What Could be Worse Than a Zombie Apocalypse?

God Save Birmingham is an open-world survival crafting game set in medieval Birmingham, England, developed by Ocean Drive Studio Inc. I was fortunate enough to get a short hands-on session with the game at Gamescom alongside one of the developers.

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Just a typical resident taking a stroll in the woods.

Welcome To Birmingham

You can’t talk about this game without mentioning the detail put into the locale, which is, as the title suggests, Birmingham, during the 14th century. To set the scene, Birmingham has been hit by a plague, which has turned the entire populace into flesh-eating zombies, and the only survivor is you.

As I began my demo, I started in a dilapidated Church, full of zombies. I searched the nearby rooms and found an axe, which let me take out some of the zombies. One room was barricaded, and I had to use my axe to break down the doorway, revealing a helmet on the table inside (along with more zombies).

With my axe and helmet, I felt seemingly invulnerable, and I slowly made my way outside. As you’d expect, the area was filled with zombies, so I navigated past them, trying to avoid them as I explored. Outside, there were plenty of buildings to enter, some of which I had to break into by taking down more barricades or removing doors by clicking on them and selecting the remove option. Inside the buildings, there was plenty of loot for crafting in the form of everyday objects that I could break down.

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You can avoid zombies by creeping around the corridors.

Walking through the area really impressed me; the scenery looked fantastic, capturing the feel of medieval Birmingham with small market stalls scattered around the center, while larger buildings and Churches towered above them. Time was running short with the demo, however, so I rushed to see as much as I could. Unfortunately, I barely made it out of the first complex, so I couldn’t check much out; however, I noticed I could pick up ladders and place them anywhere I wanted, which let me find hidden supplies in unusual places and add some much-needed verticality to the world.

Every Swing Counts

The combat took me by surprise and utilized physics well; for example, if I used a weapon with a wide swing like a Combat Scythe in an alley, it would hit the walls, preventing me from attacking the zombies. But when I switched to a polearm, the forward stabs allowed me to mow them down more easily without fear of hitting the walls. Another thing I noticed was that I got skill ups in the weapon I was using; the more I used it, the better I’d get with it, eventually decapitating the zombies in one attack.

It wasn’t just the weapons I could use, though; I could interact with a lot of environmental objects, including ladders, pots, bowls, and chairs, to name a few, and I could swing them around and knock enemies over, really showcasing the physics-based combat. I could also use the same objects to barricade the door in a building I was taking refuge in when the horde got overwhelming. The physics system offers so many possibilities that I’m sure a more creative player could use them to their advantage.

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Polearms allow you to perform attacks in a forward motion, great for narrow areas like alleys.

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The Combat Scythe is great for groups of zombies due to it’s wide-sweeping attacks.

When I was fighting a group of zombies, one of them took a cheeky bite out of my arm. Once I dealt with them, I had to deal with the wound I got. Before I could do that, though, I had to clean it with an ointment before I put a bandage on it. Now, I could’ve just put a bandage over it to stop the bleeding, but the developer encouraged me to clean it first. While the game has a lot of status effects, I didn’t have time to check them all out. However, the typical survival mechanics of hunger, thirst, and tiredness were just a few of them.

My final thoughts on God Saves Birmingham for now are that it’s an ambitious project despite obviously being very early in development still. It has a lot going for it already, especially the physics system, and it shows a lot of promise if the developers stick with their vision. The systems are solid, the animations are detailed, and the recreation of Birmingham looks great.