Those of you hiding behind your barricaded windows may have let this game slip by, so allow me to pry open the panels and reveal what you have been missing out on. The game is equal parts horror and strategy, with an entire town acting as your own sandbox for you to play out the last miserable moments your life. Let’s make one thing clear here – “This is the story of how you died...” The development team take great pride in reminding each and every player of this, with the ultimate goal of showing you just how far you will chose to go in your moments of desperation just to survive for a few extra minutes, only to meet the same fate everyone does. You won't win, so how long will it take for you to die?

Gameplay is presented in the form of an isometric 2.5D viewpoint, with the player assuming the role of an unlucky citizen, surrounded by his or her former neighbours. You're left to your own devices for the most part, free to make your own decisions (and mistakes...so many mistakes) as you aim to survive for as long as possible. Future plans for the game will see a fully fleshed story campaigns for the player to participate in, employing a heavy focus on interaction with NPC’s and scripted events to help explore a more focused narrative. Of course this doesn’t detract from the games open ended feeling, and with the use of the sandbox mode you can easily achieve your own story through sheer exploration as gameplay in this mode is fairly dynamic, with opportunities and paths opening based on where you go and what you do.

The future is looking bright for this title as we discussed what lies on the horizon for the game, and both developers were quick to spill the beans on their passionate pursuit. Since its early alpha stages, multiplayer has been a goal these guys have wanted to incorporate, and what they were showing at Rezzed was a great example of what direction this is heading and the progress that’s being made. The multiplayer aspect was only in local co-op in this incarnation, and showed off the last stand, a game mode being used to specifically illustrate the functionality of the cooperative gameplay. The goal was to occupy a building and defend it for as long as possible against waves of the undead, using whatever was at hand to survive.

Progress is also being made towards a more ‘inhabited’ world too, with NPC’s planned for the future to help bring in that sense danger and social interaction. We’ve all seen those games and movies where the last surviving humans descend into madness and start chopping up those around them (Dead Rising anyone? Yea I see you remembering Frank West in a mankini fighting crazy butchers...) and it seems like Project Zomboid will be no different. Both Andy and Chris explain how they want to see survivors work together to survive, but warn that your community wont all be as cooperative as you might hope. Tempers will flair and somebody might end up on the receiving end of a fire axe.

The future is bright for the boys and girls at The Indie Stone, they have a great project going and when all of the pieces slot together I feel Project Zomboid will be an essential title in any Zombie fanatics’ collection. You can get your hands on the game right now for a bargain price of £4.99/$7.99 in its alpha state on Desura. Don’t shuffle around, go support them!