Population Zero

Survival is meant to be a race against time. Either you manage to live long enough to bring yourself on top of your environment or it eats you alive. Most survival games like Ark Survival Evolved nail the gathering and crafting aspects but forget the element of time. Population Zero not only places a literal clock on your survival but also puts it front and center for a true man-vs-nature experience. As one of the last of the human race, you’ll need to do everything you can to stay alive before the clock runs out or face complete extinction.

Here’s everything you need to know about Population Zero:

168 Hours

In Population Zero, you emerge from a hibernation pod on the planet Kepler. You quickly discover that you are one of the last of the human race and without any chance of returning to Earth, you need to survive or turn into a creature of nightmares.

From the moment you come out of your deep sleep, you have 168 hours in a series of day-and-night cycles to survive and repair your hibernation pod. Where other games give you all the time you need to do what you want, Population Zero gives you a powerful sense of urgency like no other game out there.

You or Them

Being an open-world online game, Population Zero will give you plenty of opportunities to interact with both its environments and other players. Right out the gate, you can choose to do whatever you want. You can team up with fellow colonists to fight against the creatures of the planet Kepler. This will help you craft and build the tools and facilities you need to survive over the next 168 hours. On the other hand, you can choose to annihilate your fellow colonists in PvP combat and keep the spoils of the planet to yourself.

Unique Itemization

As with every survival game worth its salt, Population Zero has a robust gathering, hunting and crafting system. Kill nightmarish creatures that inhabit the planet Kepler to gain materials which you can use to build all sorts of tools and weapons. Unlike other games in the genre, weapons have truly unique animations that define their playstyle. You can stab, slice and slash in a variety of ways that resembles what other action games do to add flair to their combat. Couple this with the game’s talent and perk trees, and you can create a true survival warrior that will rule the roost in no time.

The Bottom Line

If you enjoy survival games like Ark: Survival Evolved, you’ll probably have played the lot of them. Population Zero promises an experience that feels urgent and pressing thanks to its real-time clock.

Pros

• Real-time clock with day-night cycles adds a visceral sense of urgency
• Robust and diverse character development and customization options
• A plethora of items and tools to craft

Cons

• The world feels a bit generic with not much diversity outside of the creatures you face
• Players have been reporting bugs that haven’t been fixed in a while