“There isn’t anything radically wrong with being sick or with dying. Who said you’re supposed to survive?”

This could easily stand as the motto for Project Zomboid. After all, you will die again, again and again.
Still, I’m gonna go out on a whim and say Project Zomboid might just be one of the greatest zombie games of all time, and the fact it’s still in early access blows my mind.

It sticks true to it’s bleak atmosphere to provide one of the most immersive and visceral games out there. It’s a sandbox experience, a horror thrill and a true survival game all in one. No two playthroughs are the same, and neither are the survivors you commandeer.

Everything you think can go wrong, will go wrong. You will stumble, cut, fall, fight, fail and eventually, you will die. Through these constant failures, you will come back a little smarter every time, with more knowledge, more experience and maybe a bit more grit. But you will die.

To be fair, Project Zomboid makes it’s mortally grim atmosphere clear from the get go, wether it be the decaying environment as you survive longer and longer, the subtle storytelling through radio messages of government collapse or even the very first words that flash on your screen when you load a new game: “this is the story of how you died”.

You might wonder what the point of all this? Why would you play and devote so much time to a game that so pridefully flaunts it’s unbeatable status? The answer is simple, and one really left for the player to realize himself once he gives the game a chance.

It might be hard, it might be sad, but there will be a time when the music kicks in and your determination is set. Maybe it’ll be a blaze of glory, a last stand, or a situation you most definitely should not have survived, but you did.

Project Zomboid delivers such a phenomenal character experience that it’s almost impossible to resist the urge to try again. Even if survival is an illusion, it’s worth it everytime for the personal victories you will experience. It’s rewarding not because of a credit roll, or an achievement, or a difficulty, but because despite being destined to fail, you’re still going on.

So, screw it. Screw the end of the world and screw the bitter truth. It’s time to ride the wave and live forever.