Video Game / Zombie Survival

Zombie Survival is a Garry's Mod game mode that is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. A group of humans must survive for several waves against The Horde of zombies, constructing barricades out of props and slowly upgrading weapons each round while attempting to manage their point totals.

Unique for such a mode is that every zombie is also player controlled. At the start of the round, players are either picked at random or can volunteer to be zombies and every human killed results in the player that was killed being converted into a zombie. While humans on average have much better options to defend themselves, zombies will slowly begin to overwhelm them with sheer numbers if the human players aren't careful.

Zombies have several classes, though these classes can vary from server to server. The most common ones, though, are as follows:

Normal Zombies: The most basic of zombies, unlocked on the first wave. They don't particularly excel in any category, but aren't weak in any category, either.

Headcrabs: Mini Mooks that can more easily slip through barricades, but can be taken out by a stiff breeze.

Fast Zombies: Very fast, but hit like a wet noodle.

Bloated Zombies: More resilient than other zombies, but incredibly slow.

Zombine: Zombies in heavy plated riot armor; Fast, durable and hits like a truck. As a result, they are usually restricted to the final wave.

In addition, there is a special variety of 'boss zombies' zombie players have a chance of becoming if they deal enough damage to humans. true to their name, these zombies can easily rip through humans and soak up a large number of bullets before going down.

In addition to survival, humans have supply crates and/or sigils they must defend, which gives them access to exclusive items not able to be bought through arsenal crate. In addition, supply crates being destroyed both increases the health and damage of zombies as well as unlock additional zombies for the players to use. This often presents a dilemma for the human players; you can either set up shop where the supply crate/sigil is and defend it or set up in a much more well-guarded area but allow the zombies easy access in destroying the crates, giving them a boost in the process.

Some servers also allow for a 'redemption' mechanic. If a zombie player manages to kill enough human players, they will be revived as a human player with above-average health and powerful weapons.

Tropes:

• Abnormal Ammo: By default, there's just the 'Impaler' Crossbow that shoots high velocity pieces of rebar, but on some servers, you can find sawblade launchers, lightning guns, pulse disc launchers, etc.
• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: The act of "shitcading". Barricades zombies can crouchjump through, barricades with prop-to-prop nailing (when there's other, non-prop/deployable objects they can be nailed to), explosive prop barricading, barricades you can't shoot through, leaving (usually unnailed) props scattered on the floor to impede movement (which rarely inconveniences the zombies unless done with lots of small props outside the cade), and occasionally barricades which don't let melee users hit zombies when there's a large amount of melee users on the human team.
• Alternate Fire: Some server-specific weapons can have multiple fire modes, but across all servers, there's the 'Bullet Storm' SMG, which fires two shots at once at a slower rate when aiming.
• Artificial Stupidity: If a server has custom bots, expect this, especially when the navmesh is of low quality.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Unless there's piercing mechanics and you managed to funnel zombies down a hall, don't expect sniper rifles to be used by most players in this mode.
  • Depends on how the server balances them but, usually, Bloated Zombies are just giant clay pigeons. Their increased health matters little when the humans are raining bullets down a hallway, and their attacks are too slow to really do that much damage to barricades before they go down. You're often much better off sticking with normal zombies.
  • Melee weapons. If you're in range to hit a zombie with one, you're likely already being swarmed by them.
• Asymmetric Multiplayer: Humans play much like a typical FPS game when not barricading. Meanwhile, Zombies are class-based, functioning more like that of a Hero Shooter.
• Body Horror: A lot of zombie classes, and especially bosses. Nightmares are charred, emaciated corpses with supernatural agility and strength, Puke Puses have missing arms, a horribly bloated torso constantly spewing out toxic bile, and yellow-brown diseased skin, Bonemeshes are horrifying lumps of flesh and bones vaguely in a humanoid shape, and that's not even covering custom zombies on assorted servers.
• Boom, Headshot!: As with most zombie games, zombies take increased damage when being shot in the head. Given the horde nature of the game though, this is easier said than done.
• Boring, but Practical: Machine guns and any similar high DPS gun. They don't do as much damage as high powered shotguns and the like, but their high fire rate combined with zombies grouping together allows them to mow through several zombies at once. Pistols are also a great example - they have good damage, decent accuracy, medium firerate, decently sized magazines, and good ammo economy; but they tend to get weaker as waves go on unless the server has high tier pistols available.
• Backfromthe Dead: Most servers have a mechanic where player zombies can "redeem" themselves before the final wave by killing 4 humans; the amount may vary depending on the server. Doing so respawns them as a human, with a knife, dual pistols, and some ammo.
• Chainsaw Good: Some servers have a chainsaw of some form as a high tier melee weapon.
• Combat Medic: Any human that has a medkit and a regular weapon becomes this. Some servers even have weapons that can be used to kill zombies and heal humans without having to switch to a dedicated healing tool/weapon.
• Comeback Mechanic: Both sides have this with the humans gaining access to increasingly more powerful weapons as their numbers dwindle or as time goes on, while zombies unlock the Zombine class (or the server's equivalent) in the final wave for one final push against the humans.
• Crowbar Combatant: You can buy a crowbar in the worth menu or arsenal crate to whack zombies with. It also instakills headcrabs.
• Disc-One Nuke: Some maps have powerful weapons available early on in limited quantities, but they usually are hard to get. Some maps parody this by putting a [[Shotguns Are Just Better Boom Stick out of bounds or behind an unbreakable glass box or window.
• Elite Zombie: Boss zombies. Much higher HP than normal zombies, hits way harder and can easily rip through several humans by themselves. To a lesser extent, there's also Zombine, which combines all the best aspects of fast, normal and bloated zombies without any of the drawbacks, but are usually restricted to the final wave.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: What, did you think it was an exploration of the meaning of life?
• Fishing for Mooks: A common tactic of runners, which either results in them getting killed or managing to distract plenty of zombies at once. Can also be done by zombies trying to camp nearby loot.
• Furniture Blockade: Also includes Crates, oil drums, signs, boulders, planks, pillows, and countless other objects. If you can bring it inside the barricade and nail it down, then it's usable for a barricade. The only exception is glass props and flower pots.
• Gatling Good: If the server you're playing on has custom weapons, one of them is bound to be some kind of minigun.
• Glass Cannon: Humans. Their weapons allow them to easily mow down zombies, but they can barely take three or four hits from a zombie in return.
• Griefer:
  • The act of "shitcading", or making a bad barricade. Can range from an accident (typically done by new players who don't know what they're doing), to intentional shitcading. There's also breaking props as a human when there's no Shade around, throwing important objects out of reach or into zombie spawns on objective maps, intentionally suiciding after the round starts to artificially increase the zombie count, and refusing to heal people who are about to die when their death is preventable.
  • If the server has a prop making deployable, you can expect to have at least one round where a player floods the room with useless props, making it impossible for others to move or aim at the zombies.
• Guns Akimbo: The 'Redeemers' Dual Handguns are, as their name suggests, a pair of Beretta M9s, which are obtained via redeeming. Additional dual weapons exist on some servers.
• Hand Cannon: The 'Zombie Drill' Desert Eagle, and the 'Ricochete' Magnum - both are high damage, slow firing pistols.
• Hold the Line: You have to hold off 6 waves of zombie attacks, with each wave being longer and with stronger zombies.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Subverted - you can still carry loads of weapons like in other gamemodes, but there's rarely a reason to carry more than you'll use. Fortunately, there's a weapon/ammo dropping system if you want to avoid the risk of a Rummage Fail at the worst moment.
• Improbable Weapon User: Among the various default melee weapons in the game, there's a wooden plank, a lamp, a crowbar, a bust on a stick, a shovel, a keyboard, a frying pan, and a pot.
• Last Stand: One of the two most common results of someone becoming the last human. The other is being trapped in a barricade containing the entire zombie team.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Dealing enough overkill damage to a player can turn them into a pile of gibs - which usually doesn't do much besides depriving certain classes of their ability to self-revive. High tier shotguns are perfect for this, with their extreme burst damage.
• Mook Maker: The Flesh Creeper can build nests that zombies can spawn at. Their nests can be destroyed, however.
• More Dakka: Any high capacity, fast firing weapon becomes this.
• Mundane Made Awesome: With enough nails, a competent cader, repair tools, and enough dakka, everyday furniture you wouldn't care too much about in real life can withstand waves of zombie assaults.
• Multi-Mook Melee: As a round goes on and more zombies appear (whether due to late joiners, dead humans, or bots being added on servers that have them), starting with just a handful of zombies to entire hordes.
• Myopic Architecture: A trait that occurs somewhat frequently in poorly built barricades is either leaving an entrance poorly barricaded (or uncaded), or having a barricade with some parts of a layer being more durable than others.
• No Plot? No Problem!: Just you, the other humans, some guns, props, and a horde of ravenous zombies. A few maps at least have an Excuse Plot.
• Play as a Boss: At the end of a wave, one (or more, depending on the server) top performing player zombie(s) gets to be a specialized Boss Zombie, which typically has higher health (most player bosses have thousands of health while regular zombies only have hundreds) and strengthened offensive capabilities.
• Point Buy System: The Worth Menu, which is an important game mechanic as it determines your starting loadout and any traits your character may have. Worth prices per item tend to vary between servers, but the amount of worth a player gets per round without any returns taken is usually 100.
• Purposely Overpowered: Super Zombies, which are designed to prevent stalling with thousands of HP, fast speed, climbing ability, and high prop damage. They almost never appear in high numbers unless 90 seconds have passed on servers with sigils, or on Zombie Escape maps.
• Recoil Boost: One of the gimmicks of the Boom Stick. Plenty of custom objective maps are built around its self knockback, such as Tantibus, Devourer Tower, Dodgecan, etc.
• Reviving Enemy: Most default zombies have a chance to merely be knocked down upon taking lethal damage, regenerating a chunk of health while they're stuck in place getting off the ground. This can cause a problem if you don't aim for the head, or have a weapon that can quickly finish them off.
• Rummage Fail: Subverted - while you can still get a massive arsenal of weapons in your inventory at one time (usually by looting dead humans) like in regular Garry's Mod, you can drop unwanted items and ammo, and on some servers, dismantle them for scrap to upgrade your other weapons.
• Standard FPS Guns: Knives, pistols, revolvers, dual pistols, shotguns, super shotguns, automatic shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, grenades, demolition packs, crossbows, sniper rifles, energy guns, sentry guns, and healing devices are all standard FPS gun categories that have at least one weapon in every ZS server.
• Stock Weapon Names: The Boom Stick. For an expensive and highly powerful shotgun found on practically every server, you'd expect it to have a more unique nickname.
• Take Up My Sword: Humans drop everything they had in their inventory on death - weapons, tools, and ammo. Some people make the mistake of blindly rushing out for loot, regardless of whether it's just a cheap trinket of minimal significance, or one of the best weapons on the server.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: On certain maps, it's possible to throw objective-required items into hazardous and/or out of reach areas such as zombie spawns. There's also intentionally breaking props as a human for reasons other than denying them to wraiths and shades.
• Universal Ammunition: Played straight - SMG ammo works for every SMG, assault rifle ammo works for every assault rifle, and so on.
• Variable Mix: The music gets more intense as the game does.
• Wreaking Havok: Most zombie classes can knock back hit props, but some zombies are specialized in launching props at high velocity, such as the Wraith. And then there's the Shade, which can cause props to levitate and then fly at lethal force towards humans.
• Your Head Asplode: Getting a headshot that deals enough overkill damage can remove a zombie's head.
• Zerg Rush: Standard zombie team tactic.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The premise of the game mode, with the humans trying to survive a certain number of waves and, on certain servers, escape via a sanity sigil.
• Zombie Puke Attack: The secondary attack of Ghouls, and exaggerated by the Puke Pus.

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