When I went to Gamescom in August, I planned to visit Quantum Quirks to check out Zeverland, a strange-looking zombie survival game with a twist. It employs a ‘Funko Pop’ style approach to character models and boasts a staggeringly huge world that accommodates a common-sense-driven operating model.
It sounds super confusing, but it’s not. It looks adorable on the surface, but floating just beneath that topmost layer is a deep, diverse, and highly intelligent zombie survival game that encourages you to really experiment with all possibilities.
I came away from Quantum Quirks’ booth at Gamescom fully ready for more Zeverland.
Looks Cute, Feels Brutal
Zeverland has an adorable aesthetic that might throw you off at the start, but once you get into the thick of it, you’ll realize that it’s a brutal end-of-the-world simulator that doesn’t go easy on you. This game started life as an open-world PvPvE game, but Quantum had to listen to community feedback and undergo a rather drastic, PvE-centric pivot – and that just makes me happier.
RELATED: Best Games Like Fallout
As I sat with Quantum Quirks at Gamescom, I learned that everything in Zeverland, a no-holds-barred survival epic, revolves around common sense. If you think you can do something or should be able to do something, chances are, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
For instance, I had a lit gas-powered lantern, and I tried to put it in my backpack, but I couldn’t because it was still lit. I had to extinguish it to put it in my backpack.
In another sequence, I was trying to find a way to refuel a car, and while I found a gas pump, I couldn’t find a canister to decant the fuel into. Then I realized I had picked up an array of bottles and containers along my journey and wondered… What if?
Yep – I could use those bottles to decant tiny amounts of fuel and slip it into my car’s tank.
Let me think. I have a stick as a weapon, but I also have a knife. Can I use some adhesive and glue them together to make some stick-knife hybrid? Well, sure!
There’s a locked door, but I don’t have the key. Can I just dismantle the door? Yeah.
It’s one of those endless survival games, boasting a world that stretches up to 5,000 km², but from what I can see, it never feels empty. The possibilities of that common-sense concept roll into everything. The idea is to traverse the world, explore, loot, and kill your way through the wasteland, and construct shelters, but even that notion is bolstered by innovation in Zeverland.
For example, you’re able to find an RV or a flatbed truck, and through the power of imagination and a diverse toolkit and array of loose items, you can build a mobile base that travels around the world with you (and your friends).
Oh, and those friends lead me to the game’s multiplayer ecosystem, which can, at the boldest end of the scale, accommodate up to 1,000 players in a single world. But I played solo during my behind-closed-doors demo, and I loved the experience all the same.
The team has stressed how this all works on the game’s Steam page:
No complex rules. No punishing mechanics. Just do what makes sense to you.
Get creative! Any junk you have is ready to be fused into a powerful new weapon. The Zeds got an upgrade in the muscles and brains department—a pointy stick just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
What I absolutely loved was that infection isn’t the end in this zombie-fuelled post-apocalyptic survival game. When you’re turned, you can roam the wastes as a zombie. You gain new powers and abilities and can even become a mutated form of the undead horde you see in the world, giving the game a totally different perspective.
RELATED: 10 Best Post-Apocalyptic Games Ever
The team pointed out another layer. If you respawn in your human form, you’ll be able to go back and find your zombified self and eliminate them, in some weird, paradoxical twist of sorts.
I can’t stress how excited the potential depth of Zeverland made me. I adore a post-apocalyptic survival game, and Zeverland offers almost everything to tick those sought-after boxes:
- Near-infinite exploration opportunities
- Deep crafting and base-building mechanics
- Multiplayer or solo approaches are both viable
- Farming and gardening mechanics to live off the land
- Brutal, satisfying combat with a wide array of weapons
- No crushing difficulty levels
And yes, it looks hilariously adorable to boot. That might be the only blocker to mass adoption – it doesn’t look like any other survival game out there. It’s like if someone took State of Decay and made it super cute and cartoony. But that’s not a bad thing at all.
Oh, and I personally suggested to the game’s design lead that they should add the ability to mount and ride around on cows, and they said it’ll be implemented just for me. There you go; I’m officially a developer.
Do you think Zeverland is your kind of game? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out my Gamescom interview with STALKER 2’s developers. And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter
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.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Comments