Surroundead: A Surprisingly Addictive Survival Shooter With a Few Rough Edges
Surroundead is one of those games I started playing without expecting much and somehow ended up spending far more time on than I planned. It has a simple formula : explore, loot, shoot zombies, get better gear, repeat, but there's something genuinely addictive about it.
Gunplay & Loot — Simple, But Surprisingly Fun
The gunplay isn't going to reinvent the genre, but it works. There's a satisfying amount of weapon variety, attachments, different calibers and rare gear to chase. Finding a new weapon that is slightly better than what you're currently using can actually feel rewarding, especially when you're still progressing through the world.
The loot system is probably what kept me playing the most. Military areas, infected zones, airdrops, special containers and higher-tier crates give you plenty of reasons to explore. The RNG can also be hilarious. You can spend hours looking for one specific upgrade and somehow end up finding your fourth katana instead.
Exploration — Great Until You've Seen Everything
The map has a good variety of locations and exploring new areas is genuinely enjoyable early on. Military facilities, labs, towns and infected areas all give you different reasons to go there.
The problem is that once you've explored most of the important locations, the world starts feeling much less interesting. A lot of the excitement comes from wondering what you'll find next, and that naturally disappears once you've seen most of it.
Progression — The Biggest Weakness
This is where I think Surroundead struggles the most.
The progression feels great at first. Every new weapon, backpack, attachment or piece of equipment matters. But eventually you reach a point where your character is already extremely well equipped, and a large portion of the loot stops being meaningful.
You start opening containers hoping for something exciting and instead thinking, "I already have three of these."
The vendors help with this to some extent, especially with rarer items, but the endgame still lacks a strong reason to keep pushing once you've reached the top of the gear progression.
Survival & QoL — A Few Things Are Missing
The survival mechanics are fairly lightweight, which I personally don't mind, but there are a lot of small quality-of-life improvements that would make the game much smoother.
Some interactions are unnecessarily tedious, inventory management can become annoying, and certain systems aren't explained particularly well. The game often expects you to figure things out yourself, which can be fun, but sometimes just feels confusing.
Final Thoughts
Surroundead is far from perfect, but the core gameplay loop is genuinely fun. Exploring an infected area, finding a rare weapon and gradually building your character is exactly the kind of progression that kept me coming back.
It mostly needs more depth and a stronger endgame rather than a complete overhaul. There's a really good survival shooter here, and with more content, better progression and some QoL improvements, it could become something genuinely special.
There's a genuinely great survival shooter here. It just needs more content, a stronger endgame and a bit more polish to reach its full potential. The upcoming multiplayer could also add a whole new dimension to the game if it's implemented well.
