The only way to survive a Zombie Apocalypse it with a man pile!
Now I have been playing ZM for quite a while now, since it was first announced it was going to do the public Beta. That is right, if you were part of the first wave you like me will remember no Mac 10, Endless Servers playing Docks Of The Dead and the wall spawn bug.
But anyway, what is Zombie Master about? Simple. A team of survivors (FPS bit) fighting off a huge crowd of different types of Zombies controlled by a player (The RTS bit) while completing to pull off objectives on the map. The ZM wins by obviously, killing them all. The ZM receives the magic evil resources from Satan I assume when he finally kacks off a player. At the start, ZM has pretty meagre amount of can only spawn the classic Dawn of The Dead style Shambler Zombies (All moaning ammo sponges only good in ganking crowds). The ZM is limited to the amount of Zombies, A hoard (Around fifty-sixty at the most) is currently allowed to be spawned for server and connection reasons.
Now that the Mod has been out for quite a few months, the really shabby amateur mod maps have mostly vanished from the servers and some quite well done ones have popped up in their place. Good maps is THE selling point for ZM, since everything else still is its limited beta form I sadly must say. Map Objectives are usually long and sometimes require team work not camping which is always a plus. You don't HAVE to have a full set of Survivors but enough trigger pullers with decent intelligence and co-ordination to make it out alive is fine. And as if they had enough to worry about, the ZM can manipulate the map setting many traps including devious physics based ones. He also makes a mean Caesar Salad I hear. Caesar Salad of the Damned! Oh, and prepare to stay bleeding if you get hurt. No Medkits/Medics/Medical Dispensers in the Zombie Apocalypse People.
This fellow thinks that camping will save his sorry ass. No. It won't.
The reason why Survivors have such a hard time is because aside from the Shamblers, The ZM has some pretty hardcore Legions of the Dead under his Command. There is the annoying screaming climbing and leaping Banshee (Inspired from the HL2 Fast Zombie) the terrifying deformed giant known as the Hulk or can rip out your lungs with his flick of his wrist and a wiggle of his deformed spinal cord, The Blood Acid hawking floating Drifters (Death by spit, icky) and two more promised Zombie buddies for the future (One who buffs and one who creeps out of nowhere and sets him and things around him with FIRE, sweet sweet fire). The Living have a few tools to hold back these rather hungry corpses.
The Rustic Rifle, The Shotgun, The Mac-10, The Pistol and the Crowbar or Sledgehammer are the current Arsenal of doom for the game at the moment. Each does his own thing, and each one has its own weakness. For example, the Sledgehammer is slow as hell but it sends most Zombies flying with a single manly blow. The Pistol is the jack of all trades master of none weapon and the Shotgun is the ideal defensive weapon while the Mac-10 is the shredder of rotting flesh. You can sort of guess what the Rifle does. Most of the weapons have their own skins, minus Crowbar and Rifle but it IS beta and the Games Forums offer clientside weapon reskins in their custom section if you are that fussy. The gun weapons also chew up their ammo, which is a tendency when fighting a never ending army of undead minions so players are encouraged to conserve, GO FOR THE HEAD or risk trecking back to an ammo spawn point on the map where ammo slowly respawns. I have to say, taking out Zombies with melee weapons is indeed quite a manly thing to do if you can master the timing.
A group of Survivors, Doing what Survivors do.
The average server count for ZM servers is around 10-11 Survivors which is quite balanced, because on the bigger servers the ZM starts off with more resources and gets an arseload more when the more clumsy players meet their horrible ends. Being the ZM is slightly tricky at first, but the games forum has quite a few written and video guides worth looking up. Both the FPS and RTS experience in this game isn't bad at all when you get the hang of it. ZM also has a decent amount of players for a STEAM Mod (Some which sadly suffer from something I'll rant about in the future) and there will always be a nice amount of players online when you connect.
This toilet, a horrible horrible trap by the looks of it!
Now we get to the point where I have to say some mean stuff to keep this thing neutral. ZM is a great mod, and it IS Public Beta so what I have to say isn't bad and all the stuff will forever be cast in stone. Changes will happen in the next update. First complaint, the ever suffering cast of HL2's minor characters are dragged once more into the role of being a players avatars in the FPS world of the Source Engine. Yes, they have the haunted desperate look of survivors but it is sort of weird the fact they are all wearing matching Denim Jumpsuits or dirty Sweaters. Just because it is the apocalypse doesn't mean your guys can dress like members of the Janitors and Beggars Guild people! The Zombies also suffer from HL2 Skin-itus. The Shamblers are all reskinned Sweatshirt dudes who now look quite palid with horrible choice in clothes (Lime Green Shamblers argh) and the Zombies themselves are either HL2 Zombie skins or the corpse skins on the frames. The game also lacks more spooky gruesome sounds which is a must for the horror survival thing.
Another complaint is for the weapons. Now, I kind of understand the Mod wants to level the playing field out a little and not include Military Hardware like Submachine Guns, Assault Rifles or Missile Launchers. But weapons need more variety. In a FPS game, weapons NEED to be interesting because they are the main way you interact with the environment. The current amount of weapons are great, they just need a few tweaks and reskins. Adding a few more weapons would be indeed bitching indeed.
Some talent you have there, Lazlo....Still, Zombie Master is an awesome mod. Get it. It doesn't take up much room, and you will have to download a majority of maps before connecting but nothing can beat the experience or building a shoddy barricade out of the many crates and other jump on the map and holding a huge hoard back, being chased by leaping Banshees while carrying that needed can or fuel or luring some boob of a Survivor a poorly propped up bridge with a car underneath. My favourite maps that come to mind is Gasdump, With the Tornado trap and the rush to plant the C4 and Blue Velvet when you hold the Zombies off a player trying to take a door down with the wield torch with nothing but a Pistol and bloody Crowbar. ZM should update soon and give us two new weapons, (A Magnum Pistol and Molotov Cocktails) and the Pyro Zombie. See you on the servers!
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