- April 16, 2026
- Malformation Games
- 2h median play time
Ground Zero
A rich, replay-heavy survival horror revival that stumbles in its menus and controls but delivers strong atmosphere, exploration, and discovery.
Platforms
Buy Now
About
Ground Zero is a single player survival shooter game with horror, post-apocalyptic and science fiction themes. It was developed by Malformation Games and was released on April 16, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.
Fight through post-apocalyptic South Korea in this retro survival horror. Uncover the truth behind the devastating meteor impact that left the country in ruins and turned every living organism into a terrifying monstrosity. Fight. Solve puzzles. Upgrade gear. Make every bullet count.
- Authentic old-school survival horror experience inspired by classic Resident Evil and Dino Crisis games, capturing the nostalgic PS1-era atmosphere, fixed cameras, tank controls, and resource management.
- Long and content-rich with multiple story paths, high replayability through choice-driven routes, unlockable modes, costumes, and additional difficulties providing great value.
- Engaging combat mechanics including critical shots, parrying, dodging, melee emphasis, and rewarding stealth and ammo conservation, complemented by detailed environments, strong monster designs, and a fitting atmospheric soundtrack.
- Technical issues such as performance problems (high GPU usage, frame drops), numerous bugs and glitches affecting animations, hitboxes, enemy AI, and menu stability that impact playability.
- Control quirks and camera problems including awkward fixed angles causing visibility issues, awkward aiming mechanics, clunky inventory UI, lack of vertical map navigation, and some frustrating sections like the boat sequence.
- Design and balancing flaws including uneven difficulty spikes, over-reliance on a somewhat cumbersome critical shot mechanic, some poorly executed level design leading to tedious backtracking, and inconsistent story pacing with occasionally unengaging dialogue.
- gameplay95 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
The gameplay offers a solid and tight survival horror experience reminiscent of classic titles like Resident Evil 3, enhanced by refined mechanics such as dodge, parry, and a timing-based critical shot that adds strategic depth but can be challenging to master. While generally praised for its combat options, enemy variety, and risk-reward mechanics, some players find certain features like the parry system and critical shot underutilized or unbalanced, and occasional bugs and control quirks slightly detract from immersion. Overall, it delivers a satisfying gameplay loop with notable replay value, especially for fans of fixed-camera horror, though its complexity may pose difficulty for newcomers.
“With that out of the way, this game is basically Resident Evil 3 but with the design choices and mechanics fine tuned. Alternate paths are no longer small 15-minute detours but rather whole entire levels that change how you approach the game (some are more dangerous but faster to save supplies, others offer more medical over weapons, etc.). Jill's dodge is now a dedicated button that can be done at will as long as you have stamina, and as a last ditch effort, you can attempt to deflect the attack and counter with one of your own. When enemies are knocked down, you can perform an execution. "Herbs" now give permanent stat boosts if you combine three. You have a "pot-shot" mechanic to save ammo, but this is offset by enemies becoming more aggressive when wounded, making them harder to dodge so your one-shot might just become on par with a bee sting if you mess up the timing.”
“But in addition to that, you also have a critical aim mechanic, a timing-based mechanic (think of active reload from many shooters) that lets you take some time to focus your aim and then if you do the mechanic successfully, you actually one shot kill enemies with it, which I found to be a very fun addition due to its risk/reward nature. It certainly isn't without its balance issues and timing-based mechanics aren't everyone's cup of tea.”
“There are some really cool parry mechanics that exist in the game that are a bit weird to pull off but once you get the hang of it, it makes sense and feels really rewarding to save some ammo and risk taking a few hits while you try to parry enemies with your knife and finish them off that way.”
“The parry mechanic leaves much to be desired - it feels like nothing more than a safe way to conserve ammunition at the cost of taking a full moon cycle to finally kill a mob.”
“Aside from that, terrible aiming mechanics, glaring lack of quality of life features (next to no graphical options, can't even adjust brightness and the game is very dark), and a lot of ill-thought-out mechanics that make no sense; the parry mechanic being a prime example.”
“It asks the player for precision aiming, timing-based mechanics, blocking, parries, counterattacks, and “critical shot” execution, but the game’s own foundation is too rough to support that level of demand.”
Ground Zero
A rich, replay-heavy survival horror revival that stumbles in its menus and controls but delivers strong atmosphere, exploration, and discovery.
83%Ground Zero Review - An Old-School Survival Horror Game Through And Through
Ground Zero plays its cards very early on, showing you exactly what it wants to do from the get-go. It channels its inspiration from old-school survival horror games that made the PS1 so special, even leaning into pre-rendered backgrounds and offering tank controls. Visuals get blurry in certain areas, and frame rate takes a hit in weird places. Then there's the old-school need to actually conserve your ammunition for boss fights, which can put you in a position where you can't defeat the boss without enough weaponry. Overall, Ground Zero makes for a good time and has a good gameplay loop as long as you know what to expect from it.
75%Ground Zero Review – A Love Letter to Resident Evil That Stands on Its Own
Good
80%
Buy Ground Zero
Videos
Games Like Ground Zero
Frequently Asked Questions
Ground Zero is a survival shooter game with horror, post-apocalyptic and science fiction themes.
Ground Zero is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, Windows and others.
On average players spend around 2 hours playing Ground Zero.
Ground Zero was released on April 16, 2026.
Ground Zero was developed by Malformation Games.
Ground Zero has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Ground Zero for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.
Ground Zero is a single player game.
Similar games include Tormented Souls, Them and Us, Alisa, Tormented Souls 2, Hollowbody and others.