Defending Your Own Backyard: Infection Free Zone’s Unique Hook Needs More Depth
Infection Free Zone is one of those strategy survival games that grabs attention the moment you learn its hook. Instead of dropping you into a fictional map, it uses real-world locations pulled from OpenStreetMap data, letting you play in your actual city or neighborhood. That little trick alone adds a level of immersion few other games can match. Seeing familiar streets, landmarks, or even your local shops reimagined in a post-apocalyptic setting creates a connection that’s unique to this game, and it’s by far its strongest feature.
Beyond the novelty of the maps, the gameplay loop is fairly straightforward. By day, you manage resources, scavenge for supplies, and expand your zone. By night, you brace for infected hordes, defending against waves of enemies that test your preparation and squad placement. The systems build on Jutsu Games’ earlier work, most notably 911 Operator, and it’s clear both titles share DNA in their squad-based mechanics and the way tasks are structured. This familiarity works as a double-edged sword: it makes the learning curve easier if you’ve played their earlier titles, but it also means the game feels mechanically similar rather than brand new.
Unfortunately, the novelty of real-world maps cannot mask the repetitiveness that sets in after a few hours. The core loop of scavenging, building, and defending is functional but begins to feel like a grind when little changes from day to day. Night gameplay, which should feel tense and threatening, often ends up slowing the pace rather than raising stakes. What’s missing is variety in how enemies behave, how they pathfind, or how they pressure the zone. Without that unpredictability, raids become routine instead of gripping, and the sense of danger quickly dulls.
The squad system is where most of my frustrations lie. It’s built on the same structure as 911 Operator, and while that foundation makes sense, there are glaring quality-of-life issues that weigh the game down. The inability to select squads through hotkeys or group them together the way traditional RTS games allow creates unnecessary friction. Tabbing through a list of squads during tense moments feels clunky and out of step with what strategy players have come to expect. Long expeditions highlight this even further. With squads capped at four members, sending groups out to capture vehicles kilometers away becomes more of a hassle than a challenge. Splitting and regrouping squads just to make the system work adds layers of tedium. A more fluid system, such as vehicles carrying multiple squads or supporting incomplete groups, would make exploration and expansion far more engaging.
Resource management also needs refinement. It makes little sense that squads defending the zone will run out of ammunition without automatically resupplying. Watching your defenders exhaust their supplies in the middle of a fight because they lack the intelligence to restock themselves feels less like a challenge and more like an oversight. A smarter system where squads restock from nearby vehicles or replenish automatically when defending would go a long way toward smoothing the gameplay.
Despite these shortcomings, there is potential here. The concept is strong, the immersion from real-world maps is unmatched, and the core systems can be satisfying when everything clicks. Yet Infection Free Zone is clearly an Early Access title. It feels more like a proof of concept than a finished game, and it still needs meaningful improvements to enemy AI, squad logistics, and overall variety to keep players hooked for the long term.
For now, the game is worth exploring if you are curious about its unique map system or if you enjoy survival city-builders with a zombie twist. Just be ready to bump into rough edges, repetitive loops, and systems that could use far more polish. If the developers follow through on community feedback and build depth into the mechanics, Infection Free Zone could evolve into something truly memorable. Until then, it remains a fascinating idea waiting to be fully realized.
