Zeverland, the upcoming open-world zombie sim for PC, plays a lot like DayZ, but the team at Quantum Quirks has announced a major shift in the game’s design following a closed alpha test. According to the studio, players wanted the PvPvE game to be an entirely cooperative PvE experience instead, so much so that the team is meeting the community’s requests and turning Zeverland into exactly that. “You talked. We listened,” the studio said on the Zeverland Steam page.
“We’ve decided to shift Zeverland from a pure [massive multiplayer online game] into a [buy-to-play], survival-crafting, co-op PvE game […] After hearing from our community, we’ve confirmed: Zeverland is doubling down on cooperative PvE. Survive together. Build together. Explore together–not harm each other.”
While such a change will fundamentally reshape the game’s gameplay, Quantum Quirks isn’t changing what most people call out when they first see Zeverland in action. The game’s chibi-like art style is very eye-catching for a zombie survival sim, and it’s not going anywhere. I’ve not seen a zombie game that looks like this before, though when I participated in the playtest recently, I came around to it quickly. While much of the game feels reminiscent of the games it’s borrowing from, its standout aesthetic is a nice touch.
More than that, what I enjoyed most about my time with Zeverland is how much more forgiving it felt. As much as I love it, I’ve never quite gotten good at DayZ. I’ve never joined a particular server and really built on my progression for many hours at a time. I’ve always jumped into one that’s open, messed about for some time, and probably eventually died from blood loss, starvation, or a player who wanted to loot my pockets.
My early impression of Zeverland is that it’ll be a bit less grueling for newcomers. In addition to the game switching to PvE, my hands-on time revealed that bicycles are abundant for easier, faster travel, and even cars often worked right away–so long as they had gas.
Beyond that, it has many of the key qualities I look for in games like it. The world is huge and desolate. Combat is nerve-racking, demanding I carefully avoid even just some scratches from the undead. Looting is exciting and instructive; I was constantly finding new crafting recipes and items that suggested there is a lot to learn, just in an environment that is not immediately, unrelentingly hostile the way I’m used to.
It’s not a zombie game for kids; don’t get me wrong. You might think the aesthetic and the game’s more welcoming early hours mean it’s going for a younger audience, but I don’t think it is. It’s still checking many of the same gameplay boxes that a game like Project Zomboid or State of Decay also target. It’s just that it feels like the on-ramp to learning how to play Zeverland won’t be nearly as treacherous as some of its inspirations have proven to be.
I never get tired of playing the best zombie games. I’d likely have sunk some hours into Zeverland even with its previous PvPvE focus to see if it belongs in that conversation, but I definitely prefer the game’s North Star now being PvE, and I’m looking forward to diving back into the game when its renewed focus is ready to see for myself.