Urban Dead is a free massively-multiplayer zombie apocalypse game. It opened to the public about two years ago, and over time has drawn many thousands of players to its streets. The game is turn-based and characters use 'action points' to do things. You get fifty of these a day, so if you want you can be done for the day inside ten minutes.In death, the city stirs. Its borders still locked down after a sudden government quarantine two years ago, Malton's trapped civilians make their way through the derelict buildings, surviving the changing seasons to rebuild their fragmented society from the rubble upwards. Military cleanup squads patrol the empty streets, stationed in the city for the long haul, while embedded scientific groups continue the experiments that brought them here.
And the dead rise up and thrive, trailing through the ruined streets of the city, milling between buildings and clawing through makeshift barricades and diversions, reclaiming the city as their own.
Urban Dead is a free-to-play browser-based multi-player game where you play the survivor or victim of a zombie outbreak in a quarantined city centre, alongside tens of thousands of others.
-------------------
You're a citizen of Malton, a city that's in the process of being evacuated and quarantined to contain a sinister contagion - you play as either a trapped civilian, a member of the evacuating military, a scientist operating in the background, or a victim of the early outbreaks.
Malton is a grid of 100x100 city blocks, each of which is either a nondescript street, or a particular type of building - you move around the map by clicking on the names of the blocks. Buildings can be entered and barricaded by survivors, to shelter from the zombie hordes that roam the city.
Other citizens of Malton appear on the map as names in coloured boxes (the colour matching their class; green for Military, blue for Science, red for
Civilian and grey for Zombie); they also appear in the location's description.
Some character classes start with equipment, and all characters can search to find further objects during the course of the game - some are weapons, some are one-use items, others have subtler or more permanent effects. All characters start with at least one Skill, which grants them an extra ability or bonus in the game - by gaining experience points, players can buy further skills and develop their characters.
Zombies, as you might expect, basically kill people. They have different sorts of attacks that wind up having different effects as you improve them by buying skills (such as the ability to infect humans with a bite). Then there are more subtle strategies, like the ability to groan in the presence of humans to call more zombies to the feast, and dragging screaming humans outside for your weaker brethren to finish off. Zombies can also ruin buildings, denying their use to humans until they can be repaired (St Jeremy's Hospital in the screen shot is visibly ruined).
I call more of the living dead to my side
To become a zombie, head to the signup page to create a character. Select the 'Corpse' class, enter a name and password and you will rise as a fiendish killer! (You can also play as a human, but zombies are much more fun. No, I'm not biased at all.)
Once you're up and shambling, take a look around. If you're lucky enough to spot a live human stuck outside, rush over and lay into them. They won't be alive for long. Otherwise, look for an open building; there may be snacks inside. As time passes, you will hear other zombies groaning when they find tasty fleshies. Head to the most recent of these for a good chance of some nosh. When you start to run out of action points for the day, you should go back outside so you're less likely to be killed by angry zombie hunters. In time, though, you will earn a skill that will allow you to laugh off their puny attacks.
But while it's enjoyable enough being a lone zombie, cooperating with others to take on bigger targets adds an entirely new element to the game. It is hugely satisfying to see strongholds emptied in a few hours and their complacent occupants joining the ranks of the undead, especially when you have had a hand in the carnage. It's also a lot easier to get your zombie up to speed and gain levels as a member of a group. To these ends I founded a zombie horde, The Meatheads. The link is to our forum, where we coordinate attacks and bicker. We have a guide to unlife as a zombie there, among other things, but I'm happy to answer any questions posed in this topic.
I hope to see you dead soon
Bookmarks