HumanitZ Review — Better Dead Than Zed

The market for realistic, survival-heavy zombie titles has been surprisingly barren in recent years. Perhaps it is a market demand thing, but I have always been fascinated by the idea of a true apocalyptic simulation, where players are forced to scavenge for supplies and build shelters in the remains of a world forgotten. Those titles that do tackle this player fantasy are often popular, if aging, games created in the peak popularity of the zombie craze in television and movie media; DayZ, Seven Days to Die, and Project Zomboid immediately come to mind as titans of this genre, albeit ones that kind of show their age.

Enter HumanitZ, a title that has just left its two years in Early Access to create a solid, if imperfect, competitor in the hardcore zombie-survival genre.

The comparisons to Project Zomboid are immediate and hard not to make. HumanitZ features a similar isometric camera view, though it opts instead for full 3D rotation of the camera rather than having a fixed angle. The mechanics are also remarkably similar; I don’t think it is unfair to say that the game feels directly inspired by Project Zomboid, nor do I think it would be unfair to call the game a simplified, more beginner-friendly version of the title.

That isn’t to say that the game lacks depth, nor is it to say that the game is a direct port of Project Zomboid. There are, in fact, very clear ways in which HumanitZ stands out from its inspiration.

One obvious difference I noticed in my playthrough of HumanitZ was the inclusion of NPC characters scattered throughout the game’s map. These characters add small dialogue exchanges and trade options with the player, but you can still kill and loot them if you’re feeling more like a Negan than a Rick.

I also noticed that the game puts more of an emphasis on gathering using more traditional survival game mechanics, like chopping down trees, cutting up bushes for plant fiber, or picking up rocks. If you’ve played Project Zomboid, you know that this is clearly a much more streamlined and interactive system to get resources from nature than that game’s honestly infuriating-at-times scavenging system.

Another noticeable change is the comparatively simple or, to repeat myself, “streamlined” gameplay of HumanitZ. To go into every single way in which the gameplay in HumanitZ feels simpler and less tedious than in Project Zomboid would be a waste of your time and my word count, but suffice it to say the game overall feels like there are fewer hoops to jump through and fewer time-consuming mechanics in general. Overall, I would say that HumanitZ feels like a more beginner-friendly alternative to Project Zomboid, or an alternative if you want a less “grindy” experience.

The ability to build your own spawn location is one such example of how the game can be more forgiving and less time-demanding than other titles in the genre.

Despite this, I still feel as though the game plays kind of slowly. The drawn-out collection of resources necessary for your base is not helped by the game’s wide swathes of forest or the barren interior of houses. A lot of the game feels barren, lacking the feeling of a world once lived in, and you can walk pretty far without coming across meaningful changes in the map or lootable environments.

I also want to highlight the game’s combat system, with melee weapons feeling surprisingly fun to use, featuring solid hit feedback and fast, punchy combos that make you feel like you’re actually wielding a deadly weapon. That being said, I wish the interaction between zombie bodies and your weapons was more in-depth; a bat and a bladed cleaver will both explode a zombie’s head into giblets rather than having unique dismemberment effects or kills.

Despite leaving Early Access, the game still feels like it has its fair share of bugs and inconsistent features.

The bugs aren’t incredibly invasive; occasionally, a zombie will crawl through a window only to get stuck in a cabinet placed too close to its entry spot. Sometimes, items dropped by dismantling can’t be picked up with the F key and must be grabbed using the “nearby loot” function in the inventory. Also, when dismantling, decorative items on desks or cabinets that can’t be interacted with will remain when the surface is gone, creating ugly, floating objects in your game world that can’t be removed.

Weird logical inconsistencies were the most distracting problem in the game for me, such as the fact that you can deconstruct some furniture items but not others, or the fact that you will find second-story houses with no interior or exterior staircases. The way you can board up windows but not doorways, forcing you to clip an entire wooden wall through the doorway of a home you’ve converted into your hideout if you want to remove a room as a dangerous flank. You can have a hammer and an axe in your pockets, but only one can be on the hotbar at a time; additionally, you can sleep on a crafted bed but not one you find in an abandoned home, and while you can cut up T-shirts with scissors to create bandages, you can’t do it with a hunting knife.

Oh, and there’s no “transfer all” button on chests. This is by far my biggest pet peeve with the game.

Despite its problems and features that I would personally change, HumanitZ is far from what I’d call a bad game. I definitely think this title will have its dedicated audience and will even fill a niche for players of similar genre titles; I think some DayZ players will enjoy the added complexity, and Project Zomboid players looking for a less time-consuming experience will also find themselves enjoying HumanitZ.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam code for this PC review of HumanitZ. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! HumanitZ is available on Steam.