SurrounDead (2022)

It's a little silly for me to say that this is a game with limited scope when I put in 65 hours before I got bored. That's a lot of hours for a game that is, at is core, just a sandbox filled with unity store assets and zombies.

There is something here, though. Where it lacks in systems, depth and multiplayer, it does seem to have the heart. Living in the world for a while, surviving, scavenging, and building up your arsenal to fight the horde - there's a tiny bit of magic there, that if the small developer can make the right additions to fill in some its gaps, it could be magic that rivals games like Zomboid or State of Decay. It just isn't quite there yet.

I'd still recommend getting it in Early Access and supporting the dev if this type of game appeals to you. Even as it is, it is worth the money to that type of player, as my play time can attest.

SurrounDead - (Steam Deck)

Surroundead is a zombie survival game currently in early access, developed by a single developer and have been out for about 2–3 years. You’re dropped into an open world where survival is the main goal. It’s all about loot, fight zombies, craft gear, build a base and try to stay alive as long as you can.

I had a pretty good time with it overall. It was challenging at first with very bad controller support, playing on the Steam Deck. Keyboard and mouse is preferred. I had to customize and tinkering a lot to get a setup with the deck to get a good playing experience.

Combat is quite fun, a nice variety of weapons. Shooting feels supricingly good! Melee works fine too! Exploration and the crafting system work really well. One thing I really liked is how many settings you can tweak. You can customize a lot of things to really get the experience you like.

Base building was okay but definitely has room for improvement. It works, but I’d like to see more building pieces and deeper system.

Story-wise there’s not much here yet and almost no quests. So it’s all about exploration, clear out different POI and defeat bosses. Gather the best legendary weapons.

I encounter some bugs and you can tell that the game isn’t finished.

Surroundead is a fun game that still is under development. There’s a Road Map with a lot of different things he plan to implement in the future. I think this game have a lot of potential and I will definitely get back to this in the future.

Rating: 🌲🌲🌲