The War Z: Murder of the Fittest

In The War Z's alternate version of history, Colorado is a cold, lonely place where the dead rise from their graves and seek out the last remnants of survivors to snack on. The droves of zombies congregating in the towns and cities nestled in this bucolic patch of countryside are deadly indeed in large numbers, but they're not what concerns me the most. It's those that are still breathing you really have watch out for.

Spawning in this zombie apocalypse survival MMO with nothing more than a puny flashlight, a granola bar, a can of soda, and some bandages instills an immediate sense of urgency and desperation. You need to wrangle some serious supplies and a means to defend yourself quickly, because hunger is the least likely thing to kill you. The struggle to stay alive lies at the heart of what makes The War Z such an interesting, gripping experience, and it spurs you and others you encounter into making some murderous snap decisions.


The War Z’s 400 square miles of virtual woodland territory is pockmarked with small settlements and bigger hunks of city ripe for the plundering. Nabbing melee weapons, food, armor and semi-automatic rifles greatly improves both your chance of staying alive and your bargaining power with other players. But supplies are hard to come by, and venturing into once heavily-populated areas alone is risky business: they're hotspots for zombie activity and alluring destinations for fellow survivors.

When you're cautiously roaming the mountains and forests around Boulder, the natural inclination is to find other survivors. That's a deadly gamble. In the rare instances where you find friendlies willing to team-up, it's a real relief from the lonely prowling through long days and black nights. You're all stuck in hell, so might as well work together to tackle the hordes and the brigands together, right? It's fun when it clicks. Unfortunately, the first and only rule of survival in The War Z is trust no one. It's a lesson you learn very quickly when you're bleeding out on the cold, hard ground while your corpse is being looted.

I've spent a lot of time in The War Z being murdered by other survivors. Perhaps 90 percent of my run-ins with other humans have resulted in someone clubbing me to death or putting a bullet in my head, despite my attempts to make peace. Sometimes bullets ring out from nowhere. Other times players lure you in with a "Hey, I'm friendly" before slaughtering you with your back turned. Considering you lose all of your accumulated gear and hard-earned guns every time you die, it really does feel like you're being robbed. It makes you jaded, suspicious, and cautious of other players, which spurs a "shoot first, die later" mentality.


The War Z is a fascinating social experiment in primal human nature as much as it is a zombie survival sim. Given its current beta state, a lot of planned features -- including a proper reputation system to curtail excessive murder and a skill system to reward tenacious survivors -- have yet to be implemented. The core survival gameplay is pretty addictive to begin with, though The War Z still has a way to go before it evens out its player interaction playing field. A ruthless player base can make wading neck deep into this eerie undead war frustrating at times, yet there's something oddly alluring about the uncertainty of whether you'll live or die from one moment to the next as you push to carve out a path in this dead world.

If you’re interested in trying out The War Z, you can buy in over on the official site.

Source : ign