Zombie Exodus: Stronghold content pull
⚠️ Minor Spoiler for Stronghold ⚠️
As you know, the main character becomes infected with the Zeta virus in the first chapter. I've heard from some of you that playing as an infected character feels like a disadvantage right out of the gate, and I get that. Nobody wants to feel like the deck is stacked against them from the start.
So here's what I'm considering: what if the infection eventually becomes an advantage?
Partway through the story, your character could begin to unlock certain zombie-like abilities tied to the virus, things like enhanced physical attributes, heightened pain tolerance, or minor biological mutations. These wouldn't be over-the-top superpowers. Think subtle, grounded upgrades that make sense within the fiction: faster reflexes, resistance to fatigue, sharper senses, that kind of thing. You'd get to choose which abilities to develop, adding another layer of customization to your character build.
The idea is to turn what initially feels like a curse into something you can actually leverage with its own risks and trade-offs, of course.
What do you think?
Comments (19)
I bet you could pull references from the video game, dying light. The main character is infected. The second game doesn’t talk about it, but the first one, the first ones dlc, and the most recent one. He has advantages and disadvantages with the infection and that sort of thing would work perfectly.
I think it's better to let it be 50/50, giving you advantages but also depriving you of something, like impulse, memory loss, or require more and more food as time goes on.
It would be a rather unique twist to be sure. Much better than be a doomed protagonist from the start. The zombie apocalypse alone offers bleak chances of survival. No need to add searching desperately for a cure from the start.
You could use an advantage like Dying Light: The Beast?
Personally? I was like "aww heck no, please shoot me before I bite you or lose myself completely" I went into character sort of here. Why I never truly finished it (I missed out I KNOW! But I played it like I probably would've played it out irl. I would've seen being infected like a death sentence, where I was also a threat to everyone else. I did not want to go on, at that point
In this game it won't be a death sentence. There are opportunities to get cured or become a hybrid
Honestly I never got to finish the original stronghold so I don't how the game ends. I don't know if you gave them like the choice to remain infected for have to cure themselves but if you give the person the option to remain like a partial infected or completely new breed of human at the end of the game. Like cure the negatives and keep the positives like not overpowered but he is still a completely new breed of human that is immune to the virus now. I mean It'd be pretty cool. Like as long as you keep the infection below 50% you can cure yourself or maybe even modify the viruses positive changes to become a permanent change but without the negatives of being a actual zombie. Like a new breed of human.
I think it could be fun to manage the infection level
This is giving me Dying Light Vibes im all for it
If you were to go this route I feel like you’d really need to explain how the virus works to some extent. Unless I’m forgetting something, I don’t believe we’ve really experienced anyone turning into a zombie yet in the ZE universe. Do you only turn once you reach a threshold of contamination? Do you turn after X amount of time? I have no doubt in your ability to write something great, I just feel like it could get really complex and ungrounded really fast. I do agree with NeganMOX’ idea about being able to blend in with zombies though, that seems like something that would make logical sense.
In some parts of the game I explained that the infection takes 1-6 hours to transform you. But I will make it more clear. And I will give opportunities to learn about the virus
Will people around us see physical changes to our character, the more we allow the virus to embed itself into our very DNA? I think if you go to far, turning back should become much harder until you hit the wall and it's irreversible
Yes, there will definitely be physical changes visible to others. And yes, maybe the more you use your abilities, the more you change.
Perhaps you could do something like if you manage to keep your infection level low, you'll gain subtle advantages, but if you let the infection level get high you'd gain big advantages. Though this mixed approach would require some sort of trade off, like needing higher willpower to control yourself or needing more drugs to keep you infection below a certain level to prevent turning, to make it so that high infection levels are not a net positive.
Those are great suggestions. The game is going to get more complex, but you know I kind of like that
I would love to see this, but maybe with a spinoff storyline where the more you use the abilities, the faster the infection or mutations happen. Kind of like the game Prey.
You mean within the same game and it gets more powerful over time?
Maybe something like you could gain the ability to blend in with zombies due to smell, or even a rage mode kinda thing?
those are great ideas.