-Start of Edit- Over 100 hours now and update 917 released I have just discovered a portion of the game, it still has a lot to offer, which is something that not many sandbox/survival games accomplish. New things that I would like to add or modify about my original review: - Cars, there are a lot, it was just me that saw just a couple. - As of 917 there are horses! Can you imagine surviving the apocalypse with a Horse and a Dog? that's it, go for it. - Do not judge the map in terms of extension but judge it based on how full and detailed it is, it provides a lot of content. I still would like to see improved interiors for a better ambiance. - The multiplayer experience, if played with friends that are close to you, it feels like a singleplayer, there is ZERO delay and desync, that was completely unexpected. Not sure how a server works, didn't try. - The camera, it was weird the first hours, after that I really got used to it and I even like it now. Tip: Change the option in "Player movement" to "Default" in the Camera options, that changed my whole gameplay. I could keep saying more things but I don't want to spoil. If you like zombie survivals, try this one, it offers a lot, and at least a couple hundreds of hours are guaranteed and the devs just keep cooking with every update. Also, mod support is confirmed in the roadmap so prepare that! :) -End of Edit- Original review: As a player with 4.3k hours in Project Zomboid I heard MANY times that this game was going to be the "Project Zomboid Killer" during its release, and back to 2023 my thoughts were: "If this game is meant to be a PZ Copy, its destinty is failure", so I didn't pay much attention to it other than what I saw during streams (I didn't like what I see during that time to be honest). Now it is 2025, and somebody recommended it again a couple days ago, so this time I gave it a try so let's deep dive into my impressions. First of all, I'm really glad that HumanitZ evolved into its own personality and is definitely NOT A COPY of Project Zomboid (while it has similar things of course, it is a Survival game with Zombies). If you play this game thinking this is a 3D Project Zomboid made in Unreal you are going to definitely be frustrated as it doesn't offer the same but more "beauty". Some of the most noticable differences with PZ: - Special zombies/Infected. While most of the zombies are the traditional slow romero-like zombies, some of them are different, from runners to some toxic ones, and some of them that on death something happens (I died because of this, I don't want to spoil, discover it yourself). In my opinion I would compare the Zombies with 7 Days to Die but COMPLETELY more blended into the game, they fit much better to the whole atmosphere. - Zombie animals: not much more to say about this, PZ doesn't have them and will never have them. - Bandits NPC and other NPC's such as traders with Quests. Until B43 in PZ we won't see this kind of things. - A more focused Gunplay experience. The bad things Probably one of the most important points to make here is that none of this "bad" points are actually BAD things that destroys the experience, those are just things that can be improved IMO or are current bugs. - The camera: so my biggest problem was with the camera, mainly in big buildings or around cities. Around cities the problem is that as the walls doesn't dissappear whenever you are close to a tall building, you can barely see what's going on. Inside big buildings what happens is that the camera tilt effect allows you to see your character all good BUT you can barely see anything that's not close to you. I have seen some videos, even here in Steam and I see that the camera inside buildings changes its angle as you move so maybe it was just a bug in the current build? However some things I would like to see and that think would make it MUCH better: walls that are between the character AND the camera position, dissappear (as the Trees already do), this is basically the same behavior that any modern game have with the cutaways. Another thing would be that being close to a window should allow you to see a little bit more of the inside. - Bandits: while the bandit gunplay was funny, after you fight with them a couple times you find it easy to kill them, as they prefer to leave their barricades and cover to follow you, so you can simply hide behind a cover, and prefire them when they are close. It would be awesome that bandits would move from their coverage if they have another coverage close to where they currently are and would prefer to stay in their defensive positions rather than just follow you. - Zombie memory: I have seen that the zombies follow you just a little, if you manage to run, even if they are close to you and still seeing you, the prefer to just go back to their place. They should follow you unless you lose them. - Placing objects: placing objects outside a building is awful as the character model blocks your vision. Maybe the camera could tilt as it does in an interior when you are placing OR just be placed to the side of the character so you have vision to where you are placing the object. - FPS: With a Ryzen 7 7700, GTX 4060 TI 12GB and 32GB ram I had 40 FPS in the middle of a city, everywhere else I had 120. Edit: Looks like the FPS drops only occurs in big cities when there are also NPC's. - Mods: I REALLY REALLY hope that this game gets mod support soon, every game in modern times is capable of living for years when mods are supported, I really hope the same future for this game. The good - Zombie variation feels well blended into the game. - Friendly, Traders and Bandits NPC's in the world. - Animals! I have seen a good variation of animals and still I'm pretty sure that I missed couple more. - Companion dog! - While not many, vehicles are really nice. - Both gunplay and melee combat feels good. - Environment, it feels awesome! - Construction, well integrated. - Crafting, while limited, has enough crafting to be an important mechanic, not as many games that just adds a couple of crafts to say that they have "crafting". - Sneaking: it works. That's it, most of the games have a horrible sneaking gameplay. - Active developers, I'm really happy of all the love this game is getting from the dev team. - Survival mechanics such as: purify water, fish, farm, trap animals, hunt, etc while they are still simple, they are good enough to feel that they add value and are not just useless things. Basically, my opinion is that this game is worth a try, and if it keeps improving as it is right now, the future is really good. If you like PZ and 7DTD you'll like this one.
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