Urban Dead

I know I've previously stated my disdain for the MMORPG genre in the past. I must concede that while graphical "whack monsters to level up to purchase items" sort of game play is utterly lost on me, the idea of playing a game with many other people can capture my attention from time to time. I've started playing an MMORPG of sorts and while it isn't in the traditional mold of the genre, I think other people should try it out as well.

Urban Dead is a sort of hybrid of a online role playing game and a turn based game. What is it? Well, in Urban Dead, you choose a character, a profession, and a location. From that point on, you are thrown into a city crawling with the undead. These zombies are actually other players that have fallen victim to other players, or people that have chosen to start the game as corpses. The human players are on the run, hiding and searching for supplies to defeat the zombie horde. If you fall prey to a zombie player, you become one of the undead unless you can find a scientist to raise you. Only then will you be cured from your unholy lust for human flesh.

The game isn't graphic based. It's all done with text, which means you can actually play it in your browser. There is nothing to download at all. You play by clicking on buttons to chose your destination in the enormous city, then you move through a suburb by entering or exiting buildings. Buttons describing your actions available. You can gain skills that determine what you can do well by getting experience.

You can interact with other players, fight, search for items, or run and hide. Each of these actions takes up the cleverly named "actions points". These points are limited to up to fifty total per character, and they regenerate at a rate of one point for 30 minutes. This means it's the sort of game you can play for 10 or 15 minutes a day, wait for your points to accumulate, or play a few times through the day in small bursts. This matches my playing style perfectly, as I can play a little before I got to work in the morning, check my progress between classes, then come home and make sure I am safe before I go to bed and leave my character exposed to danger as I sleep.

I wouldn't be playing this game alone. MMORPGs are meant to be played socially. Sadly, Urban Dead's interface is limited, as it costs action points to communicate in-game. This means the more you chat, the less survival sorts of things you can do. It makes finding and keeping organized bands of survivors as a human player much more difficult. People have started launching assaults on groups of unprotected or new humans that have clumped together, earning massive points for their slaughter. It's really cool to see how this sort of scenario pulls people together and brings out the worst in people at the same time. I've been playing both sides, as a human and zombie, and the game is fun either way.

It's not something that you can spend all day playing, but as a sort of casual MMORPG that fits into my schedule, it works rather well. Thinking about how it's best to stay alive while being chased by zombie hordes has already had an effect on me. I've started planning escape routes for my building and apartment. It's sick how these games can get stuck in your head some times.

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