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Zeverland, the upcoming open-world zombie sim for PC, plays a lot <\/em>like DayZ, but the team at Quantum Quirks has announced a major shift in the game’s design following a closed alpha test. According to the studio, players wanted the PvPvE game to be an entirely cooperative PvE experience instead, so much so that the team is meeting the community’s requests and turning Zeverland into exactly that. “You talked. We listened,” the studio said on the Zeverland Steam page.<\/p>\n “We’ve decided to shift Zeverland from a pure [massive multiplayer online game] into a [buy-to-play], survival-crafting, co-op PvE game […] After hearing from our community, we’ve confirmed: Zeverland is doubling down on cooperative PvE. Survive together. Build together. Explore together–not harm each other.”<\/p>\n While such a change will fundamentally reshape the game’s gameplay, Quantum Quirks isn’t changing what most people call out when they first see Zeverland in action. The game’s chibi-like art style is very eye-catching for a zombie survival sim, and it’s not going anywhere. I’ve not seen a zombie game that looks like this before, though when I participated in the playtest recently, I came around to it quickly. While much of the game feels reminiscent of the games it’s borrowing from, its standout aesthetic is a nice touch.<\/p>\n More than that, what I enjoyed most about my time with Zeverland is how much more forgiving it felt. As much as I love it, I’ve never quite gotten good at DayZ. I’ve never joined a particular server and really built on my progression for many hours at a time. I’ve always jumped into one that’s open, messed about for some time, and probably eventually died from blood loss, starvation, or a player who wanted to loot my pockets. <\/p>\n