Zombie Cure Lab

First impressions are very positiv like i expected. I really love the details and the artstile as i already saw them on youtube and the developer streams. I really do recommend the game. Im gonna cure the world now, bye

I'm really hyped about the game since i saw a lot of videos before the release and today it is finally here! :) It has some nice new strategic aspects and is for sure not that easy! Graphics and animations are pretty cute and contribute to an enjoyable overall impression and gameplay. Considering that the game is still in an early state and will get enhanced over time thumbs up from my side!

Followed some streams and realy liked the concept and the cute artstyle of the game. I was not disappointed after the first minutes of playing myself. Game feels good, especialy for an early access title and makes fun.

A fresh take on the genre and very well executed.
-
The theme is very intriguing and offers the perfect stage for a base-building game. There is always a goal to work towards (curing the Zombies) and always dangers to look out for (Zombies punching your stuff) which creates a thrilling yet relaxing game flow.
The game is already in a quite polished state and has some great and enjoyable content for a good amount of hours to show for. It just plays very nicely.
I am super hooked and will watch the upcoming progress with great interest.

okay, normally not the review guy but there was something with this game:
I just found out that Zombie Cure Labs can delegate some of your computer hardware power to the research of a real existing scientific project in Germany. That feature is called "Citizen Science" in-game and installs a kind of crowd computing app with an automatic connection to that real project. That is for me an entirely new level of how to combine your selfish gaming mood with a real benefit for society. Big kudos for this idea!!

The game itself offers a very robust and entertaining fundament for an Early Access release. I can clearly feel where the dev team is going to. There is a new premise - Curing and modifying zombies instead of killing them - combined with the typicial base management gameplay with some very cute and consistent graphics on top. Well done!

It has the charm of the old Bullfrog Sim builders, with the added complexity of modern titles.

For an early access title it has enough polish and content to keep you entertained for many hours.

The first few hours will be spent getting a handle on the game mechanics (at least for me as someone who does not play a lot of games like this). Some of the mechanics and UI are not so intuitive, but will not leave you scratching your head for too long, plus the guys on the Discord server are always available to help.

There are a number of bugs but none which will ruin your immersion or fun, a simple game reload will fix most of them.

Considering the amount of content currently available, and with a nice roadmap, I would say it is worth the price!

Got the prerelease version of this when it was up during Steam Next - at first I wasn't sure what to expect from this because the quirky graphics and the unusual premise, but it's a banger of a strategy game. The unusual mix of mechanics (clever worker management where some of the workers are ticking time bombs, production lines, survival, tower defence) makes this a very unique game and even the pre-release had me hooked. It's hard to say what to compare this to... a bit of Two Point Hospital but with a Fallout vibe and a bit of the Sims or Civ in the mix. Now it's more polished, with music to add atmosphere, a better tutorial and different maps, and I can't wait to play more.

Now, this is the sort of game I can really get into. Instead of kill, kill, kill... we get to save!! We get to cure the zombies... Finally, we have a game with all the strategy of a violent tower defense game but without so much violence! And we get to keep the zombies we save... if we want to. I bought this game at around noon yesterday. The install was quick!! I played for what seemed like a few minutes... but when I looked up the next thing I knew it was already 9 pm. You know what they say about time when you're having FUN!!

Great game, still a little polishing to be done but fun.
I only noticed a reduced play-ability after 3 hours, with frame rate dropping.
I would question raw meat production capabilities also, i had 6 going full time and couldn't maintain a population of around 20 Zombie level 1s
I will be playing much much more - Great work Devs!

2 hours in and i can say i enjoy the game. So far i am having fun learning the game mechanics and turning zombies into human hybrids! I find it a chill and relaxing game so far. Can not comment on the progression yet but i will update in the future.

Now this is a fresh new take on several genres! Zombies but you don't kill them, survival/builder sim where you turn your enemies into new workers. I really recommend you zoom in now and then, because the closest zoom reveals how detailed and fun the stuff you build looks, kudos to the studio. The citizen science/real cancer research thing you can use the game for is a nice gimmick (although it could be easier to set up), makes me feel good about playing! Now, back to sandbox mode...

Zombie cure lab has a unique take on the traditional city builder survival. Instead of killing the zombies you have to freeze them and start turning them back into humans. I love that! It has traditional resource management, but for an early access game the research tier is quite deep and there is lots to juggle. Instead of getting more workers (scientist), you can use your newly treated zombies, called humbies, to do certain jobs. These will free up scientists to jobs that they only can do like researching. I am excited to see what they expand upon in the future. This is a promising start!

Games is surprisingly well thought out and deeper than I imagined. It has a lot of smart game mechanics that makes you think about your base design. Kept me more involved than I thought it would. Only thing I would want to improve is the characters cartoon sytle and animation quality.

The game starts out well, but then the resource management becomes cumbersome. I ended up focusing on micromanaging humans, humbies, and job assignments to such an extreme level that the game lost its fun factor for me.

36 hours in and have enjoyed the spin this game offers on the zombie wave base building game. Its obviously in early development yet still very addicting. I will enjoy trying out all of the improvements the game gets as they come. This is my goto game when not playing valorant.

It's not super intuitive, but definitely easier to figure out than some games I've played. Really cute and funny, and I love the idea that you work to save/cure the zombies rather than killing them all like most zombie games. There's some glitches, but since it's so early in its early access phase, I don't mind at all. I can't wait to see where they go with it!

I hadn't even heard of this game till it got recommended to me a day ago, but I'm very pleased with my purchase. Even as a two day old early access release there's a lot of content to the game. I haven't seen a bug although there are some optimization issues. The gameplay is fun and rewarding and mostly straightforward. I have had some questions about this and that in the game but the folks over on the game's Discord channel have been exceeding patient and helpful. Hopefully the devs will continue with their excellent work on the game, it is a very interesting premise and the implementation has been very good so far.

Really fun game.
Basically your basic base builder except you're trying to cure the zombies and incorporating them into your base instead of keeping them out.
Things I enjoyed
* graphics are really cute.
* Priority based building happens relatively fluently, it feels like my prioritizations make impact and get followed up on.
* Zombie waves are challenging but, definitely not impossible.
* Research tree is well thought out.
* Contributing to research by running Docking hero and connecting that to game unlocks is a great cause.
* citizen management is a bit dissapointing, not amazing but not bad.
* Great time sink.
* Great fun to see your base expand.
* Learning from your mistakes is harsh but, the reason why you lost is almost always clearly apparent.
* Ability to rotate all furniture/buildings.
* Multiple difficulty settings represented in a fun overview.
* Some fresh feeling mechanics.

Things that were annoying me at points during gameplay (note that these fall far short compared to how much fun I'm still having in the game):
* Sometimes workers drop whatever they're doing while on the job, this is because of satisfaction settings. It should however be implemented that they first finish their last assignment before they see to their needs. I've already had a few zombie outbreaks because a worker decided his hunger was more important than repairing the gate seperating them and certain death.

* Workers don't think at all about danger except for mindlessly running as soon as they're faced with zombies. This results in a few issues; Workers will work outside of gates into hordes of zombies because the inside of the gate is "safe" but, when they walk out they find out that's not safe and try to run back but, they often get turned before they are able to. Workers will drop even defenses when a zombie gets close to their general area.

* Defender units will occasionally prioritize zombie units outside the base over zombie units inside the base (machines do not have this issue).

* Machines in rooms need to fall within the electricity areas too, instead of just needing the building to be in range which then powers all devices inside. (this is extra annoying because you cannot place electricity > then build the room, as this will block you for not having an intact floor. you can however cheese it by placing the electricity pole after the floor but, then it often gives spacing conflicts, making areas that are clearly accessible to be marked inaccesible.)

* You can do everything in bulk, except for upgrade. This is especially annoying for walls where you have to click > click upgrade on each individual piece.

* Building can be a pain. You can have all standingspaces free and accessible yet it still marks it as inacessible. The zombie conversion machines are an especial pain among them.

* Had some issues with a door that I moved which then left a gap in the wall rendering the room unuseable. Normally this automatically gets patched by the system but, for some reason not in this case.

* Occasionally Zombies get stuck in between zombies that were turned to ice or in between environment. Would be good to have them freeze by themselves at some point so that they dont get stuck as long.

* There are no paths to be made in this game. Would be nice to have them.

* Got a bit taxing on my system at times. (many other things running simultaneously, so not too fair to compare. But, under the same conditions games like fortnite:BR, PUBG, Civ 6, going medieval ran perfectly fine under the same conditions.)

While there are some interesting mechanics, the game is just not ready yet. The optimizations are non existent when you start to finally get a decent base going. FPS dropped from 140+ steady at the begining of a map, to eventually 1-10 fps around day 40, to the point around day 85 I can no longer load my save without the game locking up.

This game is really very fun and playable in its current state (there are some rough edges to the UI but things are mostly there so look on the forums if you can't figure out how to do something). If I had to describe it in one phrase it would be "Factorio Meets Farm For Your Life".

Pros:
* It's pretty creative. I play a lot of games and I haven't played anything quite like this.
* It has a pretty deep production chain (chemicals->fertilizer->berries->cure->humboids) and I am only just getting to the second level.
* The premise is pretty unique. Frankly I'm tired of killing zombies. Saving them individually (and making me care about that for each individual) is much more interesting to me.
* It has (optional) citizen science connections so you can help out real scientists if you want.
* Active devs in the forums who care about the game's success.

Cons:
* It's early and the UI has rough edges. The tutorial is decent, but I had to lean on the forums a bit.
* While it's very playable, the list of features in their roadmap is even more exciting but not there yet.
* There are some balance issues. You can work around them, but could use some tweaking.

i really like this game, but i dont really understand some things, including how the zombies work when attacking and whether you can create a maze for them because they attack gates first(sometimes). Also not sure about the Colony Lockdown, i didnt think that was used for night time because of its description(confusing). Also the meat for the zombies is so hard to get because you cant gather it you have to make it. The meat cultivator makes meat at .4 an hour. This is very slow, and im not sure how much food each humbie eats per hour to calculate how much i need to make so that makes it hard. I wish the meat cultivator either made more, or the game would tell you the amount being taken out ( like a net food ) so that the player knows how many to make. Other than those things. LOVE the game, its amazing and really fun to play 100% recommend

This game is very enjoyable but moves a bit slowly in it's current state. It takes quite a lot of time to get anything done, maybe the processing time or walking time needs to be sped up a bit. It is early access so it does have some bugs. I will definitely be back and watching this space for new additions and improvements.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Grab this review template here! 👉 https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template/

A great game with a great development team !

i hava reported a bug on discord and less than 30 minuts a developer come to say it will be fixed in the next update, this is awsome.

great work, very funy and enjoyable game

I was on the fence about this one, so I'm going to give it a qualified thumbs up.

The concept is great. And the game is a lot of fun. Nice mixture between tower defense themes and colony sim, a lot like We Are Billions but instead of murdering a whole bunch of former people, you're rehabilitating them.

Is this what running a drug rehab is like?

Also very cool is that you may elect to use your system for research into cures for rare diseases. This kind of charitable backending on a game (complete with some rewards for opting in) should be available in a lot more games out there.

The downside, and the reason I sought a refund, is that there's not a lot of content yet and I'm a bit on the broke side. I fully intend to come back to this one later, but wasn't quite enough for the price for me yet. However, you might disagree, and have a great time.

I wouldn't say this is a concrete review as it is stated the game is still in progress to be polished, and I have been expanding off the tutorial base.

however, So far my experience would be delightful, especially for the price point. I see continued potential and growth with this game especially in the future as some of the minor bugs and game-play is polished. It adds a dynamic I hope to see in the future with games i.e contributing to science with the docking hero app that can be used in game/outside. This game definitely took a bit of creativity, and a lot of work seeing as it has been done from the ground up in a lot of aspects. Family friendly as well. It takes some time to get a handle on everything but afterwords it will pull you in and immerse you as you try to focus on the little details to make your quest to protect your citizens, Save and cure as many zombies as possible, and ultimately add your own personality to your lab.

Congrats to the Zombie Cure Lab Development team, your hard work has paid off/is paying off.

After a 10h+ of playtime on the steam deck i find this game quite cool. The keyboard layout could be a bit better but performance was good, no crashes.

Gameplay wiese I like that it is a strategy game which is not brutal but offers a gorgeous and unique graphical style. The tech tree is well designed, the replayability (did only the tutorial and continued to play) is probably there with increasing difficulty. The nights, when the attacks happen, are hard and the sound design/music increases tension.

The tutorial had a few issues in rendering on the SD as the display is much smaller than the average monitor so a few tiles overlap. A huge downside for me was the room designer, which is not well done and confused me a lot. Defining floor types before one can join rooms or extending rooms is very none-intuitive.

I like this game on the SD since I got good eye sight, however, I expect the desktop experinece to be superior.

WELL DONE!

Really fun game. Love the concept and the graphics are very cute. It's not easy to keep all the humbies happy while you balance the resources, but very fun managing the challenges. Only complaint is the clunkiness of trying to manipulate the rooms. I would like to be able to delete a portion of a room or extend a room without having a wall in the middle with no way to delete it. Also metal production is way too hard compared to the other resources. Also wish there was another goal after curing your first human. Otherwise, great game. Look forward to more updates!

I am enjoying the game quite a bit! I didn't encounter any noticeable bugs even though the game was just released into early access! I think this is something other developers could learn from. I also like that the devs are very approachable and are very active on their discord server. From the other reviews I read that performance is an issue in the end-game.

Edit: I just tried the game on the steam deck and it seems to run without any additional tinkering. I noticed some small performance hickups but thats it.