Probably one of the most realistic survival games out there. What Project Zomboid lacks in sheer graphical fidelity it makes up for in its unrivaled quality of gameplay. There's so much to do and there's always a risk-to-reward trade-off no matter how far in you are with a given character, whether you're just in your first hour or if you're already kitted-out and prepped for the grueling winter.

As the game's tagline "this is how you died" suggests, the game's learning curve is steep and you will often find yourself struggling to survive within the first few hours of every playthrough. Make no mistake, you will be seeing the main menu screen a lot with how many characters you'll be going through - but then you learn and adapt, and from those deaths and experiences you last just a little bit longer with each subsequent attempt. Just to prove a point, does any other survival game encourage you watch out for the food your character is eating? Calories, carbohydrates, protein, lipids and all? I don't think so.

To add onto that, when your character dies, it doesn't mean the end of that world, you can still make a character within that same save to try and salvage what your previous lives left behind, although it doesn't necessarily mean that the game gets more forgiving. As times goes on, the human environment decays and degrades, the food goes bad, the power and water gets shut off, and mother nature takes back its land. Over time you'll see houses starting to get overrun with plant life, both inside and out, which really gives you sense that there really isn't anybody else surviving in the world but you - and the people you're playing with if you're doing co-op. Did I mention there's co-op in Project Zomboid?

If you're looking for a more relaxed experience, Project Zomboid offers that too with customizable sandbox options and sandbox presets. Don't like dealing with the zombies? You can set the zombie population to 0 so that it's basically just you. Or maybe instead of dialing the difficulty down, you want the opposite of the spectrum? Set the zombie population to something like 5.0 and make all the zombies into sprinters with superhuman strength so that it's impossible to survive. Those are just a few of the many, many options you can fool around with. Part of the beauty of Project Zomboid is that you can make it however difficult or otherwise you want the experience to be, and the developers respect that right by giving you so many options to tinker with at the start of each world.

Not only that, but the mods - there's so many and a good majority of the releases are very high quality and fit right into the game world, and just like the base game, alot of these mods are customizable too with their own mod options to decide what goes and what doesn't go into your games.

A punishing yet rewarding and extensively customizable game, a great team of developers who constantly update you with future additions and changes, a dedicated community of players and thriving modding scene spanning multiple regions. Seriously, what's not to like? Maybe the perspective, but that's all I can really think of.

Probably one of the most realistic survival games out there. What Project Zomboid lacks in sheer graphical fidelity it makes up for in its unrivaled quality of gameplay. There's so much to do and there's always a risk-to-reward trade-off no matter how far in you are with a given character, whether you're just in your first hour or if you're already kitted-out and prepped for the grueling winter. As the game's tagline "this is how you died" suggests, the game's learning curve is [i]steep[/i] and you will often find yourself struggling to survive within the first few hours of every playthrough. Make no mistake, you will be seeing the main menu screen a lot with how many characters you'll be going through - but then you learn and adapt, and from those deaths and experiences you last just a little bit longer with each subsequent attempt. Just to prove a point, does any other survival game encourage you watch out for the food your character is eating? Calories, carbohydrates, protein, lipids and all? I don't think so. To add onto that, when your character dies, it doesn't mean the end of that world, you can still make a character within that same save to try and salvage what your previous lives left behind, although it doesn't necessarily mean that the game gets more forgiving. As times goes on, the human environment decays and degrades, the food goes bad, the power and water gets shut off, and mother nature takes back its land. Over time you'll see houses starting to get overrun with plant life, both inside and out, which really gives you sense that there really isn't anybody else surviving in the world but you - and the people you're playing with if you're doing co-op. Did I mention there's co-op in Project Zomboid? If you're looking for a more relaxed experience, Project Zomboid offers that too with customizable sandbox options and sandbox presets. Don't like dealing with the zombies? You can set the zombie population to 0 so that it's basically just you. Or maybe instead of dialing the difficulty down, you want the opposite of the spectrum? Set the zombie population to something like 5.0 and make all the zombies into sprinters with superhuman strength so that it's impossible to survive. Those are just a few of the many, many options you can fool around with. Part of the beauty of Project Zomboid is that you can make it however difficult or otherwise you want the experience to be, and the developers respect that right by giving you so many options to tinker with at the start of each world. Not only that, but the mods - there's so many and a good majority of the releases are very high quality and fit right into the game world, and just like the base game, alot of these mods are customizable too with their own mod options to decide what goes and what doesn't go into your games. A punishing yet rewarding and extensively customizable game, a great team of developers who constantly update you with future additions and changes, a dedicated community of players and thriving modding scene spanning multiple regions. Seriously, what's not to like? Maybe the perspective, but that's all I can really think of.