Project Zomboid build 42 is finally starting to feel more settled and complete. When it arrived at the end of 2024, the new version of the greatest (yes, greatest) survival game on PC frustrated some players, owing to the big changes that it introduced to aiming and lighting, and some of the bugs with the new animal husbandry mechanics. Looting has been a problem, too, and, but in order to fix everything, The Indie Stone has spent the last three months making one well-observed update after another. Now, the would-be rival to DayZ, Dying Light, and State of Decay feels like it’s being consolidated – the new Project Zomboid update is seemingly putting some finishing touches on build 42.
Now, this isn’t to say that build 43 is on the way, or anything of the sort, but the latest Project Zomboid update feels like neatening and tidying as compared to some of the more revolutionary changes The Indie Stone has introduced in recent weeks. The system that governs looted buildings has been overhauled. Various aspects of the survival game have been made easier (or harder). Now, it feels like we’re in the build 42’s home stretch.
Nevertheless, there are some notable nudges and changes here. All the biomes have been updated to be compatible with Zomboid’s latest version, you can now pet rabbits, and that issue with eating, whereby your character might eat the entirety of a carefully prepared meal in one action, has been rectified – food is now consumed by on ‘hunger-based units,’ so partial amounts are eaten where applicable.
There are new crafting recipes for clothing, smaller spiked weapons now require a smaller amount of nails than larger spiked weapons, you can now make guacamole. If you’re the type of player who eats roadkill, that glitch that meant roadkill meat contained zero calories has been fixed. Somewhat less helpfully, another bug, whereby zombies would stop tracking you if you ran behind a vehicle, has also been squashed, so be careful.
All told, between fixes, balance changes, and additions, there are more than 130 items in the latest Project Zomboid update. It may feel like mopping up and tidying when compared to some of the other recent patches, but The Indie Stone is certainly still putting in the work.
Alongside Zomboid, you might want to try some of the other best zombie games, or maybe the best horror games on PC.
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