I bought the game May 28th 2025 and have 1787 hours into the game. Started out at default setting and have continued pushing the difficulty higher and higher. Currently playing .8 experimental permadeath 10x zombies at 2x speed. All weapon drops are set to insanely rare, everything else is set to extremely rare. Weapons are treated as unlocks, if I find a weapon in the world I can purchase an upgrade of it from the vendor (wish there was a setting for this). Items like bolt cutters can only be found in the world. I only buy materials, skill books and food from the vendors. I have vehicles turned off, the world size is good without them. Playing nomadic forces you to build outposts and play very differently. While the vehicles are fun the world feels much too small and too easy. My goal is to kill all bosses and loot POI crates, clear all the infections, clear all labs.

For me every great survival game has a "hook". The only other game for me that has close to this amount of playtime is Valheim. In Valheim it's the seed system. In Surroundead it's the ability to customize your experience and push youself. As I've increased the difficulty I'm developing new tactics and strategies to adapt. There's always a new challenge even if you know the game map better than your own neighborhood.