Infestation: Survivor Stories

Infestation: Survivor Stories, formerly The War Z, is a PC game that took the cake in the controversial STEAM Early Access debacle. Originally purported to be THE horror survival game, the poor moderation, anti-cheat implementation, promised features not being implemented, game breaking cash-grab micro transactions, toxic community and KOS (kill on sight) mentality quickly turned this promising game into a cautionary tale of early access gaming.

Starting out, to be objective, the game had all the right elements. It was stressful in a hauntingly, ‘is something following me?’ way. You had to find food and water to survive, and moderately safe shelter at night. Weapons and armor were sparse and worthwhile to hunt down.

Unfortunately after a depressingly short time, everything went downhill from there. Players who paid for the early access bundles found that they weren’t getting the features they were looking for, like private dedicated servers or strongholds or any in-game bonus cash/points they spent on gear was lost when they were killed and looted by other players. The anti-cheat system was practically nonexistent, and hackers repeatedly used exploits to the detriment to all, sniping other players from across the map and through terrain. The KOS (kill-on-sight) mentality of players makes the game nigh unplayable for new players as there is zero trust between other players and the fastest way to get resources is to just kill the newest players and take their gear. Throw in a severe controversy over the company stealing artwork from other games and accusations of ripping off players, being forced to change the name due to copyright issues resulting in the game being removed from STEAM for a time, only to be re-added months later without any major changes besides the name. All in all, Infestation: Survivor Stories had the potential to be THE game, but fell far short of the promised ideal and transformed into a free-for-all slaughterhouse with no attention to the horror/survival aspects the game was originally based on.