Reviewed on PC

Another entry into the already crowded zombie-survival genre, HumanitZ distinguishes itself with a grounded tone, a large, open world, and a focus on co-operative survival. Developed by Yodubzz Studios, the game blends top-down exploration with survival mechanics not dissimilar to Project Zomboid.

A Bleak But Engaging Premise

Dropping players into a post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead, HumanitZ offers a brief tutorial that lays out the basics without hand-holding and allows you to feel the immediate pressure to scavenge, survive, and avoid being killed.

The tone leans heavily into the realism of survival with scarce resources, constant danger, and making basic tasks feel more meaningful for survival. The game’s top-down perspective gives it a tactical feel, encouraging careful, precise movements that require planning rather than a run-and-gun approach.

Survival First

At its core, HumanitZ is about managing needs and making smart decisions. You must manage these needs as you navigate the destroyed landscape. The exploration thrives on uncertainty, and it may be that farming has to come before looting and scavenging. You have to balance what will keep you alive from exposure with what will protect you against the roaming hordes.

Environmental factors play a huge part in making HumanitZ unique. Each area of the open world feels distinct, and it plays a real part in your zombie apocalypse story. You could risk starvation and exposure in some parts of the map, but find equally dangerous ‘zeeks’ in others.

Combat Second

Combat is risky, and zombies can overwhelm quickly because not all of them are slowpokes. Guns might seem like a good go-to weapon, but they’re loud and can attract unwanted attention, and while melee should be a good alternative, it can sometimes feel a bit stiff.

The combat element in HumanitZ can be frustrating at times, as it doesn’t always feel well-balanced enough, and the interactions during fights often feel less than realistic. However, the world’s threatening nature ultimately shines through.

It’s good to have a decision on how combat-heavy you’d like your playthrough to be. For some, the scavenging aspect is more interesting than facing hordes of enemies, and HumanitZ really delivers for players of all types.

Multiplayer Doesn’t Have To Be Co-Operative

While HumanitZ is completely playable solo, it thrives in multiplayer. Surviving alongside friends or fighting in PvP transforms the experience from tense isolation to strategic teamwork or high-stake battling.

Even in solo mode, you can decide to go in with an ‘all for me’ attitude, but it’s a lot harder to compete against actual people who have the same strategic thinking as you.

Multiplayer is a plus for groups who enjoy entering post-apocalyptic landscapes to build or destroy at will. While playing together adds a lot to the game, it does suffer from occasional connection issues and minor bugs. While this isn’t unusual, this early on in a game’s release, it’s still noticeable and will eventually cause frustrations.

World Design and Atmosphere

The map is impressively large and varied. You can explore towns and the wilderness with locations that help sell the feeling of a collapsed society. The environmental storytelling is subtle but effective, with abandoned camps and wrecked vehicles scattered around the crumbled world.

The top-down camera gameplay works well for situational awareness, and while it can sometimes make indoor navigation feel slightly awkward, it keeps your focus on the surroundings and tactical movements. Often feels slightly more MMO than other zombie survival games.

Visually, HumanitZ gives functional, not flashy vibes. The characters and environment are quite basic in nature, rather than what you’d call stunning. However, this art direction supports the bleak tone of survival extremely well.

When it comes to atmosphere, the game really shines with its ambient audio. Groans, wind, and footsteps build the tension around you and do the heavy lifting in creating that nerve-wracking sense of danger.

That Early Access Feel

Despite the numerous strengths, HumanitZ isn’t without its issues. Some animations and interactions can feel stiff and lacklustre, and occasionally lack polish. The inventory screen could benefit from being less muddled and possibly streamlined to create a more quick-paced system.

Zombie behavior is another mixed experience: some feel threatening (especially in groups), while others find themselves getting caught out by doors, stairs, or terrain. It lowers the fear when you can safely knock them on the head from the top of a very low car.

NPC interactions are very limited but have real room to grow; however, they currently make the world feel pretty empty beyond the large zombie population. I’d like more variation on the type of NPCs you can come across, who have a more fleshed-out type of dialogue.

Long-Term Appeal

The open-ended survival loop, alone or with friends, is the hook of HumanitZ. Self-set goals, base building, supply runs, and surviving the harsh post-apocalyptic landscape are the motivations, and they can keep you going for as long as you want them to.

This promising, gritty survival game prioritizes tension and teamwork over flash, and while some players could be put off by the art style’s simplicity, it’s worth sinking a few hours into the gameplay to see what the payoff is. If you enjoy methodical scavenging, top-down combat, and surviving by the skin of your teeth, you won’t notice the lack of flash.

While HumantiZ shows the general clear signs of early access roughness in certain areas, the foundation is strong. A large explorable world with meaningful survival mechanics and engaging co-op gameplay.

With different difficulty settings and a choice between scenarios or pure survival, the replay value should be endless if the developers continue to update regularly.