The Walking Dead meets Valheim in The Last Disease Z, a new open-world zombie survival game

An abandoned city. Deserted villages. A ruined military base sitting there like a monument to the last time anyone was in charge.

That’s the island in The Last Disease Z, and it looks peaceful only at first glance. Zombies roam the streets. Mutants hide in the forests. Armed bandits set up ambushes at the most valuable points of interest, because of course they do.

The new open-world zombie survival game landed on 21 August, and it’s asking you to bring friends.

One developer, one island, a lot of undead

The Last Disease Z comes from Bublig, and it’s a one-man project by a solo developer. That’s not a footnote. It’s the whole context for what the game is and where it currently sits, which is early access.

The pitch is a mash-up you can see coming from across the map: the hordes of undead that call back to The Walking Dead, welded onto the survival mechanics of the likes of Valheim. Explore abandoned cities with friends, scavenge for supplies, find a place to live, build your stronghold.

Then defend all of it.

The price is barely a price

It’s £5.99 on Steam. And if you don’t want to splash the cash even at that number, there’s a free demo to try out the chaotic multiplayer title for yourself, available for a limited time.

Which makes the barrier to entry roughly the cost of thinking about it too long.

Everything on the island is against you

The loop starts with the very basics. You fight, you build, and most importantly, you survive.

Gather resources. Craft tools. Build shelter. Defend it from other players and hostile raiders, and keep in mind the part these games always sneak up on you with: humans can be just as monstrous as the undead.

Every trip beyond your base is a test. Every item you find is a chance to survive a little longer.

You develop your character’s skills, explore the island, hunt and fight. Only the toughest will endure.

What you’re actually getting

A vast open world with plenty of points of interest. A sandbox experience with no limitations. Base building and progression, which is the part that keeps you logging back in after the novelty of shooting things in the head wears off.

It’s the newest addition to a genre that has never really gone quiet.

We keep coming back to the undead

The zombie genre has been a staple of fiction in every form it takes, for about as long as most of us can remember. Shaun of the Dead as a kid. Then many seasons of The Walking Dead to grow up alongside.

Humans are fascinated by the undead, and this release isn’t going to be the thing that breaks the streak.

What’s different here is scale. Not the map, the credits.

One person built the island where zombies roam the streets, mutants hide in the forests, and the bandits are waiting exactly where the good loot is. You can walk it right now for free.