rabieZ: Epidemic

rabieZ: Epidemic is a real-time strategy survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. Players must guide a group of survivors through hordes of the infected, utilizing top-down tactical combat to escape the epicenter of a devastating outbreak. Developed by Sekerin Productions, the game combines elements of resource management and horror as you fight for survival in a desolate, sci-fi-infused setting.

rabieZ: Epidemic: Review

Introduction

In the vast and often unforgiving landscape of indie game development, there exists a peculiar strata of titles that defy easy categorization. They are not the breakout successes that redefine genres, nor are they the infamous failures that become cautionary tales. They are the digital phantoms, released into the wild with minimal fanfare, accruing a small but dedicated—or perhaps bewildered—following. rabieZ: Epidemic, a 2016 real-time tactical survival game from Sekerin Productions, is a quintessential resident of this realm. A game that promises a harrowing escape from a zombie epicentre, built upon the “acclaimed engine” of its robot-themed predecessor, AI: Rampage. This review will dissect its troubled existence, analyzing how its ambitions were ultimately consumed by its limitations, leaving behind a curious, flawed artifact in the annals of zombie gaming.

Development History & Context

Sekerin Productions, the developer behind rabieZ: Epidemic, operated within a very specific niche of the mid-2010s Steam marketplace. This was the era of the digital storefront’s great opening of the gates, a time when a small team or even a solo developer could publish a title with relative ease. Sekerin positioned itself as a prolific purveyor of budget-conscious games, often bundled together in massive packages like the “Mega Game Pack Bundle” or the “Game Company Complete Bundle,” which featured a staggering 52 titles including rabieZ.

The studio’s previous work, AI: Rampage, is repeatedly cited in the marketing material for rabieZ as a “well-received robot apocalypse survival game,” a claim that seems to serve as the primary pedigree for this new venture. The re-use of a “custom, acclaimed engine” suggests a development philosophy centered on asset and system recycling, a common practice for studios aiming for volume over singular, polished experiences. Released on March 4, 2016, rabieZ entered a market saturated with zombie titles, from AAA blockbusters to indie darlings. Its goal was not to reinvent the wheel but to offer a specific, top-down, real-time tactical take on the genre, all for a budget price point of less than a dollar.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative premise of rabieZ: Epidemic is, like its file size (a mere 90 MB), stripped down to its bare essentials. Players guide a “couple of survivors” or a “band of survivors” as they attempt to “escape the epicentre of the infection.” The game poses a simple, binary choice: “Do you choose to merely survive, or attempt to stop the epidemic in this territory?”

Beyond this setup, the narrative is virtually non-existent. There are no named characters with backstories, no scripted dialogue sequences, and no overarching plot to uncover. The story is emergent, generated purely by the gameplay loop of survival and movement. Thematically, it touches on the classic tropes of the genre: the fragility of humanity, the desperation of scarce resources, and the constant, looming threat of a mindless horde. However, it does not explore these themes with any depth or originality. The experience is less a crafted narrative and more a framework for a survival simulation, where the only story told is whether your anonymous survivors made it to the next checkpoint or became another statistic in the outbreak.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

rabieZ: Epidemic is built around a core loop of real-time tactical combat. Players command a small group of survivors from a top-down perspective, navigating them through levels filled with zombies. The game boasts of an “original combination of tactical elements and Arcade gameplay” and “Realistic survivor AI.”

In practice, player reports and the overall reception suggest these systems were the source of the game’s greatest criticism. Community discussions highlight significant difficulty spikes, particularly at a level named “The Shining.” Players lamented the ineffectiveness of weapons, with comments noting the “shotgun with it’s incredibly slow fire rate, and uselessness” and the inadequacy of having only “3 mines to kill like 7 seven zombies.” The “realistic survivor AI” often translated into companions with questionable pathfinding and combat decisions, a common pitfall for games of this type.

The UI and controls appear functional but rudimentary, a characteristic of many ultra-budget titles from this period. The game includes standard features for the time, such as Steam Achievements (10 in total), Steam Cloud saves, and Trading Cards, perhaps in an attempt to add longevity and value to the brief experience. HowLongToBeat estimates a completionist run takes around 4 hours, though this likely varies wildly based on the game’s reported erratic difficulty.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The world of rabieZ is a generic, post-apocalyptic landscape rendered in a simplistic top-down visual style. The screenshots and promotional art depict blocky, low-detail character models and environments that prioritize function over flair. The aesthetic is utilitarian, evoking the feel of a mobile game or a very early 2000s PC title rather than a contemporary 2016 release.

The sound design is similarly basic. While the game supports full audio in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, there is no indication of a notable soundtrack or sophisticated sound effects. The atmosphere, a crucial component of any horror or survival experience, is largely absent, failing to build the tension or dread that defines the best games in the genre. The overall presentation contributes significantly to the game’s perception as a low-effort asset, a product designed to fill a bundle slot rather than immerse a player in a crumbling world.

Reception & Legacy

The reception for rabieZ: Epidemic was, and remains, overwhelmingly negative. On Steam, it holds a “Mixed” rating overall, with only 45% of its 157 user reviews being positive. The aggregated player score on tracking sites sits around a dismal 42/100. User reviews frequently label it with tags like “crapware” and critique its spelling errors (the intentional “rabieZ” aside, one user noted, “rabies was spelled wrong”). Technical problems were also prevalent, with forum posts detailing launch issues where the game would not progress past the settings menu.

Its legacy is virtually non-existent. The game did not influence the genre, inspire a sequel, or leave any meaningful mark on the industry. Its primary historical role is as a footnote, a representative example of the sheer volume of low-cost, low-impact content that flooded digital marketplaces in the mid-2010s. It exists today almost exclusively as a component within massive game bundles, a curious artifact for completionists and a brief, often frustrating diversion for the unsuspecting.

Conclusion

rabieZ: Epidemic is not a good game by any critical metric. Its gameplay is flawed, its presentation is subpar, and its execution fails to meet its modest ambitions. Yet, it is a fascinating subject for analysis precisely because of its utter mediocrity and obscurity. It serves as a perfect case study of a specific type of game development: fast, cheap, and designed for a market that valued quantity. It is a zombie not only in its theme but in its digital existence—a shambling entity with no higher purpose than to fill space in a bundle. For historians and journalists, it is a reminder that for every landmark title, there are thousands of forgotten experiments like rabieZ. Its definitive verdict is that it is a game with no lasting positive impact, a fleeting, flawed echo in the massive chamber of video game history, noteworthy only as a example of what not to do.