FatalZone Review

2025 appears to be the year of the auto-shooter roguelike genre, and I am all for it. Since the overwhelming success of Vampire Survivors, development teams have taken note and have designed their very own experiences with similar gameplay. I’ve tried and tested several games this year, and there are plenty of excellent ones. FatalZone is the next in the genre to join the catalogue after a year on PC. Developed by Midhard Games and published by 101XP, this game features procedurally generated zombie-infested hordes.

Gameplay

FatalZone follows the same premise as many of the other auto-shooters out there. Try and survive without dying, collect gems and level up and unlock higher-tier rewards every time you gain a rank. There are five locations in the game with in excess of forty different enemy variations, which will make you adapt your strategy as some are much tougher than others.

The real draw for this game is looting resources and seeing how long you can hold on for before you decide to extract. You learn to really push your limits, and going too far could risk losing everything that you run. Mutation mechanics mix the game up by giving you a huge buff in your fight or a severe detrimental effect that can cripple your chances.

Upgrades, Classes & Gear Systems

Between missions, you return to a central hub that is essentially your survivor camp. Here you can upgrade seven buildings, recruit new mercenaries and allocate resources for research with a view to unlocking advanced gear, new classes and cosmetics. This system encourages repeated runs as you strive to unlock everything on offer. Alongside this, you can customise perks, gain rarer gear and blend different classes to form a stronger squad to better your chances.

Visuals & Audio

For most of my review time, I played on Xbox Series X, where it runs very smoothly in 60fps in performance mode or 30fps in quality mode. It also ran exceptionally well on both my mid-range gaming laptop and Lenovo Legion Go. The art style is unique compared to all of the other experiences in the genre. The colour palette depicts that of a post-apocalyptic world, which is weathered, dull and dreary, but it suits the atmosphere.

Enemy design is varied enough to keep it fresh and interesting, and the maps seem quite vast with no limits. Audio design is pretty solid with sound effects ringing through as you’d expect from a game of this calibre. Amongst the chaos, there is some radio chatter sporadically, which is more notable when you get an opportunity to extract via helicopter.

Final Thoughts

FatalZone is a no-brainer for fans of the genre, especially at an extremely low cost of £5.79, and it supports Xbox Play Anywhere. Being able to play on Xbox Series X and then pick up my save on my gaming laptop or my Lenovo Legion Go is brilliant. What really consumed me with this one is how there are base-building elements between runs, and how each run is different in how enemies and loot spawn. It is certainly going to remain on all of my devices until I have at least attempted to gain all of the 330 achievements on offer.