Zombie Panic!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zombie Panic! and its upcoming 2007 sequel Zombie Panic: Source is a multiplayer game and modification for Half-Life in which the human team must fend for themselves against a horde of zombies. It is currently available to all owners of Half-Life, and can be downloaded free of charge. The mod has a creepy feeling to it and is designed to imbue the player with a sense of desperation. Overall, fun and playability take preference over realism and horror.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
Zombie Panic! must be played with two or more players. When the game starts one player is chosen to join the undead team as the first zombie. This is done by allowing the players to volunteer for the undead team. Should more than one player volunteer, a random volunteer is chosen. Likewise, should no players volunteer, a random player is chosen. All other players are placed into the survivors team. After the players have been placed in the appropriate teams, the round starts. The goal of the survivors is to find the various weapons, and use them to defend against the undead team. The goal of the undead team is to kill the survivors. When a survivor dies, the player is then moved onto the undead team. There are two different map types that have an effect on gameplay: survival and objective.
[edit] Survival Maps
In survival maps, the survivors can win only by outlasting the undead team until there are no undead players remaining. This can be difficult, as the undead team shares a pool of reinforcements, which behave similar to extra lives. The undead team can win only when the last survivor has been killed. This type of map typically begins with the prefix ‘zp_’.
[edit] Objective Maps
In objective maps, the same rules apply as in survival maps, except there is an additional way for the survivors to win the round. There will be some type of goal for the survivors to complete, such as turning on a power generator or unlocking a door. When this goal is completed, the survivor team wins, regardless of whether there are undead players remaining. This type of map typically begins with the prefix ‘zpo_’.
[edit] Teams
Survivors have several advantages over the zombies:
- Speed - The zombies only move at 80% of the speed of a survivor, so all other things being equal, a survivor can outrun a zombie in a straight line. However, the more weaponry and ammo a survivor picks up, they slower that player will move. This tends to discourage players from hoarding ammo.
- Firearms - The survivors have a great advantage in the form of ranged weapons, and in a long hallway, with plenty of distance between them, survivors should have no trouble defeating a zombie before getting in range of the zombie's claws.
- Numbers - At the beginning of the round, the survivors greatly outnumber the undead. This means that survivors can easily watch each other's backs and provide cover fire. However, once the ammo starts to run out, survivors have to squabble amongst themselves for the few precious magazines of ammo available.
Undead also have some advantages:
- Persistence – The undead may seem to die often, but they won't give up. They just keep respawning over and over until the undead either run out of reinforcements or win the round.
- Numbers - Later on in the game, as the undead ranks swell with the freshly dead, the last few humans will find their superior weaponry small compensation for the hordes of zombies that close in.
- Health - Zombies start with twice the amount of health as a survivor, and they also slowly regenerate health.
[edit] Criticisms
Zombie Panic!'s gameplay of armed survivors against unarmed undead often causes the balance issues in games. Since the undead team only starts with one member, some maps allow the survivors to reach a small place that is hard to breach for the undead (e.g. a tower or a room with only one entrance) too quick for the zombie to gain any kills, causing the survivors to easily win with all the firearms. In smaller games, the survivors can grab more weapons, making it nearly impossible for the undead to reach. Because of limited weapons in each map, some players take most of the weapons leaving the rest of the team with almost no ammo or weapons. However, a weight factor is included which slows down the movement of survivors with an abundance of weaponry. This slow down makes it easy for the undead team to chase down this player.
[edit] Zombie Panic: Source
 |
This article or section contains information about an unreleased video game. It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as more information becomes available. |
The Zombie Panic! team is currently developing a sequel, Zombie Panic: Source, which will utilize the source engine and have the same gameplay as the original game. Zombie Panic: Source is currently in internal alpha testing with no release date set, although a member of the development team has stated it will be sometime in 2006.[1]
[edit] Delayed to 2007
The Zombie Panic! team has announced in Christmas 2006 that Zombie Panic: Source will be pushed to 2007.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Discussion of Zombie Panic: Source Release Date. Zombie Panic. Retrieved on 19 September, 2006.
- ^ Happy Holidays!. Zombie Panic. Retrieved on 27 December, 2006.
