In a genre dominated by Arc Raiders and Tarkov, The Midnight Walkers arrives with a zombified spin on extraction games

Whether it’s in Dying Light or Dead Island, clunking zombies around the undead head with a blunt or bladed weapon is pure gaming satisfaction. Say what you want about the rest of those series’ gameplay decisions, they make the art of turning zombies into pulp a joy. Trying to emulate that feeling is The Midnight Walkers, but instead of a corny, single-player journey through some vast, infested world, it leans into extraction multiplayer games like Escape From Tarkov and Arc Raiders, trapping players in one chaotic high-rise building. After a couple of years in development, it’s finally time for it to make its full debut – Steam Early Access has arrived.

At Gamescom last year, I got the chance to play The Midnight Walkers, and had a decent time with it. There was some jank, for sure, but the concept of bringing high-stakes extraction mechanics into a survival-based zombie game is a combination with a lot of potential. As well as connecting with the craniums of various types of zombies, you’ll also encounter other players who, like you, are looking to find great loot. Maybe you’ll make an Arc Raiders-style pact, or maybe you’ll let them feel the force of whatever weapon you have in your hands. While melee is the focus, there are ranged options such as pistols and bows, but ammo will be scarce.

With four classes to pick from at launch, you can also lean into your preferred playstyle or make a blanched squad that covers all bases. The classes aren’t particularly deep or surprising – there are specialties for melee, movement, ranged combat, and healing – but it’s a nice additional layer, nonetheless.

Rather than a sprawling map, The Midnight Walkers goes vertical, with all of its action taking place across the many levels of the Liberty Grand Centre, a tower that includes bars, broadcast stations, casinos, the humble parking lot at the bottom, and much more. As the match progresses, toxic gas pours into certain floors at random, increasing the density of other players, which increases the likelihood of a PvP skirmish.

Elevators and stairwells can be used to escape these floors and traverse to safer ones. In terms of getting out alive with your loot, certain floors will have extraction pods that you can detect with a scanner. Find them, initiate the unlocking sequence, hold the line until the pod is ready, and you’ll be free to extract.

Midnight Walkers is out now in Steam Early Access. It’s still a work in progress, and more features are to come, but exploring the levels of the tower, clobbering zombs, and the constant threat of PvP encounters makes for a good laugh, especially if you squad up with pals. It’s off to a steady start, with SteamDb showing a good couple of thousand players at the time of writing, so queue times shouldn’t be too big a headache either. Grab it here if you want to give it a spin.

While it certainly needs more depth and polish by the time it reaches 1.0, The Midnight Walkers has found an interesting niche in the extraction space. With ranged options to cater to existing shooter fans, and that arsenal of melee weapons for those that love to pulverize opponents, it’s got both bases covered there, too.