Deathly Stillness does not think much of itself either. On Steam, it calls itself “boring” and advises players not to expect too much. Still, over 10,000 people love it on Steam. MeinMMO explains why.
“This is a boring third-person zombie game with no story” – that’s how 死寂 (Deathly Stillness) describes itself on Steam. The second selling point on the Steam page hits the same note:
Please have no high expectations for the game; it is just a game I made for the tutorial. There is no gameplay, no story, just entertainment.
Official description of Deathly Stillness on Steam
But players of Deathly Stillness find anything but “boring”: 95% of currently 11,500 reviews are positive. In the last 30 days, it was even 97% of 575 ratings.
What the free-to-play game is about and why it is popular despite its self-critical marketing, you can find out here.
Simple F2P Zombie Shooter with Snappy Gameplay
What kind of game is this? Deathly Stillness is a zombie shooter from a third-person perspective. The game is currently divided into 3 levels:
- Highway
- Village
- Chinese Alley
You choose the appearance of your character (male, female, or crazier options like anime girls in tight bunny costumes), one of two weapons (AKM or SCAR), and the level of your choice. Then you can start.
The levels differ not only in atmosphere and length but also in objectives. On the highway, you need to kill 30 zombies, while in the Chinese alley, you must find the origin of the zombies.
The game is not very extensive, but it plays very smoothly. Graphically, the game can impress, and the controls are very precise. The gunplay also makes a good impression with snappy headshots and striking explosions from your guns.
Nevertheless, the shooter is more of a tech demo than a fully-fledged game. Its popularity is not only due to the quality of what is offered but also to the story behind its development.
Game Originated from a Challenge: “Make a Zombie Game in Half an Hour”
What makes the game so special? Deathly Stillness is created by Chen Jiacheng, a user on China’s YouTube equivalent – the website bilibili. He currently has about 584,000 followers there (via bilibili).
Chen Jiacheng specializes in developing games in the Unreal Engine and had a challenge a few months ago. He wanted to create a zombie game in half an hour. This was to be a kind of tutorial video for his viewers, as he himself states on the Steam website.
You can see how this challenge looks in fast motion in the bilibili video of the developer. Since its release on Steam, the game has been continuously developed, and a new update was released on February 16, 2022.
What do players think? To make it easier for his fans to play this shooter, he made it available on Steam as a F2P game on September 4, 2021, and suddenly it became internationally known there.
The German YouTuber and esports team founder Maximillian “HandOfBlood” Knabe checked out the game and was completely baffled:
By now, hundreds of thousands of players have downloaded the “boring” shooter on Steam, and at this point, over 11,500 people have rated it – and extremely positively.
Reviews on Steam say:
- “Really well-made game. Satisfying gunplay and good controls. Feels like a trial or beta of an AAA game” (via Steam)
- “I would pay full price for such a game!” (via Steam)
- “Absolutely fantastic! I have around 1,300 play hours in DayZ, and for how ‘little’ this game offers, it surpasses many zombie shooters by far!” (via Steam)
Even though the developer does not want to promise too much, he is likely to tinker with this “boring” zombie shooter for a while longer. “Please keep an eye on this game on Steam,” it says prominently at the bottom of the screen.
Does this shown interest you? Or have you perhaps already checked out the game? Let us know in the comments!
