Z. Year One
Z. Year One is a crowdfunded zombie card game brought to life by indie developer Downward Viral and 1,414 Kickstarter backers.
NEW UPDATES: Since release, fans have provided lots of great feedback, with one of the most requested features being a more thorough tutorial/training system for new players. This, along with many other tweaks, bug fixes, and improvements are constantly in the works. Please check the forums for more details!
IMPORTANT: Z. Year One utilizes a third party system called PlayFab to manage player accounts. Signing in enables various features in the game (such as gaining XP and unlocking new cards), allowing players to carry their progress between platforms, and to future-proof Z. in case we ever get to make a Year Two or add multiplayer, etc. We used PlayFab because as a two-man dev team, it helped us implement vital features we never would have been able to add otherwise.
TWO ASYMMETRICAL FACTIONS / TWO WAYS TO PLAY!
The zombie theme and horror atmosphere aren’t just skin deep–they’ve been meticulously integrated into the game experience to create a DCG like no other!
SURVIVORS
Search locations for supplies and use an assortment of unique items, armor, and weapons to survive one more night!
FALLEN
Sabotage locations, lay traps, convert Survivors into more Fallen, or just eat them alive!
THREE MODES
- Arcade: Four consecutive matches with random locations/objectives/enemies!
- Survival: Face unique Survival Challenges and see how long you can last!
- Supply Run: Customize your leader and risk everything for increasing loot! Supply Run is the best source of XP, Booster Packs, and rare Variants in the game!
MULTIPLE OBJECTIVE TYPES
Raze, Domination, Extermination, and Domination X Raze provide different takes on the familiar “duel”-style win conditions.
THEMATIC LOCATIONS
Z. is more than just throwing your best cards at the other player. What would a horror movie be without a properly eerie setting? In the middle of every match is one of several unique and interactive location decks.
- Survivors can find themed weapons and items exclusive to each Location
- Unique Discoveries and Events await
- Events provide optional objectives the Survivors can complete for special rewards
- Rescue Location-specific Survivors or encounter unique Fallen
- The last card of every Location Deck is a powerful Climax card that can turn the battle
- Each location is also represented by a fully 3D background
UNIQUE APPROACH TO THE GENRE
Z. was designed not only as an homage to games like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and a plethora of other tabletop and video games, but it was also designed to do away with some of the obsolete or less enjoyable aspects within the genre.
- Direct control over resources — no mana starving or flooding
- Limited low-cost Location Units ensure always being able to play a unit during the early game
- Traps and Instants are automatic, so the game doesn’t stop every three seconds to ask if you want to play one
- Location Decks make games dynamic and unpredictable — there’s always a chance of a comeback!
HARDCORE DIFFICULTY
When you reach level 20 you’ll unlock Hardcore Difficulty, which offers far more challenging versions of Arcade, Survival, and Supply Run for experienced players, but also doubles any XP gained from winning matches!
BOOSTER PACKS & VARIANTS
Booster Packs work a little differently in Z. than other games:
- You can’t buy them, but instead earn one free Booster Pack each time you level up
- Leveling up always requires 1000 XP (roughly two Standard wins, or one Hardcore win)
- Booster Packs contain five Variants of either Rare, Prime, or Elite rarity
- Variants are more powerful versions of Core cards
- Variants are only usable on Hardcore Difficulty
- Variants are consumed upon use, forcing you to think carefully about how you build your decks and which cards you’re willing to sacrifice to complete your current goal
Since Z. is a single-player game that takes a bit of inspiration from rogue-likes, the Hardcore/Variant system allows players access to extremely powerful cards: units gain better stats and new abilities; Traps and Actions cost less to play or become more devastating; and Heroes and Horrors can be played much earlier than in Standard, completing changing the flow of the game!
There’s much more to discover in Z. Year One so if any of this sounds exciting take a look and we hope to hear from you in the forums!
IMPORTANT: Z. Year One is a standalone product — the entire game is included already, with no additional purchases or microtransactions required. There are currently no plans for DLC or expansion sets, etc. It’s more like Duels of the Planeswalker and less like Hearthstone in this way, as the development team consists primarily of one full-timer and one part-timer.
IMPORTANT x2: Being a tabletop card game in digital form means you’ll have to read often to know what things do in Z. If you don’t want to do that, you’re going to have a bad time! Press TAB in-game at any time to pull up the How to Play screen! (A more involved tutorial is currently being worked on to help out new players. Stay tuned!)
Game Discussion
Steam User 15
Short version:
Besides the initial (at times very frustrating) hour or so, I have found this game extremely fun to play. It's a decent challenge, looks incredible and the developers are very responsive and diligent at tackling bugs. It is a gem of a game that has production values and mechanics on par with the elite digital card games out there, but which will cost you a fraction of the price to remain forever competitive.
Pros:
- Looks great!
- Unique location mechanics, card abilities and strategies versus other digital card games.
- Very responsive, helpful developers.
- Very stable playing as the Survivor faction (the faction that I have played to date).
- One-time purchase - no spending additional money on decks and booster packs.
- Good sense of progress.
- Fun!
Cons:
- Initial steep learning curve.
- The default Survivor decks can kind of suck.
- No save function when doing a 5 mission Supply Run (not a deal breaker for me)
- Possibly some nasty bugs remain for the Fallen faction (which I don’t play so I can’t confirm 100%)
- No multiplayer (if that is deal breaker for you).
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Long version:
Before I start I want to make clear that my 19 hours of play to date have all been as the Survivors faction (I want to kill zombies, not be them). As such I have not encountered the frustration or confusion that I have seen a couple of people assign to the Fallen (zombie) faction. This review is based solely on playing as Survivors. For transparency, I was also a Kickstarter backer back in 2012 which is why I did not purchase my key from Steam. I do not know the developers at all except for what I have read in Kickstarter updates.
I don’t write reviews. I don’t submit bugs to developers. I don’t actively engage in discussions on Steam. Like many, I am busy and have a family. I play games to have fun and be challenged. If a game isn’t quickly fun to me I’ll usually move on to something else, maybe coming back to try the game one more time after a few patches. So what is it about Z Year One that has me altering all of the above behaviours, including writing this review? It is because I think this is a gem of a game, with extremely passionate, helpful developers, which might easily get lost amongst the tide of low quality games, skins and DLC that flood Steam’s new releases feed every day. I enjoy this game so much that I want it to succeed so that the developers can one day expand the game even further.
Pros:
- The game looks great - the production quality of the photos on the cards is superb, the design of the different locations are solid and varied, and the leader select videos in Supply Run mode are awesome (unlike anything I have ever seen in a game).
- Diifers from othe DCGs - I love the themed location decks that differ per location. Each location doesn’t just apply a different, cosmetic skin and a global variable to the playing area. Instead each location has it’s own themed deck of people you can save (or try to avoid...), and places and equipment you can discover. Things such as stealth, scavenging, protectors, equipment, rooftops, and barricades all bring diverse, and often unique, elements to Z.
- Very responsive developers - Despite being a two person team, the developers are very active in the forum, helpful and open to feedback.
- Very stable - the game has never crashed for me and I have never encountered a game ending bug. I did encounter a number of card specific bugs at launch but after 3 quick patches I have now played 10 games in a row with zero issues encountered.
- One-time purchase - once you buy the game you receive all content. You won’t spend another cent on buying decks or booster packs. Some cards are initially locked but as you earn XP you permanently unlock these additional cards. You also earn booster packs through play which give you improved versions of the core cards that can be used for playing in Hardcore mode.
- A sense of progress - I’m constantly improving and thinking of better ways to tackle different locations or Fallen. You can’t ride a single deck to steamroll through every location and Supply Run game. Things that initially frustrated the heck out of me became manageable when I equipped the right equipment or combination of cards.
Cons:
- Z has a steep learning curve - You don’t start out playing easy to win tutorial games that teach you the mechanics. You can access a written rules overview at any time by hitting the TAB key, and the developers have created some video tutorials outside of the game, but the game differs enough from other DCGs that I didn’t fully understand many of the rules until I played quite a few games. If you persevere you will learn all of the rules and understand all of the individual card abilities. If you are someone who prefers games where you can get stuck in and start winning (or even have close, competitive games) early on, then Z might be a bit of a shock.
- The default Survivor decks kind of suck - The intent of each deck is to individually highlight three different aspects of playing the Survivors, namely Attack, Stealth and Defence. In my opinion the Firepower (Attack) deck lacks some key things that help you survive the early zombie onslaught. The Scavengers (Stealth) deck has good early survivability but a distinct lack of powerhouse units or weapons to handle the later part of a game. To be fair the Last Stand (Defence) deck is OK, it just isn’t my preferred play style. Using the default decks I lost almost all the time and I found it very frustrating. I nearly gave up on Z completely during that first hour or so because each game wasn’t even slightly competitive. Once I created my own deck blending a balance of early game stealth, defense, and scavenging, and later game offense, then I started to win more than I lost which increased the fun of the game and helped me better learn its rules and nuances. I think it might be a good idea if the developers created a fourth, balanced starter deck and put it at the front of the deck selection queue.
- No Save function when doing a Supply Run - Supply Run is a series of 5 games in a row where the win conditions change and the Fallen get cumulatively stronger each game. Supply Run games also fetch you the best rewards. After each game you can alter your deck if you so desire. In an ideal world I would be able to save between each game so I wouldn’t have to complete a five game run in a single gaming session, but this is something the developers don’t currently have the time and resources to implement. So instead, whenever I play a Supply Run game, I treat it like a tournament from other DCGs and ensure I first have enough time to get to the end of the run. To be fair, completing a Supply Run game in full is much shorter than playing a full tournament in many other DCGs, so this lack of save functionality more a nice-to-have than a great need.
- Possibly still some bugs left - Playing as the Survivors, I have not yet encountered any bugs since patch 1.3. To be transparent I have seen a couple of people say that there are still some bugs when playing as the Fallen but I cannot verify or dispute these. All I can say is that, to date, the developers have been very committed to tackling all bugs, so if there are bugs left I expect that they won’t be around for much longer.
Z isn’t perfect yet, but besides the initial, frustrating hour or so, I have found this game extremely fun to play. It's a decent challenge, looks incredible and the developers are very responsive and diligent at tackling bugs. It is a gem of a game that has production values and mechanics on par with the elite digital card games out there, but which will cost you a fraction of the price to remain forever competitive.
Steam User 17
The graphics on the cards are good, the sounds (ambient and action) help add depth to the game. While it is still in very early developement, I have a lot of faith that the developer will release a fantastic product in the end.
The game play is easy to learn at first. The different locations make for some cool differences. It will be nice when the location decks are actually different. The different types of premade decks give vastly different play options, altough I look forward to more variety in cards/actions/etc.
Overall it's a nice start for the first day of early access.
Give it a try and form your own opinion, don't trust me:D
Steam User 10
As limited as it is at this point in early access, I have to say I've thoroughly enjoyed this game so far. The card graphics are on point and the sound effects and animations are better than some other combat-type card games i've played recently. Although, admittedly, those were free-to-play flash games on mobile or on a Kongregate-like site. I'm sure once the game is finished and fully released it'll be about as good as I expect it to be. Meaning, worth about 20 bucks upon release and about half that once sale hits.
Steam User 10
Great card game, lots of promise for the future. Good concept, good photo artwork, fun to play even when you lose. Still a bit of work to do, could benefit from a lot more locations and location specific event cards but looking forward to seeing how it turns out when it's finished.
Will kill Zombies and get disapproving looks from partner for having an all female deck again.....
(Addition) After a few more updates since first posting this review you can tell how committed the team are to producing a decent game. Hats off to them for all the hard work. The decision to put a pricetag on the game and giving booster packs to unlock cards through gameplay is a much better idea than a f2p version, the game is worth it.
The learning curve can seem tricky at first but after a few games it all falls into place, just remember the items in your inventory that you can spend resources on and equip them to your survivors (yes...I missed that in my first couple of games... textbook error on my part).
Steam User 12
I have to say that I do enjoy this game but there are times where you want to punch the screen.
The game is meant to be difficult but winnable. Now i've lost loads of games and well it's not fun when that happens, but when you get that game where you win you get such a good feeling. The dev aimed it at being hard on the survivors to win so don't expect it to be easy, the zombies do get it easier but can fall short when the survivors get going.
There are many types of modes domination (where you own the field with more units), Raze (where you have to destroy the base) and survival. I've only really played Domination as i've had most success with that.
Once you level up your survivor and zombie collections you get extra cards and booster packs, i'm not sure how these booster packs come into affect yet tho. I love the card photos, each card has multiple variations so you can pic which one you want in your own custom deck.
All in all this game is good it just takes time for you to get into the groove of it and wait for the right match to come along.
Steam User 11
I am finding this game a little on the difficult side at the time of writing as it's a recent purchase and I'm fairly new to this type oif card-based, I guess, strategy game. There is a bit of a learning curve as to be expected but it somehow doesn't stop this from being a really fun game to play.
For an early access game it actually looks better than some full price games I've seen released recently, the card and background look really high quality, and the sound effects, and music are really great setting a slightly intimidating background to all the horrible ways your survivors can meet their maker should your planning go wrong.
The developers (Downward Spiral) seem to be very active on the community forums and are very helpful with their advice on the little nuances of the gameplay or making sure anyone that may experience a problem (it is after all early access though there seems to be few real problems from what I've read) have it resolved, and you get the sense they genuinelly care about the game and doing their best.
Overall I would certainly recomend this for anyone that is a fan of card based games, or even horror games, looking forward to future updates as the game develops further and it certainly has the potential to be one of the best Early Access games of the year.
Steam User 9
I Fricken LOVE this game. I've been watching the developer streams for some time, and following the project for longer.
I quite like the ambience and the sound effects. It makes it a little bit more 'real', as it were.
I got a chance to really sit down and play when I was at GenCon 2016.
It took me just a bit to pick it up and understand it, but it is honestly very clear once you get going.
You are in for a big challenge if you play as a survivor -- even if you are almost certain to lose, the game can turn around! :)
No single game play is like another, even in these early stages of Dev.
I'm looking forward to see how this keeps evolving.
I could not recommend this game more.