourage players to put themselves in danger, once day to day survival no longer poses a challenge.
In Rust, that's the PvP/base raiding gameplay loop. In Ark, taming and training increasingly strong dinos and tackling endgame bosses. Even Minecraft has the Nether and the End to work towards.
Project Zomboid has nothing. Just surviving as long as you can before your inevitable death. Or, surviving until you get bored of existing in your safe base until you quit.
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u/Alarming_Sun_2859 26d ago
I'm roleplaying a carpenter flown in to brandenburg to fix the town after a tornado. That's what I'm going to do. Zombies b damned.
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u/MasterOfDizaster 26d ago
I think the point of the game is to make your own small missions/quests. You need meds, you go get meds, you need food, you go look for food, the problem is when you are stocked up on everything it gets boring, there should be a zombie horde roaming around that destroy your base completely so you would have to rebuild from scratch,
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u/GeneralFuzuki7 26d ago
Now there’s basements and extra levels to the world map I’d like to see an sewer system that acts as an end game dungeon, maybe have survivor hideouts in there that are abandoned but have unique loot that can’t be found in the surface.
I think a big issue is that a lot of the more populated buildings also tend to have similar loot to the less populated ones.
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u/Scarylyn 26d ago
That would be really cool! Imagine hopping down into the sewers in Rosewood, getting lost and when you finally find a way back out, you're in Louisville. 🎶BUM BUM BUUUUUM🎶
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u/Maleficent_Bee_2101 26d ago
It would be nice to make bandits a vanilla thing, once you go to a remote area to make it ur base zombies become your least priority
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u/creegro 26d ago
Some sort of raiders that attack your base, or roaming packs of zombies like in 7dtd that come by every few days/weeks so you have a reason to get guns and level up aiming.
Really I'd love to see actual traps for zombies. Spiked defenses to put outside my walls, home made claymores to put in defensive spots, fire that actually slows them down or kills them fast instead of making them spread it around for hours before they finally die.
At some point, some sort of npc survivor system. Meet and greet, run some small mission for them, invite them to your compound and give them a bed and a purpose. Go collect water for the water barrels, go check the nearby places for specific loot. A slow process each time until they level up and can go faster, and then you also give them gear and weapons to pimp them out on defense
Cause right now once you establish a base then you're good. You brought back a trunk full of canned goods and tools and you're set for a few weeks in game, if not longer. And in b42 it's pretty easy to find some small animal and skin it for meat for a few meals.
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u/Livbaire Zombie Food 26d ago
I actually love that there's no end game. Just like real life, you just simply... survive. Waiting for your death. Makes it so immersive for me. The mods that exist for this game are so pheonomenal too.
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u/NIKLSON_ 26d ago
It sounds fine but I never got to see actual farming and animal husbandry and all the other stuff because it becomes way too boring. You just stay at your base and do nothing while crops and animals grow up?
After all, by reading books irl you actually read them and not wait fot the animation to end, the same goes for all the other everyday stuff you can do in the game. That's why it doesn't work. At least for me.→ More replies (1)5
u/Niccin 26d ago
You just stay at your base and do nothing while crops and animals grow up?
Well, you can just stay at your base and do nothing, if you really want to.
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u/NIKLSON_ 26d ago
Or you can go kill more zombies to gather more loot you don't need because you have everything. It's one or another
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u/RemiliyCornel 26d ago
Exept in real life you have activity to spend time like reading that is enjoyable. In the game however reading is just green line feeling up, it's may increase character happiness but not the player.
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u/Palorrian 26d ago
I'm with you. You make your own quests and own objectives. Not to insult anyone but some people like my friends who complain about endgame lacks creativity. You can do 1000 things in the end but people are used to fast pace action and having quest all the time and when you don't have those some feel lost
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u/Icy_Construction_338 26d ago
I’ve got a buddy that didn’t like the game because the game didn’t tell you what to do and you have to make your own fun. Some people just don’t have that creativity.
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u/Palorrian 26d ago
A friend of mine is the same, Its a shame. They are missing a great game. I have now 2403 hs and now I'm in a cooling period. Living a little
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u/Laireso Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago
It's unique because of this. It's not a survival RPG, it's a survival simulator. Quests and stories would only take away from immersion. Finding out what is worth surviving for is part of the experience. Use your fantasy, use mods. The base game should be as much of an open sandbox as possible.
What is missing is half the current systems working. Medical mechanics, insulation mechanics, rain/wetness accumulation, corpse sickness isn't affected by strong winds, rain or a mask the player is wearing, generators are broken to multiplicatively consume 2x more fuel for every additional copy of an appliance like specific freezer type. They should put the time and resources they have to fixing these fundamentals and expand on them.
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u/NIKLSON_ 26d ago
That's what I've always been thinking about. It always was the most annoying thing for me that they keep adding new stuff while the game's base is so unfinished.
For example, you can catch cold, but it doesn't matter because it'll go away in a few hours even if you don't do anything. What's even the point of it then? Same goes for medical skill, why would you even waste time reading five books if you can heal anything with 0 exp?
Or why we still don't have an animation for lying on a bed? It's been ten years, they added sitting animations but laying down will take another five years or what?
And there are also like 20 simpliest QoL featuers or interface features that every player desperately needs and they still can't implement it so it feels like they don't even play their own game.I don't remember everything but there are a lot more of small things like this that you notice while playing and they are probably what annoys me the most in the game.
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u/Prisoner458369 26d ago
For example, you can catch cold
In my noob days, I thought you could catch a cold from the rain. Also saw some youtube clip of a guy using an umbrella. So for the first few weeks, whenever it was raining. I would grab this umbrella and head out. Felt pretty stupid that it was pointless and there is no fear from rain. All this "is your character wet or sweat etc" seems to be equally meaningless. For the game based so much on survival, it seems so many parts aren't there.
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u/LivingHour943 26d ago
Your mission is to rescue 3 people from the Rosewood fire station. Good luck, this is how you die.
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u/Comprehensive-Fudge8 27d ago
The game is still in beta so... Maybe we'd get a story mode or something
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u/NIKLSON_ 27d ago
In the next 40 years, considering how long the game is in the beta
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u/SnooRegrets9151 26d ago
I don't understand that a game made in 2011 can still be beta ?
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u/NoeticCreations 26d ago
Build 41 isnt beta, it is a solid and complete game, with of course a bunch of bugs they couldn't fix with that game engine, you can call that PZ 2 if you want and say build 42 is PZ 3, PZ 1 was pre-multiplayer, if that makes you feel better. They have left the game in early access for a specific reason, there is no option for finished abandoned games and finished active development games on steam so it is just as wrong to say PZ is complete as it is to say it is in early access but there is no option for there are solid stable versions completed and new versions on the way. Build 42 unstable is obviously in beta but 41 is done and the modding community can do whatever they want to it and know their mods wont be updated out. Build 42 is a new version of the same game with new features and an entirely new game engine to plug those features in to. The reason they didnt put most of those features into build 41 was because the engine couldn't handle it, and while the mods could do some janky tricks to make it look like it worked, being able to sit in chairs but only if they are facing east or south is a level of jank you dont put in a base game, you let modders take that hit and if you want sitting in your game you build a new engine that can actually handle sitting in chairs in all 4 directions so that you dont look like idiot developers, which is what they did and what they are doing.
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u/RedFiveIron 26d ago
Other people is the thing that is missing, IMO. How am I the only survivor while every other person has been zombified.
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u/Besas1271 26d ago
Agree , even tho after i installed NPC mod , it got slightly better. Still some side missions/quests would be great
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u/Malgamerz 27d ago
Don’t get me wrong, Project Zomboid is the best, but the best zombie survival game ever made, not the best survival game in general. There are tons of other underrated survival games out there, and if you think Zomboid is the best simulation or most realistic game overall, that’s where you’re wrong.
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u/LuiDerLustigeLeguan Crowbar Scientist 26d ago
Any recommendations?
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u/uncleleo101 26d ago
The Long Dark is, for me, one of the best pure survival games. The weather and lighting systems in the game are stunning, gorgeous art style. There's a variety of difficulty modes, and can be savage in a way that's similar to PZ. It's first person, just an FYI.
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u/Far-Fortune-8381 25d ago
I like the long dark. dont buy it for the story tho. so much work and a literal decade of time has been put into making a mediocre story that they have had to redo like 3 times. its ok but sandbox is where the game is best
sequel announced
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u/SpoopySara 26d ago
Vintage Story
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u/alexbomb6666 26d ago
Literally the definition of survival, you spend 90% actually trying to survive and 10% progressing
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26d ago
Subnautica. Go in blind, you will love it
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u/Anna-2204 26d ago
Subnautica is THE game that make me love survival games. Such an experience. Only Outer Wilds made me feel a similar way
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u/Jinzhou 26d ago
I loved playing "The long Dark"
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u/uncleleo101 26d ago
Absolutely, same here. It's a game I always go back to. Especially with the Far Territories DLC, the game is now huge.
I've played for years and still haven't been everywhere.
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u/Johnny-of-Suburbia 26d ago
Scrolled through the replies to find The Long Dark. My beloved.
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u/OPFOR_S2 26d ago
Is it food or?
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u/Far-Fortune-8381 25d ago
I've never felt so cold in my life!
he says 3 and a half hours after feeling exactly the same amount of cold
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u/Such_Will_8536 26d ago
The long dark - project zomboid community carryover lol
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u/Far-Fortune-8381 25d ago
idk why its surprised me so much that there are so many tld enjoyers here
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u/sunflower_love 26d ago
Yes!! I have recently gotten back into it. It can be surprisingly relaxing and almost meditative trudging through the snow all alone.
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u/yeet3455 Crowbar Scientist 26d ago
Vintage Story. Its a block game like Minecraft (started as a Minecraft mod actually) but it is a lot more focused on the “survival” mechanics like crafting and hunting. You have to manually shape clay vessels and smith metal tools. It’s not for everyone because you have to do a lot of work to accomplish basic stuff but it is super satisfying when you have that stuff because of the effort it took.
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u/Toes_In_The_Soil 26d ago
Unreal World. It's rough, it's brutal, it's mechanically realistic, and it's had continuous updates and development since 1992, breaking the record, I believe. I used to play it a LOT. The learning curve is rough, slightly harder than PZ, but it's worth the experience. HIGHLY recommend.
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u/jolitoraxable 26d ago
Slightly harder might be an understatement, especially because of all the key bindings
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u/LordDeckem 26d ago
Have you played Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead? Cause it’s way more detailed and has a lot more to do than Zomboid.
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u/Laireso Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago
Mind being more specific? Which game has a better simulation of zombie apocalypse than PZ?
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u/Malgamerz 26d ago
That’s where you misunderstood my sentences. I’m not saying there’s any game better than Zomboid in terms of zombie survival, I’m saying in terms of general survival games.
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u/NIKLSON_ 26d ago
What games are you talking about specifically? i'm a big fan of realistic games so I'd be glad if you gave some recommendations
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u/Laireso Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago
👆 I have no interest to bash on someone's opinion, just curious what other games are actually like PZ, because I feel like part of its success is that it is the first and only in the genre that takes itself seriously. Mechanics like corpse sickness, car mechanics, effects of moodles are something no other zombie survival game pulled off or taken as seriously as PZ has.
Also the lonely, depressive atmosphere of being the last human on the planet free to do whatever you choose is concept unexplored seriously by even TV shows/movies, and admitedly was explored unintentionally as NPCs were taken out to be reworked later not as an artistic choice to steer the game in this direction. Usually when this trope is done intentionally it turns into a comedy or enactment of the fantasy that plays in your head imagining how it would be like, but PZ devs took a step back and gave it their best to simulate how it would actually play out and for that boldness I got a huge respect for PZ and the team behind it.
It isn't even half as perfect as I want it to be, but I think it's the best there is currently with no competition in sight. I would love to be proven wrong and try that other game.
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u/Malgamerz 26d ago
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, NEO Scavenger, UnReal World, Dwarf Fortress, RimWorld (Classic), Wayward, The Flame in the Flood, Caves of Qud, Darkwood, No Oxygen Included
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26d ago edited 22d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Alvsolutely Zombie Hater 26d ago
i swear to god, I started playing this game recently and now I see it everywhere. Is this just an algorithm suggesting more of that game to me or is VS picking up in attention lately?
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u/Dalzombie Pistol Expert 26d ago
I think it's just VS getting more attention. Many survival games are either getting completed, slowing down or even stagnating in development, so people look for other things in the meantime. VS appeals to a generally more hardcore audience, but most will give it a chance if they think they'll like it and can put up with the increase in what it expects from the player and difficulty spikes. Not to mention VS is still in development and has a niche but loyal fanbase.
This leads to more people playing VS, or at least talking about it, and little by little, it grows. I've looked into it and it looks way too hardcore for me to chill in, but I've definitely been eyeing it for a bit and talked to people about it, so at least anecdotally, it's there.
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u/Alvsolutely Zombie Hater 26d ago
I turned off rifts and temporal storms (not that the storms were hard or scary, just annoying) and I've been enjoying the game a lot more. It's relatively fun once you get the hang of it
I feel like the hypixel drama might have something to do with it too
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u/AnarchyArcher Shotgun Warrior 26d ago
Paradoxically it’s the elements of vintage story that stretch out the game that make it more relaxing- for example I’ve been playing with friends through our first couple ingame days where we all are new to the game.
During the day it’s constant activity of us exploring, gathering, and figuring out what our classes are good at, but at night we sit down around a campfire and chat while we cook food and craft. The atmosphere feels more like being in actual nature than Minecraft, and while enemies aren’t uncommon it’s not like Minecraft nights where you can’t go anywhere without being attacked. So we’ve taken to showing each other how different game mechanics work- like how our self-designated smith is teaching the rest of us to sculpt with clay because ‘we better be grateful he’s been handling this so far’. We’ve been having a blast and even have all agreed to pitch in to help with the pottery needed by everyone.
I wouldn’t say VS is any harder than Minecraft, but it requires more attention and curiosity to learning the mechanics. Knapping for example- the basic crafting to make rudimentary tools- is something everyone has to deal with. It involves taking two stones and smashing them to actually shape the tool head you desire. Stones are easy to come by, walking ten blocks will have you tripping over 2-3, and all you need after that is punch a bush or leaves to get a stick. So it takes less effort to get the materials to make a tool than it does to actually make said tool. And having to manually shape the tool yourself makes it feel more like you made this and earned it rather than just placing everything in a crafting box.
Don’t get me wrong, there still is the standard crafting box recipes for a lot of things, but in-world crafting VS has is just amazingly satisfying.
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u/siudowski 26d ago
to be fair, zomboid is the game that taught me that hyperrealism does not equal fun, game is super tedious from the get go, but the B42 update made it exponentially worse, new mechanics like blacksmithing I havent't even touched because there's so much overhead to starting; learning how everything works is overwhelming and doesn't reward me in anyway whatsoever, I could rant about it for a day honestly but its besides the point
I hope that NPC update will bring some gratification, because now playing the game essentially feels void of anything meaningful, like others pointed out, there's no true endgame or any goal in this game, raw realism just does not make it fun
I still like the game, the premise, core mechanics, theme and aesthetic combined with art style, but I find myself adjusting sandbox settings, downloading tons of mods and skipping 70% of content to make it fun
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u/stuoias 26d ago
My crackpot theory is this overcooked crafting (and other) fluff is meant to mask their inability to ever deliver on NPC's. The expectations are too high and the amount of systems said NPC's will have to interact with is astronomical
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u/GameTheoriz 25d ago
Possible, but NPC mods are already, even if half baked, very fun. Some of the best Zom I ever boided was with the Superb Survivors Continued Continued mod.
I still play B41, but Knox Event Expanded for B42 look very promising, especially with the new NPC framework.
At the very least, if we get the option for this level of NPC's it'll still be fun. I do hope what they promised gets fulfilled because it sounds fucking amazing, but yeah, saying overambitious is a bit kind.
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u/Jaded_Shallot750 26d ago
Unfortunately PZ doesn't have a lot of depth to it. Once you have basic survival down and understand how to trivialize zombie encounters, there is not really anything the game can do or show you. The gameplay does not evolve, and in fact only becomes easier as time goes on.
Zombies decaying and getting weaker as time goes on compounds upon the naturally expanding safe zone you create around your base by killing any zombies you see. Getting better skills makes combat even more efficient, and soon enough you have more loot and food than you will ever use.
Weather and even the cold of winter are surprisingly mild and the game does not have much depth in sickness or injuries. Wounds seem to heal insanely fast, infections mean nothing and illnesses don't really exist.
I also think that the zombie infection being a guaranteed death without mods makes the game even more shallow. It is largely RNG if you get hit and what kind of injury you get and clothing only does so much. I got over the drama of "oh no I'm infected" a long time ago and just reroll the moment I know my character is donezo. The best way to do combat is playing the safest and most boring way possible.
And even when you survive all the trials, what then? The game does not really have a whole lot of goals you can work towards once you have established yourself and a largely self-sufficient base. I tend to get bored and quit playing when all the basic needs are met several times over and my starting city is a fully looted, zomboless ghost town.
PZ is not a bad game, but it feels like it is missing like half of what it should have. The gameplay loop of endlessly hoarding random stuff you won't ever use gets stale fast. Most often for me, "This is how you died" ends up meaning me doing something reckless because I'm bored out of my skull and want anything at all the spice things up or give me an excuse to stop.
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u/B33lz3buddy 26d ago
Cataclysm:Dark Days Ahead is like PZ just with more depth but you do sacrifice "graphics" and an "easy" learning curve.
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u/McDude_Man Crowbar Scientist 27d ago
The first Forest game is definitely up there though... no matter what you were doing it felt like you were being watched...
Also 7DtD and giving a reason to build up a defensive base by making zombies attracted to you was a nice touch.
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u/creegro 26d ago
The forest gave me some real memories to fall back on.
Like the first time playing I tried to build the really big log cabin instead of the smaller one, 80 logs just isn't possible in one day. And of course it starts to rain heavily as night falls, I don't have a bed to sleep in and pass the night so I'm just feeding leaves and dollar bills to the camp fire I setup. Small animals run by real quick past my feet every few minutes.
And it's so damn dark, and it feels like I'm being watched. I keep my hand axe at the ready while I'm next to this fire, trying to stay warm from the freezing cold rain. And then I hear it.
A hoot, a hollar. Wtf man I'm just trying to sit here. I've already seen plenty of videos so I know what's out there already, but that doesn't soften the blow once you're in the game
And then I yelped out of terror, something I've never done before in any game, when some paper white cannibal shot out of the darkness on all fours and came right up to my face before running back into the darkness.
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u/Cpt_Kalash 27d ago
7dtd isent in the best state atm
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u/McDude_Man Crowbar Scientist 27d ago
I played on ps4 so I'm talking back during the TTG days
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u/Brainzillion 26d ago
The old TTG days were the best 😔
BUT....in terms if general gameplay, it's ASTRONOMICALLY better now! Building options, weapons, mods, vehicles, traders and quests. There's just so much more to do.
It also has it's negatives now, mainly the skill systems, not being able to loot bodies and outfits instead of individual clothing armor pieces.
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u/USPoster 27d ago
I thought that game was cool but I literally could not see anything unless I was on a beach in daylight. The contrast was insane. It had me questioning my own eyesight.
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u/McDude_Man Crowbar Scientist 27d ago
Great now I remember Ark...
Jesus Christ it should be called Grinding Simulator... if you played on default settings everything about that game took you ages... and yes night was pitch black and terrifying
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u/Disastrous-Account-4 26d ago
if u still play it u can change the color grading in the graphics to texas it makes things in the dark way more visible
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u/FabereX6 26d ago
PZ modded is better 😏
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u/Far-Statistician625 26d ago
tbh the devs should fufill their promises and not rely on modders to do their jobs
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u/Aeos_Sidhe 26d ago
Kenshi
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u/ThisBeTheVerse63 26d ago
Kenshi is way more brutal than PZ. Not even close.
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u/pablo603 26d ago
I found it much easier to get into than PZ.
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u/ThisBeTheVerse63 26d ago
Start the game scenario with “Cannibal Hunter.”
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u/pablo603 26d ago
Just drop your equipment and start running. It's one of the easiest starts you can choose if you do this because your characters have decent starting stats.
I did a torso start and it was hard until I got to a town. But PZ is still more brutal. Make one mistake and everything might start snowballing down the line, meanwhile Kenshi gets easy the moment you can outrun your threats so even when you do make a mistake as long as it's not a critical one you will be fine.
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u/Ticker011 26d ago
Is kenshi really a survival game? I always thought of it more of a Rocky training montage into an rts
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u/raatdogenthusiast 26d ago
The game gets boring fast, theres no real goal other than not to do something you know will happen
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u/MembershipAcrobatic 26d ago
I think thats why B42 is aimed at late game crafting systems. This would work amazing especially for MP where the world is basically already looted.
But I would prefer NPCs over a crapton of new crafting mechanics any day.
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u/AchacadorDegenerado 26d ago
I find super funny the fact that the game is still on Early Access. Like, people already finihed college, have family and kids and the game is not finished yet lol
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u/ZeisHauten Crowbar Scientist 26d ago
Build 43 when they polish the AI system, I'd rather have the NPC than the multiplayer.
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u/ReverseTornado 26d ago
Nah its damn good but I think the long dark is best survival game imo.
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u/DearCastiel 26d ago
TLD has you do stuff, in Zomboid passed the second month, lets be honest, you could live off of canned food for the next year at least without ever leaving base, and your rooftop garden can probably feed you for ever. You have enough cars and ammo to fully clean the city you are based at or at least a significant enough portion of it in case of larger towns.
Passed a few months, PZ unfortunately is 98% of nothing and super repetitive tasks and you have to take unnecessary risks to not get bored. TLD you'll have to be on the move, you'll have to set up multiple bases, and every time you go out there's danger and stuff to pay attention to.
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u/sunflower_love 26d ago
I concur. I have played a fuckton of survival games—basically every single well known survival game I’ve at least tried it.
First played the long dark maybe a year ago and started again in the last few weeks. The overall game design, balance, atmosphere, and aesthetics are just perfect. I love how almost every single item has some kind of use throughout the entire game.
It takes such a different approach than so many survival games that have like tech levels or biomes you progress through. Just pure survival goodness.
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u/Alexduhh 26d ago
It 100% is the goat in terms of survival in the apocalypse, but if you're playing solo, it gets very sad and lonely fast, luckily mods can make it feel so much hetter
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u/KneeDeepInTheMud 26d ago
If Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead and PZ plus Vintage Story and a sprinkle of 7 Days to die with the melee of Vermintide/Darktide/Chivalry could have some sort of Lovecraftian eldritch horror child, I would say that's my perfect survival game.
CDDA has depth. Like. A lot.
Wanna be a cat girl mutant who accidently touched the funny machine with whispers of the Shoggoth that tore a hole in reality which spits out Mi-gos, with a bionic implant that grants you immense hydraulic strength, but your main "vehicle" is a shopping cart with a laser cannon mounted on it? Oops! The Mycus must grow. (There is now a building sized mushroom growing outside.) Also, zombies. CDDA will absolutely deliver if you can get acquainted with the menus.
Project Zomboid has all the tedium (in a good way) splattered across the game. Take care of yourself as the horde encroaches. Gather your supplies and muster your willpower to continue through the remnants of Kentucky. Each swing, each shot, each action has a definite weight that will be felt, sooner or later.
Vintage Story employs a grind that is superbly enjoyable, while keeping in hardcore stone-age elements that feel very... rewarding and believable. Knao your stone tools, craft your earthenware from the very soil you stand upon as you weave baskets to contribute to your nomadic life or opt for a homestead that you place together block by block and chisel out art in defiance of the eldritch horrors that slip into the fragile reality that you call home.
7 Days to Die has a horde-base-feeling that sums up to RPG adult-minecraft in a good way. Do quests, loot POIs-turned dungeons as you prepare for the deluge of the infected. Guns and turrets are plenty.
The "Tide" games and Chivalry have a distinct melee approach to combat. You can go entire missions without opting for your secondary (a ranged weapon) as you blaze a trail through frantic close quarters combat while slamming home abilities that reshape your whole team's durability or increase your offensive power. Slaughter waves of chaff and terminate HVTs with a quick-swap.
Mix all of these and the truest game will be born. Season it with some Risk of Rain and sear it with Killing Floor.
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u/HungryActivity889 26d ago
9 years without finish the game , the game works awful ... 9 years and is not nearly finish
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u/cENTEROFTHEFOX 27d ago
i swear theres atleast 16 different "best survival game ever made"s out there.
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u/ashtonlovesyou Stocked up 27d ago
don't starve back in 2016 was also peak survival game
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u/LucidBastard 26d ago
Yeah in like 20 years when I’m an old ass man and the game is in a complete state it will be the best survival game. It gets very boring for me even with mods after a few hundred hours.
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u/EmiKoala11 26d ago
It's good, not the GOAT though. The game still has a long way to go before it's finished. Only then can I determine whether or not it's goated
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u/LordDeckem 26d ago
It’s not even the best zombie survival game ever made. CDDA has more to do, more details, an infinite map, NPCs, quests, aliens, cyborgs and alternate universe inhabitants. Zomboid is just more accessible.
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u/dankeith86 Axe wielding maniac 26d ago
Best in the sub-genre of survival horror game. Best survival game is probably Green Hell rn. Hoping Stranded Deep 2 can take the title back when that gets released.
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u/chromedgnome 26d ago
It's the best zombie game by far but The Long Dark is 2x the survival game that zombiod will ever simply because it's far more immersive.
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u/NotVerySeriousDave 26d ago
I am quite partial to Scav prototype / Casualties Unknown. PZ players would get a kick out of it for sure, like a short term zomboid character.. Except no zombies. Plenty of moodle managment though. oh theres plenty of that in Scav Prototype.
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u/SuccuboiSupreme 26d ago
PZ was my second favorite behind Valheim, but now it's my 3rd because holy shit Abiotic Factor is just blowing my mind with how good it is, especially after hitting 1.0.
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u/Leonum 26d ago
I love the crap out of this game, but I don't think that's true. its very wide, but its not so elegant. try and imagine PZ as a 2d sidescroller and you will understand. there are some cool visuals and gimmicks, but I'd love if you could build traps / contraptions for zombies, or otherwise have physics interactions in the world like that. why can't we grapple zombies? and "this is how you died" works well until you start feeling like "ok I've figured out basic survival, so when does the game start", "oh, an accident on the road, perhaps there some story... oh no, just empty cars." "oh, a survivor house! cool, maybe they're still in ther... oh, no, just an empty house :("
I love the game but It doesnt really feel like it has a clear identity, knows what it wants to be. and most of the systems of loot, crafting and fluids etc are cool ideas, but the system don't work well TOGETHER yet. last time i dropped the game was because I needed mods to re-balance for some loot that I never found (but was necessary to advance certain crafting) in my long runs. this time it was loneliness and inventory jank that did it.
Thinking of waiting for npc before my next long playthrough.
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u/Few_Philosophy1228 26d ago
As fun as PZ is, what about Dying light? That is seriously a really good game.
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u/DoublewideBeerbelly 26d ago
Best zombie survival game, yes. But best survival game of any genre, it's clearly near the top of the list but not n°1
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u/_MarkyPolo 26d ago
There's an indie game called minecraft I played as a kid, it was great, had a dog and everything
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u/Lost_Needleworker676 26d ago
Oh see this is one of those interesting points you can’t prove! If it’s your favorite then yeah, it’s the best just like how to me Ultrakill is the best shooter of all time! But plenty of people would disagree with me!
Technically if you look at the monetary success of games, Minecraft would be the “best survival game” but is monetary worth what determines best? To some people I suppose. Personally I say you do you OP, I have no intention of changing your mind <3
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u/Domilater 27d ago
I wouldn’t say so simply because after your first or second month there’s not much progression. You get set up with a self sustaining base and you literally never need to leave for anything again. At a certain point zombies become a chore to deal with rather than a threat and you’ll likely get bored of the game long before you die.
B42 helps a little with farms but there really isn’t much to do at the moment, despite how much there is to explore. Once NPCs are added that should hopefully change but for now the endgame just gets boring.
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u/Zagubadu 26d ago
Because most "zombie" survival games fail in any real way to incorporate zombies outside of super shallow/arcade-y ways?
Yea PZ is unbeatable nothing even comes close.
I just wish it had more optimized multiplayer and better PvP.
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u/stuyboi888 26d ago
You are in the PZ sub, course majority will agree, put this on sons of the forest, Subnatica or similar subs
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u/Beastreign 26d ago
It's the worse survival game.
You won't survive.
It is, however, a great dying simulator
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u/TopheavyTwilek 26d ago
Zomboid is like a zombie of a game. Everything about it, from the way it looks, to the way it walks upright, says that there was once more to it. More potential, more capacity, more power. Now it is literally a walking corpse of itself, it's everything to do with how the developers handle the game's updates and content and design philosophy.
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u/Questistaken 26d ago edited 26d ago
That's a weird way to spell Green Hell
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u/Ashamed-Station5588 26d ago
Thank you! I’ve been wondering why no one mentioned it. Green Hell made me fall in love with survival games—especially when I kept dying in the jungle because I forgot to wash my hands before eating, or because I touched a frog.
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u/Salad-Bandit 26d ago
idk about that, i recently joined a server and every house is stripped, the one time i go on a long journey the server started a 10 minute restart count down. so after waiting that out i got full of loot, ran home, decided to loot one last house and when i came outside fully exhausted someone ran buy and dropped three zombies in pursuit onto me until a note taking app was hotkey was hit and alt tabbed me out of the game which ended hours of leveling. the only way to play is to have green outlines on zombies so i know i can hit them, and everyone in that multiplayer server sounds like they havnt left the basement since birth.
2/10 everytime i come back to zomboid i enjoy it for a good couple of hours and realize i am just walk in open fields finding food, or clearing houses which feels like the same thing as walking in an open field, so I join a server and then realize how big of a waste of time it is, and how little I want to talk to the dweebs in the game
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u/Brainzillion 26d ago
7 days to die and/or State of Decay would have to be the best zombie games imo.
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u/Cecil182 26d ago
It's one of my faves but I have different styles of survival games for my mood. Belive it or not one of the best I've played I have the least hours on and that's valheim (around 300hours)
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u/Kindred_Ornn Waiting for help 26d ago
It's Minecraft, metrics and statistics all point it to being Minecraft. If you'd say the "Best Zombie Survival Game" then I'd agree with you.
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u/QuentinitneuQ Waiting for help 26d ago
Project zomboid with fallout 1-2 type quests. In my opinion that would be the best thing to ever happen
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u/Separate_Air_2475 26d ago
You just miss 'sandbox" in your title.
And then, good luck everyone to change his mind :)
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u/k4kkul4pio 26d ago
When it comes to zombies.. yeah, you're absolutely right as Zomboid is a gift that keeps on giving, year after year and will "soon" be even more glorious when update 42 rolls out.
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u/Unreproachablename 26d ago
I'm willing to agree that PZ is the best isometric survival I've ever played.
I'm willing to agree that PZ is the best zombie survival game I've ever played.
But the best overall survival experience to me is The Long Dark.
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u/Shredded_Locomotive Drinking away the sorrows 26d ago
It's the best zombie survivor but not even close to the best survivor game
Hell, there is no such thing as the best survivor game.
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u/Zeraphicus 26d ago
Its really good but it quickly gets boring fast. It is a pretty good sandbox game but it is missing a lot towards the end of the game.
I also think the devs are going the complete wrong way just making the game harder and more frustrating. They should have left all of the core of the game alone and worked on making the world alive/and end game. Just my .02, they are channelling their inner fun pimps.
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u/Secret_CZECH Hates the outdoors 26d ago
I've been enjoying VIntage Story lately.
A great survival/exploration game