Zombie Master

Zombie Master is a multiplayer Half-Life 2 modification centered around a zombie-apocalypse. Zombie Master incorporates Real-time Strategy elements for one "zombie master" player while the other players continue to use a First-person Shooter style of play. The goal of the modification is to introduce an innovative game style into the popular Survivors vs Zombies game genre. Zombie Master is available as a free download to anyone owning a Source Engine based game.

History

Zombie Master was originally devised by Angry Lawyer, a developer for the mod. In its early stages Zombie Master was called Conquest: City 17 and had no real connection to zombies since the plan was to use Half-Life 2's Combine units and other units from the HL2 Universe for the RTS element. Zombie Master came into development when Angry Lawyer decided to use zombie units for Conquest: City 17 and showed the code and idea to friends on halflife2.net. From there team members the GreenBunny and Pi|Mu|Rho joined the team to begin a new take on the FPS/RTS hybrid.

The Zombie Master

The Zombie Master can spawn 4 types of zombie currently, with a 5th one in development. The first and most common type is the shambler, a garden variety zombie with little health and speed, but is the only one that can move survivor barricades. The second type of zombie is the drifter, a floating zombie that spits at the survivors, doing little damage but temporarily distorts the player's screens. The third zombie that the Zombie Master can spawn is the hulk, a huge zombie which soaks up bullets and explosive barrels. The fourth and final zombie currently out is the banshee, a zombie born from such films as 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake. It can move faster than the player and jump at near teleporting speeds, but can be killed with just 1-2 shots from the rifle. The critical hitboxes on the hulks and banshees are currently almost impossible to hit. This will be fixed in later versions. The Zombie Master can also use traps put in by the map maker, along with abilities such as explosion (which causes a blast that sends barricades flying, but does not harm players directly) and Night-vision (for dark maps).

The Survivors

Every player except for one play as survivors. The survivors use guns and barricades to stop zombies and fulfill mission objectives. They are faster than all zombies except the banshee, and can carry objects, jump, and crouch. There is no way to heal in the game, and once a person dies in-game, they are switched to spectator mode. The developers are working on a poltergeist system for the dead players which allows them to interact with the environment, either to help or hinder the players.

Zombie Units

Shambler: Your typical Horror movie zombie. Cheap and weak, but with a strong melee attack, these zombies are used in large hordes to clog chokepoints and corridors. They are the only zombies that can destroy barricades and hit nearby objects into survivors, causing damage.

Drifter: Drifters are floating charred corpses which spit blood at nearby survivors, confusing them by shaking their screen. Drifters are quite inexpensive, and when used with other zombie types they can be devastating, causing survivors to wander into the range of melee zombies.

Hulks: Hulks are collosal beasts which are fast, powerful and can take vast amounts of damage. They can take away half of a survivors health with a single hit and make fantasic assault troops. The are quite expensive and should not be wasted.

Banshee: Banshees are the fastest and most agile units in the game (faster than the players). They can leap great heights to anywhere on the map and can jump into survivors, causing low damage. They also have a close range attack which causes much more damage. They are often used to panic survivors. They are currently the Most Expensive unit in the game.

Immolator: A thin, charred reanimated corpse, immolators scream and light themselves (and anything near them) on fire when they die or see a survivor. They then charge towards the survivor, causing large amounts of damage at close range. They are currently disabled due to animation problems, but will be present in the next release.

The Arsenal

While every map is different, a basic selection of weapons is available to all players. The current list is:

Pistol (resembles SIG P226): your basic semi-automatic pistol, this gun is the weakest gun in the game.

MAC-10: a support weapon, this gun fires a series of low power shots at a high rate of fire. It's main use is for clearing corridors. However the MAC shoots so fast that it uses up its ammo capacity of 90 rounds very quickly.

Shotgun: This gun is used against banshees for devastating effect, canceling out the need for precise aiming in any case. The shotgun is perfect when encountering anything that moans when at close range.

Winchester Rifle: The rifle is used to pick off stronger zombies such as hulks and Banshees from a distance. This sniper's weapon is slow to fire, slow to reload, but can hold plenty of ammo (11 rounds...although it can be scarce). It's firing rate means it is impractical for close-range use. To counter, it does the most damage of any gun in the game.

Fists: the weakest weapon in the game, your fists are one of the things you start with. They are mostly used for breaking open boxes at the start of a round. They are almost useless as melee weapons because of their short range which allows Zombies to damage you. Find another melee weapon immediately!

Crowbar: The crowbar is a quick weapon that is very good against slow moving targets. Don't use it for frontal attacks, as it's short range could lead to you taking damage. Inferior to the sledgehammer.

Sledgehammer: The sledge hammer is the strongest melee weapon in the game. It has a long range and it has a slow attack. With a friend acting as bait any unit in the game can be tackled with this. Secondary fire is a slower, stronger blow.

Revolver: this gun has not been put in-game yet. More will be posted when it is.

Molotov: this weapon has not been put in-game yet. More will be posted when it is.

Development Team

A complete and up-to-date list of developers and contributors can be found on the team page.

Notable Mentions

fi:Zombie Master

See Also

The Xeno Project

The Xeno Project is a Half-Life mod which continues the story of the original Half-Life...