Undead Chronicles is a ‘slow-burn horror FPS’ that’s gathering traction on Steam. It’s approaching 100,000 wishlist spots, has a demo landing this October, and is shaping up nicely in preview materials. It has been on my radar for a hot minute on account of the way it’s approaching the concept of a zombie apocalypse.
It’s not a run-and-gun action title, nor is it a run-of-the-mill survival shooter. It’s a brutal, realistic, and weighted end-of-the-world FPS that encourages you to shoot straight, watch your back, and accept that there is absolutely no mercy to be found from the undead.
I recently caught up with the game’s creator, Seyfettin Dincturk, to learn more about Undead Chronicles.
The Inspiration Behind Undead Chronicles
In a post on social media, Seyfettin Dincturk, the creator of Undead Chronicles, explained that the game is going to be ‘miserable, creepy, and depressive’. It’s going for a darker vibe than most zombie shooters accommodate these days, feeding more into the ‘Romero’ shamblers that popularized the concept of the undead several decades ago.
Undead Chronicles started life four years ago, taking shape as a pixel art game, but Dincturk pivoted from Unity to Unreal Engine 5, rebuilding the game as a quality first-person shooter.
Today, Undead Chronicles is being pieced together by a very small team that’s ‘passionate about single-player games.’ It has grown organically, and it’s fast becoming one of the most-wanted horror shooters coming to Steam.
I asked Dincturk what inspired Undead Chronicles:
We really love the vibe of (The Last of Us), Bloodborne, Resident Evil, and ZombiU…
Most zombie games involve too much comedy to compensate for very long completion hours and to also compensate for the price tag.
I believe there is a market for a depressive story, where you are all by yourself, stuck in 1923, shooting the undead.
It’s a simple, back-to-basics premise, and that’s one of the reasons I love it. It’s just cold, hard horror, planting players in a dire situation within an eerie world and demanding that they survive with what they have to hand.
The game’s description panel on Steam helps paint a picture of the world in Undead Chronicles:
They do not explode or mutate. They behave like broken people. Some panic. Some charge. The shotgun exists for the moments when distance disappears.
Restore power by hunting fusebox pieces. Find keys hidden in jacket pockets, behind paintings, and inside desk drawers. Every drawer opens, unless it’s locked. No crowbars. No ritual candles. Just logic and observation.
There’s obviously something of a jab there at games like Resident Evil, which have replicated the same basic puzzle designs for many years. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not the operating model that Seyfettin’s team is going for.
Undead Chronicles takes real places rooted in history and turns them upside down amid the apocalypse. The game innovatively uses shadow and darkness, with a lack of light preventing your progress, forcing you to adapt as you move. At first blush, it looks like a solid horror FPS with plenty of potential.
Do you think Undead Chronicles looks like your kind of game? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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