God Save Birmingham is taking the zombie survival genre somewhere surprisingly unexplored: medieval England.
Developed by Ocean Drive Studio, God Save Birmingham is an upcoming third-person, physics-driven survival game set in a reimagined version of 14th-century Birmingham, where a mysterious plague has transformed the town’s population into flesh-hungry undead. Somehow, you have survived, leaving you to scavenge through the abandoned streets while trying to keep yourself alive.
Rather than simply placing zombies inside a generic medieval world, the developers are attempting to recreate Birmingham as a believable historical market town. Locations such as the Bull Ring and Saint Martin’s Church are represented in the game, while Ocean Drive Studio has also travelled to Birmingham as part of its research into the city and its history.
The result is an unusual survival setting where guns, modern vehicles and supermarkets are nowhere to be found. Players instead have to rely on medieval weapons, scavenged supplies and whatever objects they can find around them.
One of God Save Birmingham’s biggest features is its physics system.
Almost every object around the player is designed to be movable or interactive. A table can be pushed against a doorway to stop zombies getting inside, barrels can be rolled into enemies and smaller objects can potentially become improvised tools or weapons.
Physics can also work against the player. Losing your footing could cause you to drop whatever you are carrying, while falling from a significant height can result in injuries such as a broken leg.
Combat is being built around a similar philosophy. Instead of simply pressing an attack button and watching a canned animation, Ocean Drive Studio has been working on an aim-based melee system designed to give players more control over where their attacks land.
Different areas of a zombie’s body can react differently to being struck, while weapons themselves will eventually deteriorate through repeated use. Bladed weapons can become dull and require sharpening, adding another layer of resource management to surviving the apocalypse.
Survival will involve considerably more than simply fighting zombies.
The developers are working on hunger and thirst systems alongside cooking, farming, livestock, backpacks, traps, character customisation, additional weapons and new varieties of zombies. The studio has also been experimenting with barricading and fortifying existing buildings rather than relying entirely on the traditional base-building systems seen in many survival games.
That means players could potentially find a suitable medieval house, secure the entrances and gradually turn it into a safer location while venturing outside for food and supplies.
The zombies themselves are also intended to behave as part of the world rather than simply appearing endlessly around the player. The developer has previously said the game is designed around a set population of zombies rather than constantly spawning new enemies, with sound playing an important role in how the undead locate survivors.
Another major feature has now been confirmed for the game’s Early Access launch: co-op.
Ocean Drive Studio announced in August that cooperative multiplayer will be available from day one of Early Access rather than arriving later as a post-launch addition. Development has since moved into dedicated co-op testing, with the studio recruiting additional players for what it described as its most complex test so far.
That opens up some interesting possibilities for God Save Birmingham. Groups of players could potentially explore the town together, gather supplies and defend buildings while attempting to keep everyone fed and alive.
Despite development moving forward, there is still no confirmed release date.
God Save Birmingham is planned to launch through Steam Early Access, but its Steam store page currently lists the release date simply as “To be announced.” The developers have been running increasingly large tests throughout development and continue to make changes based on player feedback.
God Save Birmingham already stands out simply because of its setting, but the combination of historical locations, detailed survival mechanics and highly interactive physics could give it considerably more depth than its medieval zombie premise initially suggests.
If Ocean Drive Studio can bring all of those systems together, surviving the streets of 14th-century Birmingham could become one of the more unusual open-world survival experiences currently in development.