Herd Is Coming

Set in a post-apocalyptic world ten years after a devastating outbreak spoiled all traditional food sources, ‘Herd Is Coming’ depicts a brutal reality where survivors have resorted to cannibalizing zombies to endure. Players follow Mike, a weary scavenger alarmed by humanity’s dwindling numbers, as they navigate this hostile landscape. The game blends action and RPG elements, featuring weapon/armory customization, crafting, shelter management, trading with survivors, quest-driven progression, and a unique stat/skill system focused on zombie-based survival mechanics.

Herd Is Coming: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival RPG Devoured by Ambition and Flawed Execution

Introduction

In the crowded landscape of zombie survival games, Herd Is Coming (2019) emerges not as a masterpiece, but as a fascinating, if deeply flawed, indie experiment. Developed by Proximity Games and built on the Adventure Game Studio (AGS) engine—an unusual choice for an action RPG—it thrusts players into a world where humanity has descended into “mutual cannibalism” a decade after the apocalypse. With its grotesque premise of survivors consuming the undead for sustenance, the game promises a unique twist on the undead trope. Yet, while its ambition shines through in intricate survival systems and a bleak, atmospheric world, Herd Is Coming is ultimately hampered by technical limitations, sluggish pacing, and execution problems that prevent it from reaching its potential. This review dissects the game’s historical context, narrative depth, mechanical complexity, and divisive legacy to reveal a title that is more a curio than a classic.

Development History & Context

Herd Is Coming was crafted by Proximity Games, a small indie studio whose portfolio includes titles like Erzurum and Wolf Territory. Released on June 10, 2019, the game arrived during a saturated post-apocalyptic market dominated by AAA offerings like Days Gone and indie darlings like State of Decay 2. Its development was constrained by the choice of the AGS engine—a tool traditionally designed for point-and-click adventure games. This forced the developers to shoehorn action-RPG mechanics into an engine ill-suited for real-time combat, resulting in clunky animations and limitations in fluid movement. The studio’s vision, as detailed on Steam, was to create a “ruthless world” where survival demanded moral compromises, leveraging the AGS engine’s flexibility for complex RPG systems. However, the era’s indie boom meant Herd Is Coming competed for attention against polished titles, highlighting its technical shortcomings. Its $0.99 price point positioned it as a budget experiment, yet the core ambition—blending survival horror with deep crafting and RPG progression—was undeniably bold for a small team.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative centers on Mike, a lone survivor traversing a desolate world ten years after the zombie outbreak. Unlike traditional zombie tales, Herd Is Coming posits a grim societal collapse: conventional food has decayed, forcing survivors to cannibalize the undead they slay. This “world of mutual cannibalism” is the game’s most striking and unsettling theme, exploring how desperation erodes humanity. Mike’s quest—to find and protect dwindling survivors—drives the main plot, though character development is sparse. Dialogue is minimal, with other survivors acting as quest givers or traders rather than fully realized individuals. The narrative’s strength lies in its atmosphere of bleak nihilism. Quests often involve morally ambiguous choices, such as harvesting zombie organs for sustenance or trading with cannibalistic settlements. The game’s unique dishes—Zombie Brain Soup, Zombie Salami, and Zombie Kokorech—are not just macabre novelty items but central to survival, forcing players to confront the horrors of their world. While the story lacks emotional depth or intricate plotting, its unflinching portrayal of cannibalism as a societal norm elevates it beyond typical zombie fare, serving as a dark mirror to real-world survival ethics.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Herd Is Coming’s core gameplay loop revolves around scavenging, combat, crafting, and progression—a hallmark of the survival RPG genre. However, its execution is riddled with issues:
– Combat & Weapons: Players wield a variety of melee (e.g., Machetes, Cleavers) and ranged weapons (e.g., Bows), each with unique critical-hit and knock-down mechanics. Weapon enhancement via “Stat Enhancers” adds depth, but combat feels sluggish due to poor animations and unresponsive controls. The AGS engine’s limitations make encounters feel clunky, with zombies often phasing through attacks or blocking movement paths.
– Character Progression: Leveling through zombie kills grants stat points to distribute across eight attributes (e.g., Strength, Agility), while skills are unlocked in four categories (Attack, Defense, Survival, Craft). This system offers customization, but progression feels grindy. Players often spend hours farming zombies for XP, exacerbated by slow gameplay.
– Crafting & Loot: Crafting is robust, allowing players to create medical supplies, tools, and even zombie-based dishes from harvested organs. Looting environments and corpses yields diverse items, but the inventory system is cumbersome. Player complaints highlight issues with item vanishing and inefficient UI, turning resource management into a chore.
– Survival & Shelter Mechanics: Hunger, thirst, and health add survival tension, but the hunger depletes too rapidly, forcing constant scavenging. Upgrading the shelter (doors, beds) and recruiting survivors adds a base-building layer, but these feel underdeveloped. Shelter upgrades are purely defensive, with no meaningful interactions beyond trade.
– Quests & Exploration: Main quests unlock new areas, while side quests offer rewards, but both are repetitive (“fetch this item, clear that location”). Exploration is hindered by bugs, such as zombies blocking pathways or save failures, as noted in Steam discussions.

These systems collectively create a survival experience that is complex yet frustrating. The ambition to integrate RPG depth with survival mechanics is admirable, but poor optimization and pacing undermine the fun.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The post-apocalyptic setting is Herd Is Coming’s most compelling element. Environments—decayed cities, forests, and shelters—are rendered in a 2D side-scrolling view, with a desaturated color palette that evokes hopelessness. The “mutual cannibalism” theme permeates the world, from blood-splattered textures to survivor dialogues about zombie feasts. However, the art is dated, with pixelated sprites and static backgrounds that feel archaic even for 2019. This visual style, while atmospheric, fails to mask technical flaws like jarring animations. Sound design is sparse, with minimal ambient effects and repetitive combat sound effects that fail to enhance tension. The lack of a dynamic soundtrack or nuanced audio cues leaves the world feeling lifeless. Despite these shortcomings, the game’s world-building succeeds in its bleakness. The constant threat of starvation, the grotesque focus on zombie organs, and the isolating landscapes create a palpable sense of dread, even if the presentation is crude.

Reception & Legacy

Upon release, Herd Is Coming received a Mixed reception on Steam, with 68% positive reviews based on 59 user scores (as of 2026). Critics and players lauded its ambition, with praise heaped on the crafting system, character progression, and unique cannibalism premise. One Steam review noted, “The zombie food mechanic is genius—eating brains to survive in a dead world.” However, complaints dominated: slow gameplay, clunky animations, and bugs were recurring themes. The Niklas Notes analysis highlighted that 17% of reviews cited “Slow Gameplay” as a major flaw, while 7% criticized outdated graphics. Community discussions on Steam reveal ongoing issues, such as save failures and path-blocking bugs, with players requesting patches and quality-of-life updates (e.g., key remapping, hunger rate adjustments).

Commercially, the game found modest success, bundled with other Proximity titles in the Proximity Games Complete Pack. Its player count remains negligible (peaking at 63 concurrent players, often dipping to 1), reflecting its niche appeal. Legacy-wise, Herd Is Coming is remembered as a cult curiosity rather than an influencer. It did not spawn sequels or imitators, but its AGS-based experiment is occasionally cited in indie dev forums as a case study in balancing ambition with technical constraints. Its greatest impact is as a cautionary tale about the challenges of creating a deep survival RPG without adequate resources or engine suitability.

Conclusion

Herd Is Coming is a game of stark contrasts: a bold, thematically rich survival RPG trapped in a technically failing shell. Its cannibalistic premise and intricate crafting systems offer a unique slice of post-apocalyptic horror, yet these are drowned out by sluggish gameplay, dated visuals, and persistent bugs. Proximity Games’ ambition to create a world where humanity devolves into “mutual cannibalism” is commendable, but the execution falls short of the vision. For niche players willing to tolerate its flaws, it provides a grim, atmospheric experience. For most, however, it remains a historical footnote—a testament to the difficulties of indie game development. In the pantheon of zombie games, Herd Is Coming is not a classic, but it is a fascinating, flawed artifact that reminds us that even the most grotesque worlds can’t save a game from its own technical decay.