Infestation: Survivor Stories (formerly known as The War Z) was an open world zombie video game developed by Hammerpoint Interactive and published by OP Productions. Infestation: Survivor Stories features both first-person and third-person shooting perspectives. The game offers players the option of killing zombies or playing against other users (PvP).
Infestation: Survivor Stories was able to be purchased and played online without the need for an ongoing monthly subscription with free updates. Players could, however, purchase cosmetic and convenience items such as ammo, and other items that they would otherwise have to find in the game. Infestation: Survivor Stories had dedicated public servers accessible by all players in addition to player-purchased private servers. A "spiritual successor" to the game, Romero's Aftermath was released by Free Reign Entertainment on September 25, 2015.
The game was panned by critics, with many considering it one of the worst video games of all time. The game servers were taken offline on December 15, 2016.
Gameplay
Infestation: Survivor Stories was a zombie survival game where players endure the hardships of a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested world. By collaborating with other players, and finding weapons and items, players increase their chances of survival. The game incorporated survival elements like hunger and thirst, which gradually decrease over time. Supplies such as food and water could be found to battle hunger and thirst. If the player failed to properly quench their hunger and thirst, the player's character would eventually die. It was possible to buy food and drinks if the player had none or chose not to scavenge for the items in the world. Items carried by the deceased character were lost on death - whether purchased in-game or not - but could be found and retrieved by other players, continuing the cycle of life and death in the game.
Safe settlements or safe zones gave users an area where they were protected from combat and zombie attacks. There, players could access "Global Inventory" - an inventory shared between characters - and shop for items via the General Store.
Outside the safe zones, players could engage in player versus player combat and player versus environment combat with zombies. Killing other players granted the user reputation based on the victims standing and a chance to collect their dropped items, whereas killing zombies granted the user experience points for use in the game's skill tree.
Development
Infestation: Survivor Stories was developed originally under the name The War Z by OP Productions. The War Z began its open alpha on October 15, 2012 and was fully released on Steam December 17, 2012. Two days after the launch, the game was removed from Steam due to false advertising; several features listed in the store description were not available in the game. After rectifying the issue, The War Z was again made available for purchase on Steam on February 26, 2013. On April 4, 2013, the source code of The War Z became available, most probably as leaked code from a hacked server. On June 20, 2013, the game's name was changed to Infestation: Survivor Stories due to trademark problems.
Reception
Alpha reception
A reviewer for PC World stated that "overall, the game looks terrific" and had the "typical alpha bugs" of an alpha release, with the game holding promise. A reviewer for Joystiq praised the character personalization, saying there were more options than they expected and the gameplay would be easy for experienced gamers to understand. Another reviewer for Joystiq commented that one of the game's biggest dangers comes from other players, with the game currently not having any rules or policing regarding the PvP element and hacking.
Critical reception
On release, the game was universally panned by critics. Aggregate review website Metacritic assigned an overall score of 20 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 professional critics. GameSpy writer Craig Pearson stated that the game "displays astonishing design ineptitude and some of the worst kinds of microtransactions in gaming, all in one ugly package". Eurogamer's Rich Stanton gave it 3 out of 10, calling it "a real disaster" and criticized both the game's design and the developer's ethics. Stanton elaborated that the developers were "both dishonest and incompetent."
Despite the negativity, Infestation: Survivor Stories has sold 2.8 million copies since the game launched in November 2012.