Today’s modern survival games all have their own unique twists. In DayZ, it’s the realistic weapon mechanics and the complex health system. Project Zomboid is renowned for its sheer scale, while Dying Light has its parkour, and State of Decay 2 has a great co-op mode. But Urban Dead predates them all. Text-based and playable entirely in your browser, especially back in 2005, it was beloved because it was accessible, free, and deceptively deep – it looks simple, but you can get lost in Urban Dead for months. Or at least, you could. After two decades, one of PC’s most legendary zombie survival games is about to shut down.
You make an account. You choose from either a scientist, a civilian, or a soldier, and you spawn in. Urban Dead is set in the fictional, zombie-infested city of Malton. Using a simple grid, you navigate between the burned-out streets and abandoned buildings, scavenging for food and ammunition. Like classic RPGs, it’s completely text based. But this is a true zombie survival game – upgrade your gear, level your character, and slowly build a safehouse. You can get a good sense of the game in the playthrough by ‘e27gaming.’
During its lifetime, precisely 1,706,504 people have created characters in Urban Dead. But now, 20 years since it first launched, the zombie game is closing down. Created by a single developer, Kevan Davis, Urban Dead has always been supported by player donations. With the introduction of the UK’s new Online Safety Act, which mandates stricter age verification and child-protection measures for social and gaming sites, Davis says that the future of Urban Dead is not “feasible.”
“Sad to have to announce that Urban Dead will be closing down on Friday March 14, 2025, due to an upcoming change in UK website legislation,” Davis writes. “The Online Safety Act comes into force later this month, applying to all social and gaming websites where users interact, and especially those without strong age restrictions. With the possibility of heavy corporate-sized fines even for solo web projects like this one, I’ve reluctantly concluded that it doesn’t look feasible for Urban Dead to be able to continue operating.
“So a full 19 years, 8 months and 11 days after its quarantine began, Urban Dead will be shut down. No grand finale. No final catastrophe. No helicopter evac. Make your peace or your final stand in whichever part of Malton you called home, and the game will be switched off at noon UTC on 14 March.”
Davis says that Urban Dead’s dedicated Wiki will be set to read only and that they will refund any IP unlock donations that have been sent during the last six months. “If Urban Dead is ever revivified or spun off in any way in the future, it’ll be announced on this website,” the developer says.
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