Urban Dead was a free-to-play HTML/text-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by British developer Kevan Davis. Set in a quarantined region of the fictional city of Malton, it dealt with the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. Players entered the game either as a survivor or a zombie, each with different abilities and limitations. Survivors became zombies when they are killed, while zombies could be "revivified" with appropriate technology, returning to life as a survivor – any character played for long would thus spend some time alive and some as a zombie. There were no non-player characters in the game: all survivors and zombies were controlled by players.

Urban Dead went live on July 3, 2005, and shut down on March 14, 2025.

On February 20, 2026, a successor project was released, Worldwide Dead, created by a former player of the original game.

Gameplay

thumb|left|250px|A screenshot of a survivor standing outside a fire station

Gameplay involved zombies breaking into safe houses and attacking the inhabitants, and survivors trying to defend the buildings by barricading them and killing any zombies present. Safe houses tended to be located in or near buildings where useful items could be found, such as shopping malls, police stations, hospitals, and the laboratories of the zombie-related NecroTech corporation. Cooperation between players was not strictly enforced. Internal fighting between survivors and zombies was a frequent occurrence. Urban Dead had no economy. Survivor characters could loot supplies from abandoned buildings indefinitely, but could not trade, sell, or give them to other players.

New players began the game as one of the three survivor classes; Military, Scientist or Civilian; or as a Zombie. Each side in the struggle had its own advantages and disadvantages. Survivors moved twice as fast as low-level zombies and were able to employ various weapons and tools. Survivor characters could communicate with each other in-game via speech, radio broadcasting, graffiti and text messaging. They could also barricade building entrances, keeping zombies at bay. Zombies, often referred to as "zeds", were limited to using claws, teeth, and blunt melee weapons. However, they could self-revive with full hit points when killed, whereas a survivor needed another player to revive them after death if they did not wish to play as a zombie. Higher level zombies could communicate with each other via a crude form of zombie speech, as well as through various groaning noises and hand gestures. It was possible to switch sides in the conflict: a survivor character that was killed would rise up as a zombie, and zombie characters could be brought back to life by a survivor who had the relevant skills and items.

Players received action points as time passed, which were used up any time they moved, fought, or undertook any other sort of activity. One action point was gained every half-hour of real time, up to a maximum of 50 points. When a character's action points dropped to zero or lower, that character was unable to perform any action until they gained further points: survivors fell asleep and zombies' brains ceased to function. Revive points were considered neutral ground and survivors were generally discouraged from killing zombies found there. Some players and groups on both sides also set their own distinct goals, many of which were set for purely role-playing purposes. Urban Dead was not limited to survivor versus zombie combat. Groups of survivors could attack other survivors, known as player killing. Within the game, this was viewed as an act of murder; however, it was not against the game rules and was seen by some more advanced players as playing the game on "Hard" due to only receiving half the experience points that one would receive for attacking zombies. Individuals that engaged in this behavior were often tracked by bounty hunters. Some zombie groups used living characters as spies and saboteurs, usually during or in preparation for a major attack on a safe house (mainly shopping malls). These collaborators were often referred to as "zombie spies" or "death cultists."

Development

Urban Dead was created by Kevan Davis, a freelance video game designer and web developer, in 2005. Davis was inspired by a similar game called Vampires!, which was created by a friend, and play-by-mail games. These were combined with elements of NetHack, MUSHes, interactive fiction and a zombie infection simulation he had developed in 2003. This resulted in the creation of a game which required approximately 10 minutes of planning and play a day, involving exploration, interaction and item discovery. Similar opinions were expressed by another reviewer in 2018.

In retrospective coverage ahead of the game's shutdown, PC Gamers Jake Tucker also praised the "large-scale strategic element" that developed within the game as players formed organized groups. Tucker quoted fellow writer Andy Chalk's reflection on an early siege of one of the in-game malls as "incredibly intense and satisfying, and a remarkable feat of spontaneous coordination among people around the world. I fell away [from the game] in 2006, but it still breaks my heart a little that it's coming to an end."

See also

  • List of multiplayer browser games

References

  • Official Urban Dead website
  • Official Urban Dead Wiki
  • Game Statistics
  • Kevan Davis