Video Game / Zombie Stories (Roblox)

Zombie Stories is a First-Person Shooter developed on Roblox by PANDEMIC., a group that also made the game's predecessor, Zombie Blitz. You play as four classes and either take on the zombies alone, or work together in a group of up to 6.

Aside from the story, there are also other game modes available;

• Training: Learn the basics of the game here, and test your skills to see if you can not only be fast, but accurate as well.
• PVP: Currently has one game mode, Team Gun Battle, in which both teams race to reach the most points/51st point before the timer runs out. Currently in reworking
• Swarm: Team up with a group of players to either survive 3 minutes or gather fuel for the escape vehicle (Scavenge only as of October 6, 2020) while defending against hordes of zombies.
• Survival: Team up with a group of players to survive 10 waves before eventually making your escape while earning money to buy primary weapons and grenades, and even more ammo. Later merged into Scenario.
• Scenario: Story levels done on a daily rotation, rewarding extra ZBucks compared to others.

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Tropes:

In General

• Anti-Frustration Features: The higher the difficulty, the less cutscenes occur, which considering how you can grind some levels over there, is a bit of necessity.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The Sniper class is this compared to Assault class, since their rifles were designed for headshot damage, at the cost of rate of fire, which is not so useful when rate of fire is critical in a game where you kill hordes of zombies. Less so in the PVP modes, where a single headshot can easily advance one to the victory.
  • The Revolver. It deals the highest damage of all the pistols, along with having one of the best headshot damage multipliers, but it has terrible RPM, not being helped by the fact that you have to unlock it via leveling up the Sniper. It only got worse after a nerf, which made you force to either endure a longer reload in exchange for more reserve ammo, or vice versa.
• Balance Buff: Several updates have been made to counter some of the Power Creep that plagued various guns.
• BFG: The Light Machine Guns you can get for the Support Class are big and bulky.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Aside from the Medic and Support classes, the Assault class is this compared to the Sniper class, due to them having assault rifles, which are well-rounded for any situation and has better damage-per-second overall in contrast with the Sniper Rifles, which are slow and have overkill damage against zombies.
  • The G17 lacks the Magikarp Power of the Makarov or the raw strength of the Revolver, but makes up for it by having well-rounded stats.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Loot Boxes aside, there's also the gamepasses you can purchase, most notably Revive +, which grants you one AED to revive per map, and there's also the option for reviving for 4 Robux.
• Combat Medic: The Medic not only has Submachine Guns to hold off against the zombies, but also can drop medkits for other to heal from (and prior to updates, used healing sprays to heal a teammate).
• Cool, but Inefficient: The HK21. Has the biggest magazine of all the guns in the game, barring modifiers, but there's a massive catch; it has no headshot multiplier. As such, it's good for clearing out hordes of zombies, but when against bosses, its drop of damage output is very noticeable. No longer the case after an update finally gave it an headshot multiplier.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Walther, thanks to a slew of Balance Buffs, has one of the highest DPS of the pistols. However, as a massive drawback, it also has one of the highest recoil stats, meaning that if you want to aim well, you'll have to tolerate its' uncontrollable recoil, but getting used to it allows you to surpass both the G18 and the Makarov.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The MP7A1 was originally similar stat-wise to the CBJ. Several updates to the weapon made it fast-bullet-flinging capable of insane DPS.
• Dump Stat: Penetration. While admittedly good against massive hordes of zombies, unfortunately, most of the weapons that have an innate penetration stat have low DPS to compensate, which you generally don't want when facing off against zombies with bloated health stats, and generally is why the AP rounds is an inferior modification compared to HP rounds. Subverted in Nightmare difficulty- AP bullets nullify the damage reduction the armored zombies have over there, while having HP rounds severely reduce damage against armored zombies. A gun with a good penetration stat is also viable because the low damage doesn't matter when it comes to armored zombies.
• Dynamic Difficulty: When playing solo, the game gives you a energy shield that regenerates to compensate the fact that you're playing alone, allowing you to take at least one hit without losing health.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: While played straight most of the time, this is defied with Focus, which grants the ability to run and shoot for a while.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Some of the classes were heavily different compared to the beta versions, most notably the Medic, which had no primary weapon, forcing it to rely on the nigh-useless P226 pistol and the assault classes to escort it.
  • "Lab Breach" is this trope as a mission, being the basis of Zombie Blitz: Origins' "2 Days Later", in which the story was drastically different, and there were almost no ammo boxes at the time, due to a Support class not being thought of the time as its playable counterpart in Zombie Blitz due to players having infinite ammo reserves over there.
• Frying Pan of Doom: A frying pan is available as a melee weapon. The "doom" part comes from the fact that it's one of the few weapons that can stun zombies.
• Gatling Good: The Vulcan Minigun is a developer weapon, and was only temporarily available in the "Last Juggernaut" scenario for good reason: It has great all-around stats alongside having plenty of ammo.
• Hard Mode Perks: The higher the difficulty, the better the experience rewards alongside the ZBucks you can get for purchasing Loot Boxes.
• Harder Than Hard: Nightmare difficulty, only available on Pro servers, turns all zombies into Heavily Armored Mooks, taking reduced damage from all sources unless you got a good weapon with a decent Penetration stat.
• Hold the Line: Most of the gameplay involves holding certain positions while repelling the zombie hordes.
• Joke Item:
  • The game features a rubber chicken... as a melee weapon. It performs no better compared to other melee weapons.
  • Another example is the Hi-Point C-9. Much like the gun it's based on, it performs very terribly, such as having an abnormally low headshot multiplier and RPM, alongside the fact that even in terms of raw strength, the Makarov outperforms it in every category except (initially) magazine size. This is subverted post-Balance Buff, however.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The Katana is capable of hitting multiple hordes at once and has great range.
• Lethal Joke Item: A later Balance Buff turned the Hi-Point C9 into one of these. While it's based on a terrible handgun, it surprisingly performs well, especially with the Extended Kit, which complements it well with the ammo reserves. It's not one of the best weapons, but it's usually enough to do its job as an emergency weapon.
• Loot Boxes: The game implements them, with their contents either being weapon skins or outfits. Funnily enough, because of the way weapon skins work, you can essentially have an ACR which is locked to Level 34 right as soon as you unlock the weapon skin related to it, making it Pay-2-Win of sorts.
• Machete Mayhem: A machete is your starting weapon.
• Magikarp Power:
  • The PPSh-41 starts out unremarkable compared to the other guns you get. Level it up to 17, and it gets a 71 round base magazine, making it one of the best SMGs you can get.
  • The Makarov similarly starts out underpowered compared to other pistols. Level it up to 22, and it gets a 80 round mag, making it useful for prolonged holdouts.
  • The G18 as of January, 2, 2022 starts off weak, but if you're very persistent, you can get a Drum Mag mod, which essentially turns it into a submachine gun.
  • The January 14, 2022 update gave both the Persuader 500 and M1014 modifications that can only be unlocked at higher levels. When leveled up, the Persuader gets an drum magazine, allowing for better ammo capacity and reloading, while the M1014 gets Speed Loading, which halves the reload time for it, allowing its users to deal burst damage faster.
• Mighty Glacier: The Ultimax 100 is the somewhat slowest-firing machine gun of the three machine guns you can get, but has the best DPS potential along with a good headshot multiplier and drum mag of 100 bullets.
• More Dakka: The SMGs and LMGs provide great fire rates, especially if you add extra ammo modifications to them.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Alien zombies that have a Electronic Eye and a Wolverine Claw! And later, alien zombies who have rockets on their backs!
• Our Zombies Are Different: Aside from the alien zombies mentioned above, there's also zombies in Contamination who were infected by a virus-infested water source, and in Base Hawk, they've seem to be infected with Subject OPV MRM.
• Power Up Letdown: Some specific upgrades which require leveling up a gun are not worth the grind:
  • The HK USP had an Caliber+ upgrade that enchanted the headshot damage of it as well as increasing the magazine size. Problem is, it also not only decreases its base damage, but also RPM and stored ammo, which is something you don't want in a game that encourages high DPS. You're better off the +5 bullets mod.
  • The Maverick can get incendiary rounds that have the ability to inflict damage over time with their afterburn. Unfortunately, the afterburn damage doesn't make up for the terrible damage modifier, and to add insult to injury, the Support and Medic have starter weapons that do the Maverick's job much better.
  • The M870 can get Flechette rounds that pierce enemies and the Wingmaster can get a slug round. Problem is, both weapons have decreased overall damage, with the latter having reduced magazine size to 1, and even without those factors, the Sniper's rifles can do their jobs much better.
• Short-Range Shotgun: While shotguns can hit at any range, going up close is the best way to maximize damage.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: No. While they do offer great burst damage, this doesn't excuse their rather low rate of fire, which is important when fighting off Bosses. Played straight in PVP modes, where it can instantly give out a free point provided you know how to take advantage of it. Zig-zagged with the introduction of the M1014, which is semiautomatic, and thus has better DPS, but is unable to equip modifications other than optic mods, which may lead to it being lagging behind other weapons. Eventually played straight when an update introduced powerful mods to those weapons.
• Sniper Rifle: The Sniper Class' primary weapon against the zombies.
• Super Mode: Both the Assault Class and the Sniper Class' ability is Focus, which allows running and gunning while also gaining increased rate of fire and reload times.
• Story Arc: Excluding the Legacy Stories, there are 2 story arcs so far:
  • Zombie Blitz: Origins: Acts as a prequel to Zombie Blitz, which features a group of survivors escaping from the infested lab of alien zombies.
  • Extraction: After a extraction grows awry, an extraction team is searching for clues on what caused the zombie outbreak to happen over there, what happened to Nick's team, and the boss' true motives...
• Take That, Audience!: One of the major complaints about the shotguns is aside from their poor RPM, they also lacked a weapon that was magazine-fed, such as the Saiga-12 and the USAS-12 shotguns. The January 14th, 2022 update finally gave a magazine... To the Persuader 500, of course, with the Drum Mag description even saying "Why?" as to mock the players for constantly begging for a magazine-fed shotgun. Though, to be fair, the Persuader 500 becomes pretty decent once you obtain it.
• Zombie Stories: Obvious, as it contains multiple stories that involve zombies one way or another.

Zombie Blitz: Origins

• Anti-Frustration Features: Your health is regenerated after you obtain your equipment in "2 Days Later".
• Death from Above: In "Underground", much like "Base Hawk", there are zombies dropping from above in the last stretch, making an mission of survival more harder.
• Elite Mooks: Dark versions of the Slashers and Chargers appear in the last stretch in "Underground", where they have significantly better health and damage compared to them.
• Fake Difficulty: At least for "Underground": Zombies dropping from above with no warning in where they land? Already a bit unfair, but there's also the fact that there are actually 2 waves of them! Thankfully, this is no longer the case after a hotfix which only allowed them to spawn and land in predictable locations.
• King Mook: A large version of the Slasher, General Slasher, serves as the boss of "Underground".
• Mighty Glacier: The Smasher is slow, but it's powerful enough to deal a good hit and takes a lot of damage and is Immune to Flinching.
• Nerf: In a rare example where it benefits the player, the sequence where the zombies drop from above were only allowed spawn in predictable locations, and the only time they come from above is during the General Slasher's boss fight.
• No-Gear Level: "Underground" has you starting out with only a Hammer (and a scalpel for other players) until you get your equipment.
• Purple Is Powerful: The Smasher has purple skin, and takes a lot of damage while also inflicting it as well.
• Unique Enemy: There's only one Smasher in the game as of October 8, 2020, and it appears during the last stretch of "2 Days Later", making it technically the "boss" of that chapter. Only during "Underground" did 3 of them made an appearance.

Extraction

• Ambiguous Situation: For some reason, the Commander in Chapter 3: No More has the same portrait as the Commander in Area 51. Whether it's due to being reused or implying that the fact that Extraction is a semi-sequel to Area 51 is unknown.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Should the keycard fall through the floor, it's automatically picked up after 20 seconds, preventing the stage from becoming Unintentionally Unwinnable.
• Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: Nick's Squad acts as this, with various members having a different combat style.
  • Berserker is the Close-Range Combatant of the trio (speed), being able to deal a good amount of attacks at close range, and even having a Blitz mode to increase their speed similar to Assault and Sniper's Focus, but if shot at multiple times, will be stunned.
  • Nick is the Long-Range Fighter of the trio (balance), being able to deal massive damage at a distance, but his attacks take a while to shoot. To compensate, he can perform acrobatic techniques.
  • Adam is the one specialized in Grenade Spam (strength), tossing grenades like no tomorrow.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 3 Part A ends with the players finding the black door and entering it to find the cure to their OPV MRM.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Successfully completing Chapter 3 on hard gives you the Pipe. However, as a reskin of the Wrench, it's mostly for showoff.
• Death from Above: Zombies drop from above in the last stretch, though thankfully they only appear near the edges of the mountain.
• Dynamic Difficulty:
  • Much like the "Contamination" example, the boss at the end of "Base Hawk" does not become faster.
  • The amount of zombies in the sewers depend on how many players are there, so a player going solo will have an easier time clearing them.
• Downer Ending: Chapter 2 does not end well. Nick's Squad is revealed to be infected with Subject OPV MRM, and while the players ultimately hold them off, Boss decides to infect them with OPV MRM. The only silver lining is that Jenny might be still alive, but it's uncertain.
• Evil All Along: While foreshadowed during "Base Hawk", Boss is ultimately revealed to have infected Nick's Squad with Subject OPV MRM, and plans to infect the squad with them as well.
• King Mook: The boss faced at the end of "Base Hawk" is a tougher and bigger variant of the Buff Zombie.
• Late to the Tragedy: By the time the team arrives, the area is infested with zombies, with Nick's team nowhere to be found.
• Lightning Bruiser: Nick's Squad is capable of withstanding multiple bullets while performing acrobatic techniques to dodge bullets thanks to the effects of OPV MRM.
• Multiple Head Case: The boss of "Base Hawk" has multiple heads, though only the middle one is susceptible to bonus headshot damage.
• Rush Boss: Unlike other examples, the boss at the end of "Base Hawk" has attacks that are basically impossible to dodge and is also fought in a cramped arena. Hope your DPS is high enough to take him down! Fortunately, this is downplayed in solo, since he doesn't become faster after losing 50% of his health.
• Pipe Pain: During the No-Gear Level part of Chapter 3, you can get a pipe to knock out guards. It can also be earned as a reward for clearing Chapter 3 on Hard.
• Uncertain Doom: It's unknown what happened to Nick's team, but whatever happened was not pretty. Part of the story involves figuring out what happened over there, and to find traces of Nick's team. You later find out they were infected with Subject OPV MRM.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's unknown what happened to Jenny after she helps the squad to escape a flooding room.
• Wolfpack Boss: You face ALL members of Nick's Squad in "Findings".

Dead Ahead

• Multiple Endings: The ending of Pimila Laboratories depends on whether you managed to complete the sidequest or not:
  • Downer Ending: After defeating the Tainted Mastermind without arming the survivors, the bridge extends. However, the group realizes that the scientists were left for dead, and they reluctantly leave them when the zombies begin swarming in numbers. After reestablishing their connection with the commander, they keep it a secret and lied to the commander that there were no survivors. They then proceed to ask for employee records of Pimila.
  • And the Adventure Continues: After defeating the Tainted Mastermind and arming the survivors, Fae tells the group to go back to the elevator. Nash informs them that Elena is fixing the elevator, and that they need to defend them from zombies. After the elevator is fixed, the survivors plan to go after the person who turned off the power at Pimila Laboratories.

Legacy Stories

• Adapted Out: The Boomers and the Witch do not appear in "Contamination". This is subverted on higher difficulties, however.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: "Area 51" begins with the titular area being overrun by Noobs.
• Area 51: Not only the titular mission is based off of that, it's also based on the Area 51 raid and uses the famous Area 51 map that was reused throughout many Roblox games.
• Character Select Forcing: Want to go for "Contamination" Solo? You're going to need a Sniper with a Ruger 10/22, since the enemies over there are much more durable compared to others, and thankfully, the amount of enemies have been reduced just good enough for a Sniper to take care of them with ease. The Sniper's Focus also allows him to perform running while gunning, allowing him to deal with the Tank much easier, especially since he doesn't go faster after losing half his health.
• Clone Degeneration: Heavily implied with the Noob Clones, as they basically act like the zombies of the mission "Area 51".
• Dynamic Difficulty: The Tank does not become faster if playing solo.
• Greater-Scope Villain: GRI, who was responsible for releasing the modified chemicals to contaminate the water supply to infect people, but they're not encountered in "Contamination".
• Grenade Spam: The Noob Leader utilizes this in his boss fight.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: "Area 51" has massive hordes of Noobs, and later, you're forced to deal with Noobs with guns who can take a good chunk off your health. The Noob Leader, on the other hand? His attacks are easily predicted, even with the Grenade Spam.
• Hard Mode Filler: "Lab Breach" is basically "2 Days Later" without the ammo box to resupply or a generator to hide from. Hope you brought a Support, because there's a very good chance that they might overrun your team!
• Incredibly Durable Enemies: To keep up with the original version's Nintendo Hard nature, "Contamination" features zombies that are significantly more durable than Slashers!
• Karma Houdini: The Noob Leader ultimately gets away with the takeover of Area 51, even with a good trashing inflicted on him.
• Lightning Bruiser: In contrast with the other boss fights, the Tank is not only durable as heck, it also hits hard and runs fast.
• Multiple Endings: "Area 51" has one depending if you rescued both survivors of the raid or not.
• Nostalgia Level: "Contamination" is a remake of the Roblox game of the same name.
• Ripped from the Headlines: "Area 51" is based on the real-world event "Storm Area 51", which, unlike its real-life counterpart, was an actual raid. The aftermath can be seen in the form of Noob Clones who have taken over the base.
• Schmuck Bait: Are you really sure you want to attack the Witch in "Contamination"? Because she can instantly kill players in one hit, not to mention she can outpace the player.
• Suicide Attack: To make up for their low health, Boomers will do this, instantly killing anyone near them.
• Turns Red: In multiplayer sessions of "Contamination", the Tank will be faster when his health is less than 50%.
• The Unreveal: It's never known how the players ended up in the location of "Contamination".
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Mike has little characterization compared to the others, and is unceremoniously killed halfway into "Contamination".
• You Are Too Late: The players are unable to arrive in time to save Mike from zombies in "Contamination".

Misc Stories

• Adaptational Badass:
  • The Gluttony Zombies were Mighty Glaciers in the vanilla version. Here, they're Lightning Bruisers due to the fact that their speed has improved a lot compared to other zombies.
  • Skeleton Zombie no longer suffer headshot damage, making them harder to kill.
• Adaptation Name Change: Gluttony Zombies were called Gluntly Zombies in the vanilla version.
• Adapted Out: The Exploding Zombie, Crawling Zombie, Brains Zombie, Burning Zombie, 3-headed Zombie, Scorpion Zombie, Robot Zombie, 2-headed Zombie, Crystal Zombie, Surgeon Zombie, Warrior Zombie, Spider Zombie, Earth Zombie, Hazardous Material Zombie, Smoke Shifter, were not included in the remake of "Zombie Tower".
• Big Damn Heroes: During the fight against the Giant Zombie, a plane drops an ammo crate at the middle of the rooftop of the Zombie Tower, allowing survivors to restock as long as they aren't being hounded by zombies.
• The Bus Came Back: The Gluttony Zombies were removed after 2016 from the vanilla version of "Zombie Tower", but made a reappearance in the remake.
• Character Select Forcing: Expect at least one Support to provide ammo on the Hard difficulty setting for "Zombie Tower", because most of the ammo boxes aside from the ones in the floors containing Minibosses and the Giant Zombie are removed.
• Compressed Adaptation: The "Zombie Tower" remake features 20 floors, in contrast to the vanilla version which had 29 floors. This resulted in some zombies being removed from the game. This also turned the Toxic Zombie from a Degraded Boss into a Boss in Mook's Clothing.
• Christmas Episode: Part 2 of the Live Event has the players crash land conveniently near ???'s train, and has them do a bunch of tasks to save Christmas.
• Flunky Boss:
  • Aside from the Minibosses, the Giant Zombie has the ability to summon other zombies.
  • Wintercall has the ability to summon other zombies as he prepares to attack players with his ice abilities.
• Go for the Eye: The eye is the Giant Zombie's main weakness.
• An Ice Person: Wintercall, the boss of the "Wild Holiday" chapter.
• Kaizo Trap: Wintercall's death animation only plays after his attack animations, so beware if you reduce his health to zero while he performs a shockwave with his hammer!
• Lightning Bruiser: The Gluttony Zombies are much faster compared to their vanilla counterparts, and suffer no headshot damage.
• Mighty Glacier: The Giant Zombie, in contrast to the Tank, is much slower, and has a shockwave attack that is easy to predict, but flings players easily if it attacks them.
• Mini-Boss: Both Dominous Zombie and the Dark Angel serve as this, a first for the game.
• Money Multiplier: Playing "Zombie Tower" during the Halloween Event gave you double the output of what normally the mission awarded you.
• My Name Is ???: The man who is trying to help save Christmas never has his name revealed, though it is very clear that from his signature sleigh and reindeer that he is Santa Claus.
• Nostalgia Level: "Zombie Tower" is a remake of the Roblox game of the same name.
• Shockwave Stomp:
  • One of the Giant Zombie's moves is to stomp the ground so hard that it creates a shockwave.
  • Wintercall has the ability to generate a shockwave with his hammer.
• Undead Abomination: The Giant Zombie, much like the original, has a reptilian face with an eyeball sticking out of its mouth.
• Wolverine Claws: The Giant Zombie has claws, though it opts to simply collide against you instead.

Scenario

• Adaptational Wimp: The Phaser had the ability to phase through walls and obstacles in Zombie Blitz, hence their name. The Scenario version of it, however, doesn't have that ability and is essentially a slower Slasher.
• Addressing the Player: The ending of the Winter 2020 Live Event thanks the players for supporting PANDEMIC. while also noting that Part 2 of the Winter Event is coming December 2021.
• Arrange Mode: Scenario arranges various maps to make them harder.
  • The Live Event includes additional scenes and a Unexpected Gameplay Change with a driving section.
  • "Special Rush" replaces the zombies in "Contamination" with ONLY special zombies.
  • "Last Juggernaut" involves a person wielding the Vulcan Minigun holding off zombies in "Zombie Tower" while the rest have to protect the Juggernaut with only their secondaries.
  • "Scalpel Slaughter" involves the armory in "2 Days Later" being ransacked, forcing players to hold off zombies with their Scalpels (and a Hammer).
  • "ODST Mission" involves players dressed up as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers equipped with the dev-exclusive M7 Caseless SMG and an HK USP as they liberate Area 51 from the noobs.
  • "Base Hawk Samurai" has a group of soldiers reach Base Hawk through a boat, then raiding a storage room to arm themselves with katanas and fight through hordes of zombies.
• Anti-Frustration Features: In "Scalpel Slaughter", the amount of Zombies is heavily reduced, to compensate for the fact that you only start with your Scalpel (and a Hammer).
• Big Damn Heroes: Two soldiers arrive to help escort the players out from the zombie outbreak.
• Choice of Two Weapons: The Juggernaut in the "Last Juggernaut" scenario wields both the Vulcan Minigun and whatever primary weapon they had in their class.
• In Name Only: In spite of being called "Scalpel Slaughter", you're required to get a Hammer to open the door, and you even keep it with you.
• Kaizo Trap: Thought the "ridiculously hard obby" was easy? Think again, since there's a Boomer at the exit!
• King Mook: The Tank is replaced by a Boomer Tank in "Contamination", which is basically a larger Boomer that can summon Boomers and vomits.
• Mythology Gag: The Zombie Blitz Cargo Ship map is one of the last parts of the Winter 2020 Live Event.
• No-Gear Level: You only start Scalpel Slaughter Scalpels and a Hammer.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The unknown person serves as the replacement for Mike in "Contamination".
• Tempting Fate: Since the unknown person is not Mike, he boasts about not meeting the same fate as him. No guesses on what happens next.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: The gameplay suddenly turns into a Driving Game for the first part of the Winter 2020 Live Event.