I’ve always loved a good zombie adventure and I’ve played and watched more than my fair share. To that end, I thought I’d write up an article about roguelike adjacent zombie games, and during my research for that feature I came across Terminus: Zombie Survivors. The fact that it was leaving Early Access in a few weeks was the serendipitous cherry on top.
So here I am, knee-deep in another zombie apocalypse, this time in a game that blends turn-based action with survival game staples to create a uniquely atmospheric and memorable horror experience. Here’s how it works:
How to stay alive in Terminus
Getting to the titular Terminus is your ultimate goal here. You must make your way across a procedurally arranged town in search of your fellow survivors, who are gathering there. Naturally, getting that far is going to be a considerable challenge, as you fight and scavenge your way through a busy urban landscape made up interconnected houses, shops, and civic buildings.
There are so many things being simulated and it took me a couple of hours to truly get my head around everything that I needed to understand. The main things you need to keep track of are your health points (HP) and then your action points (AP). There are more things to consider, such as morale, satiation, and thirst, but those first two represent your life force and your ability to do things.
You start off in reasonably good shape; however it’s not long before your needs will start dictating increasingly desperate actions. Your ability to take said desperate actions is governed by your AP, and you have a certain number of points to spend during any given turn (with each turn representing an hour of time). You can usually move a little, search a couple of cupboards, or smash a zombie’s head in during your turn, but try to do too much and you risk leaving yourself open and vulnerable during the zombies’ turn.
The walking dead take their turn once you’ve done your business, and that can mean anything from standing around doing basically nothing to a mob of them attacking you while you desperately try to escape. The good thing is that they’re not very smart and they can’t move very far, but that’s really where the good news ends. Besides, it’s not just the undead that’ll kill you; illness, starvation, and injury can all conspire to end your virtual life.
Resource gathering
It might not sound sexy, but scavenging for new gear, weapons, clothes, and medicine is utterly essential if you want to make forward progress. Rather than a huge open world, Terminus is broken up into a series of smaller maps consisting of various buildings and their surroundings, with pathways connecting them all together.
Every new area/building you encounter is an opportunity to stock up on supplies, but getting into a house or public building isn’t always easy. Oftentimes you’ll have to get in via a broken door or window, which is noisy and degrades whatever item you used to gain access.
Once you’re inside it’s time to rifle through cupboards, search wardrobes, and check the kitchen for foods. If there’s a sofa, you might also want to take the opportunity to grab some zzz’s in relative comfort. Just make sure you shut the doors and cover up the windows, otherwise it won’t be long before you hear the dreaded tap, tap, smash of an unwelcome visitor.
Once you’re back on your feet and everything of value has been found, it’s time to head to the next building. It’s important to keep moving and scavenging because no single building is going to yield up all the supplies you need to stay alive. That said, a building like a police station might have more guns and ammunition than a standard residential property, and you’ll need all the weapons you can get.
Always aim for the head
Combat is nice and simple in Terminus, and seasoned zombie hunters will quickly find their feet. You can hit an enemy from range, sure, but it’s much more reliable to stand next to them and give them a good smack to the head with whatever you’ve got to hand.
When combat is initiated, you’re given several key body parts to aim at. You don’t need me to tell you that a whack around the ol’ noggin remains the most effective way of taking down a zombie. However, if you’re fighting an undead fireman still wearing a helmet, it might be better to aim a bit lower. Either way, the combat screen shows you everything you need to know to make an informed decision.
It’s easy to cycle through your weapons to see what will deal the most damage, and you’re given a few creative options to choose from. My personal favourite has been using my trusty frying pan to cave in a few zombie heads, purely for the comedy vibes. Melee weapons are one thing, but there are guns to be found here and there, too, although finding enough ammunition is the bigger challenge.
Assessing your options
During your searching you might find a paper map, which can be studied by using some of your action points. Points of interest slowly fill up your on-screen map, giving you things to aim for. In particular, you can find your way to Terminus by following the railway tracks that crisscross the city, although this is a dangerously direct route to the end game.
When I last tried this tactic, I followed the track and kept inside the ring fence that runs either side of the rails. However, as I progressed, more and more undead shufflers began to descend on my position. My tiredness began to show via increasingly limited AP and a couple of minor cuts started to chip away at my HP – I was bleeding but I had run out of bandages. During each zombie turn, more and more enemies would start banging on the ring fences either side of me, and in the pitch dark of night I slowly could hear their numbers grow. Eventually, I was surrounded with nowhere to run, with no bullets left, and with no hope of survival. It was horrible and harrowing and I loved it.
Like those before it, that run ended in abject failure. Once I’d taken a break, I went back into the menus to see what else the game offered. I was delighted by what I found waiting, as there’s not only a selection of pre-made scenarios but there are also a huge number of adjustable settings, including the option to turn on permadeath. There are also several classes to unlock, and each one has its own specialisations to level up. Using these options, experienced players will be able to author their own apocalypse, and I think this is a game with serious potential for variety and longevity.
I think I’m going to keep coming back to Terminus: Zombie Survivors for a long time to come thanks to its challenging but ultimately rewarding gameplay. Longplay Studios has crafted a brilliantly bleak zombie survival experience that’s absolutely stuffed full of terror. I haven’t encountered a turn-based game that creates such palpable tension since I first played Neo Scavenger, and I think it sits alongside Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead and Project Zomboid as one of the best games in the zombie genre.
Terminus: Zombie Survivors has just left Early Access on PC, and I played the game via access provided by the developer! Thanks 🙂
