Project Zomboid Review: Help! 

Kentuckian here, can confirm it is pronounced “luhlville.” Don’t ask, don’t know. Just always been that way.

"The story is the one you make for yourself" R.I.P my survivor named Danny who got bit in the balls 2 hours into the apocalypse.

You nailed it when you said that you make the story. I decided that today was the day to drive to the next town to fill up on educational vhs tapes. However halfway I totalled my car and ended up grinding up my mechanics skill to fix it, alas there were no other cars nearby to cannibalise parts from. So in the end I gained massive mechanic skill and came home with an even better car that had a roof rack and trailer. I still never made it to the vhs store

9:30 Perfect example from one of my runs: I was doing really well for myself living rurally. Basically no zombies around, found a massive amount of canned food and medical supplies. No needle for deep wounds, but that wouldn't be a problem, right? Well it wasn't, until I got a little too confident and crashed my car, sustaining a deep wound and forcing me to venture into the urban sprawl to find what I needed to fix it. The game is so organic.

It’s been weeks (in game) and I’m still mourning for my 3 month survivor, Charlotte. I went back with my new character, put Charlotte out of her misery, brought her corpse back with me and buried her outside my base with a memorial wooden stake to mark the grave.

This game survival aspect it's so well design that one day afther reading the god damn zombie survival guide from Max Brooks himslef i tried to put some of those zombie survival tips to use in the game thinking "theres no way that this actually helps me in game", low and behold now i have my first character to ever se the light of spring afther a harsh winter

For the record to those who watch this, if you're playing on a multiplayer server that you or a friend are hosting you can just use admin commands to teleport them to you or you to them, so you dont have to spend half an hour searching for eachother lol.

5:10-6:00 is just one of the greatest analysis of Project Zomboid I've seen. The relation of Zombies to the classical Man vs. Nature, the fact that they aren't necessarily out to get you, the fact that they are just part of this new world now. It's compelling. Fantastic work, my good man.

Hadn't thought about that but I think you're spot on when you said the problem with a lot of survival games is that survival elements are just a checkbox until you rebuild and dominate the world. They cease to be survival games at that point. Zomboid even when you have an uber base not all resources are reproducible so you have to eventually go out and you never really reach a point where you're invincible to the threat zombies pose. Case in point my longest surviving character over two months had an epic fire station base with tons of good and water, wanted to make rabbit hamburgers but had no salt for bread. In my hubris decided to go get salt from a diner down in Muldraugh. Broke in and found salt but at the same time a dozen zombies broke through a door into the kitchen with me blocking my way out. Had to run for it into the dining area which was also full of zombies and I sadly got grabbed and bitten multiple times trying to claw my way out of the front door....all for burgers 🍔

14:57 actually made me laugh out loud. Looks like a neat game.

Pro tip: don't leave your food cooking on the stove to "quickly" kill off the zombie banging on your window...

the falling and stumbling is both hilarious, and immersive, idk what it is, but its so frantic and fluid, and makes your character feel like a human being, like when you're running through crowds of zombies indoors and stumbling over furniture, and tripping but then getting up and escaping just seconds before you're overwhelmed and eaten, it feels like a scene right out of a tv show or movie, and I love it. (its also funny to walk into your friends and make them stumble into a horde)

Max (character) survived the initial infection, 1 month an 14 days, 6 different helicopter events (sandbox). Built a small fortress from a Genco (or something) building. He died by face checking a bathroom. But his life wasn't greater in purpose than his death, oh no, Max wasn't going out like a p*ssy. He took his trusty shotgun he always eyed but never used during the month and a half. Jumped in his car, and attracted as many zombies as far away as possible. Honking, blasting music and having one last smoke break before getting out the car and going down in a blaze of glory. Max II , was then able to survive from what Max built. RIP Max, you were a true hero.

I love the skateboard mod the concept of having the balls to skateboard around in a zombie Apocalypse is funny too me

To clarify, multiplayer has been in the game for a long time. BUT, Build 41 has been in development for years, and since it was an indev build it didn't have multiplayer. Also, those meta events that you mentioned will be a lot more in depth soon. With the NPC builds, meta events like campsites and screaming will actually feature real NPCs, so it's not just a random event. It's a story progression for the NPC. They'll have sort of "meta pathing", where they'll exist unloaded and travel the world and have their own story, and you might find places where they have been, and you could even find them. Dead, or alive. I love this game so much.

My longest run was nearing December, I had a base set up with basically whatever I think I would have needed to survive and take on the apocalypse long term. I was thriving but sadly I have no Idea how my characters story would have ended because my pc at one point had a major reset and I forgot to back the save up beforehand. Anthony Saldana, I hope your off somewhere kickin' ass in Louisville. 😔

15:11 in reality rain water is 100% safe to drink because nothing that is nasty inside the water is evaporated into the clouds also i enjoyed the video

The Project Zomboid devs are some of the best dev teams imo. They literally lose the coding for the entire game through a shitty incident (common thief just thought ‘woohoo free laptop’ and wiped it. Bye bye game) and instead of giving up completely like so many dev teams do in such situations, they actually started from scratch and created their game all over again. Actually finally getting up to NPCs again, it’s so freaking awesome.

The true music mod is just too good. I also died with 'Staying Alive' echoing out of my wrecked car in the background after surviving for 2 months. Wasn't even mad, probably the most I've ever laughed while playing singleplayer.

Great review, really well informed. I have got to say though, that funnily enough there is a ‘story’ of sorts in PZ. You can listen to the radio and watch the news and see how society is breaking down over time. Mods even add to this. If you use ‘expanded helicopter events’ it starts with news helis checking out the quarantine zone and police choppers loudspeaking about how you should stay indoors and avoid contact with infected etc etc, then eventually military aircraft start shooting zombies and then eventually shooting players too even. I love how the story is almost in the background but feels ever present :)

Loved this video, it's so true to the Zomboid experience. Picked up the game after seeing a couple short videos on it thinking it'd be good to play for a couple hours while I'm burnt out on some of my usual plays. Days later and I'm playing almost non stop. I've nearly cried a couple times when characters I've been with for a while die stupidly or get a bite on the first zombie encounter they face. I've never played a game before that feels so true to what a real life experience would be, the devs really pulled out all the stops on this one and I can't wait to see what they do next. You've also conviced me to try the true music mod, thanks dude!

These zombies was done very well. They’re not strong or fast. You can one on one any of them. But they’re everywhere, there’s so many and they prey on your mistakes. Survive for months would be quite an achievement.

Why does every single Project Zomboid content creator have studio quality content, an illustrious voice and criminally underviewed content, it's a blessing! 👌

Heya! I am the author of the "They Knew" mod. Thanks for playing with it! Was cool as heck to see you wearing the suit on one of the lives!

I played it when it came out. It was really good even back then. Theyve added a lot since then. The dev team is super diligent

I LOVE how the whole point of the game is "you are not the main character"

The modding in this game is insane. Honestly freshing to see mods being added into the vanilla experience too. There's so much sandbox and mod options for you here and tweaking options feel great

Just a Quick info - if you guys play with certain mods the Bicycle one for example then th ere are items that dont have a 3D model - i.e Bicycle parts - usually these items dont have the "Place item" option when u click them in your inventory They Vanish/Disappear when u drop them havent found any other mod that does this up until now

The feeling when you finally make it back to your base after nearly dying multiple times a looting trip, with enough food to last a week after starving for 3 days; the sense of relief is real. Never once while playing other games have I gotten excited about finding a can of beans.

Game is great me and my brother made some characters. He's a mechanic and I'm a burgalar named Jason B. We went on a huge ass hike through the woods at night which was pretty scary. But we eventually found 4 houses and what looked like a storage shed with a lot of fertilizer. So we went into the biggest house and barricaded it. I put escape ropes all over and he was reading books on electric stuff. I marked a generator I found before I found him. Its pretty fun and I really enjoy even just walking around with him exploring

great in-depth review about the game!

I remember my best run. I had a mediocre and grossly overestimated food stockpile and some plants I had underestimated the growing times on. I shut myself in my base to try and grind fitness and strength. After a little bit my food started running low and I thought "oh, it's fine, I've got some plants that'll be ready soon." and carried on with the grind. Eventually I started starving and realised I wasn't fine. I had to run in to town with my health creeping away and practically no strength. We all know how that ends.

Great video! I enjoyed the story part on telling what has happened to your characters and games you've played so far.

Finally got my Twitter account back lol, here's the true music tweet: twitter.com/toastoffire/status/1488879583638212609?t=4kEkzDPYVL97BOczd-7SGQ&s=19

I see what you did with that Deus ex face. It really does seem to be some weird survival sandbox/immersive sim hybrid that feels like it would be fun for the whole family.

The part where you explain the "stories" of your different characters is why i love this game. Each playthrough takes on its own life. Its unreal how you can set up the perfect base and all the supplies you could ever need. only for one mistep and a random bite to end it all. Its so true to what would actually happen and the stakes are as high as possible. My record so far is about 35 days. What ultimately killed me on that run was my fatal flaw of hemophobic. I'll never take that trait again as you panic anytime you kill zombies. But I'm on a current playthrough with an amazing base out in the woods in rosewood. water shut off on the first day. But i was able to gather a ton of food and water from the area. all my windows are sealed up with metal sheets. i think im going to beat my record. I got a steamdeck a month ago and so far this is the only game i have played

The game is extremely anecdotal. A separate story every play through. During one playthrough, my food caught fire, setting of smoke alarms sending the dead swarming to the house. During another playthrough, I caught Jason (from Friday the 13th) coming out of a house, hockey mask and all. After dispatching him, I entered the house to find the bodies of 7 victims he'd murdered! In another play through, I was doing quite well. I'd established a base and went on an ammo supply run. After raiding an Army Surplus store, I scaled a tall fence to escape a zombie herd but injured my leg. After a low speed foot chase, for several in game hours, the zombies finally won. My character became exhausted and was eventually devoured. I can only guess I'm not the only one with a million story's.

RU-vid has been killing it for me. Recommending a bunch of good smaller channels lately. Love the video!

i played with my dad as a kid in 2013-2014 ish and i don't remember all the details all i remember is having an absolute blast. i remember one of the hardest things we had to find was the axe. god it was so rare but also it made it so rewarding to play. one of my 10/10 games and it has been for years

Love the video! Found it engaging and agreed with a lot of the points you brought up, I was also wondering if you could send a collection with the mods you use on your own playthroughs, that or some quick recommendations?

once i died by spawning in and looting surronding houses for canned food and basic supplies when a alarm got sent of little did i know my volume on my headset became quieter this meant i thought it was a diffrent house set of by a zombie a few seconds later trapped in the bathroom with a bite on my groin and my neck long live billy bob the 3rd may he rest easy

Very well done video! This is one of my favorite games and I am so glad to see people having so much fun on it in recent times :) So keep it up and I hope that you enjoy the game for a very long time!

15:10 I love how I made the same mistake, my house was just 1m away from water and I totally forgot I could use that.

Man, your videos are not only super entertaining but also educational! After spending over 200 hours in zomboid and installing several mods, I didn't know about the True Music mod - thanks for that! Keep up the great work!

7:41. that's all I'm gonna say. I have now realized he does this a lot throughout the video. This is amazing.

1:19 I approve this because i tried to play with sprinters, went into the fire station in Rosewood and it was an instant nope

10:16 Feathers' thigh high undies, a man of culture.

Great analysis!

A great video that reflects the game well. To be fair there is kinda a story that is more background a guess. If you catch enought tv and raido before shut off you can learn about how things might have started nd where they were going before it all went dark. The recent update added more personal things like videos tapes with added info. So yea you make up your own story but theres a fun origin story too to discover :)

My best story was playing with a friend who was new via split screen multiplayer; we started in Rosewood, and because we wanted to stay together, I had to deal with the massive horde they had attracted with being conspicuous and clumsy. We finally broke apart when there were like a hundred zombies, so I ran towards the nearest car, which happened to be a truck in the fire department. It had a key in the glovebox, and about a quarter tank of gas, so I managed to mow down half the horde, rescue my friend, and drive up to a Spiffo's before the truck broke down from running over so many zombies. There's just something about the unscripted chaos that playing with a friend brings; it was like an action movie. That entire life was; so many close scrapes. I sunk 140 hours in around 2 weeks myself.

The amount of stuff you can mod into this game is on a next level. I think I have something close to 200 average running at any given point. I take off some here and there that don’t give as much enhancement or are outdated compared to newer mods. Mostly qol and increasing weapon variety and car variety. I even added one that has a multi caliber M60 machine gun on top of all the other LMG’s you can get. This game entered my library on December 25, 2022 and I haven’t stopped playing it since then. I’m trying to find more people to play with but not everyone is as involved. If you like survival games I couldn’t give a better recommendation. Great video man you’ve earned a sub and a like.

Amazing review

Ayy, always good to see ya upload

18:02 OMFG THIS IS LITERALLY LIKE A SCENE FROM ZOMBIELAND

Surprised you only have 1,5k subs this was a very high quality good review

how do you only have 11k subs??????? you deserve much more keep up the good videos

Ratchet and Clank Gladiator/Deadlocked music at the end? Good taste

SUCH a good review. VERY well explained with some humor. love it

Excellent video!

Very good video man. Also walter white with the hazmat suit!

Great content, genuinely on point with some of the current frontrunners. Subscribed

“The Story is the one you make for yourself” *chainsmokes cigarettes* *throws up* college

Dude. The game has a story. It's revealed though radio and tv. Then you discover that the zombies are all over the world. The last transmissions you can hear before absolute silence are nightmarish both to you IRL and the character gets panic from some of them too. It's very similar to my favorite chapter of WWZ. The communications the radio operators had to listen, there are none of them left. All commited self deletion soon after the end

good stuff, dude

After the graphics overhaul, the game looks like post-apocalypse Sims and I love it.

The multiplayer section freaked me out as your friend sounds exactly like me First RU-vid video I was unsure of my existence, kudos

Absolutely in love with death montages of this game

7:11 I love this bit

The pain...... In 20:02 remind me of my Uber character that die because of lag in the game while driving in convoy....... She survived for two years having almost all skill to 10 beside trapping and electricity..... It's just because what you did, our current car is totalled it just die engine 3% so we walk to city find spare part or better find working car so just happen we found both we have engine spare part and a great working car it just missing a tire so after working off the tire we drive back home and that happen I can't accept that death.... Even today.

when i first saw this vid, i thought you were like a somewhat popular youtuber, but only 900 subs? bro you deserve way more.

Loved the video, funny and well made, i'm glad, that i stumbled onto this channel

15:10 Collected Rainwater is pure by default. Drinking from the river is fatal without purification.

I remember when it was one tiny town and a cool premise. My has it grown. Bravo devs for commitment.

5:27 A zombie just bit his ass.

rip the multiple times ive set myself on fire in my campfire and i freak out and forget how your supposed to put yourself out .

i can't believe i found someone so good so early?? bro keep up the amazing edits, voice overs, and content in general! anyways drop modlist now

The game is around since 2011 and was first being sold on the now defunct platform called Desura btw.

There a "story" it on the tvs and radios. Their is a secret radio about people trying to survive at the start

Genuinely shocked you don’t have over 800k subs, the quality of these videos is amazing!

Great video, hope you become even more successful with your channel!

i know this video old but not even going into winter and how that also forces your hand a lot becouse you need to keep warm so you need to layer up more clothes which can make you slower on top of that needing to warm up using fires and all as well or have power in a house to have ac if i remember right otherwise need a kiln or a fire place to stay inside the house

15:10 - 15:25 yeah… about that “clean” water…

This is a really fantastic video man, keep it up

Dude, huge respect for consistently using the yakuza 0 ost.

8:00 YES! Fashion > Everything else.

Make a part 2. I WANNA HEAR MORE STORIES!!!!!

17:43 oooohhh, so thats why people keep telling me to not touch the radio during driving

this is an extremely good video for someone with under 1k subs, this channel is gonna grow fast

10:22 oh dear God they're adding Poland.

The only thing that holds PZ back currently (Current Build 41.72 Unstable) is that it is in early access The modding potential this game has is a lot but there isn't any because the game can change which leads to lots of trouble for the modders PZ as of now is very good but if you want to play this game at peak potential then wait for the game to come out of EE but that is unlikely going to happen any time soon A current problem with the game right now is there is basically no endgame content and a lot of mods aren't compatible with multiplayer

5:13 that fucking escape tho

11:09 just noticed. thats a spoon

"There is no story" There is for uh... a week? You get to hear a priest get eaten alive during his last sermon on the radio and everything. Wild stuff, I feel like people don't give what little writing there actually is in the game enough credit tbh

Awesome review. Great video. Been playing the game for months but I haven’t tried multiplayer yet. No friends also 😂

Shout out to the one frame JC denton lip smack

one dumb run I had going on for about a month was the story of Brandon, an out of shape lumberjack (I know it sounds ironic) living off in some unpopulated series of mansions I think west of Riverside. Having forgotten this was a continued save where I couldn't even recover the loot (thanks to the helicopter), I soon had the power shut off and had immediately needed to think of a way of getting sustainable water. some time after base building I had everything set up, a water collector, a sink to plumb it in to purify it, but no pipe wrench. after going through a rogue collection of houses on the outskirts of Riverside I couldn't find one, so I had to venture to the town itself. Now my guy was getting a little tired and was unfit - so later that day after fighting off a series of the horde my guy was exhausted, and ended up getting bitten because his axe broke and he ran out of stamina. Narrowly surviving the immediate bloodloss and a group of zombies, Brandon went back to his solitary, empty mansion to live out the next 2 days while figuritively drinking himself to death. never even got that pipe wrench in the end, and with no real progress besides Brandon's skills I began a new save file.

This video was great, keep up the good work!

“Civilization and Industry” in PZ is clearing all the boxes at Mccoys and growing cabbages out back the warehouse.

case studies have been done on ted, revealing that he was actually an absolute genius. If only he knew he didn't have to hurt people to get them to listen. Then again, those experiments he went through in college really f'd him up psychologically,

Hey toast amazing video! loved it