Quarantine Zone: The Last Check Review (PC)

So many cool ideas in gaming have been borrowed from the real world. Even the most mundane activity you can think of very likely has a counterpart indie hit waiting to be discovered. Except that the mundane turns out to be rather satisfying, as you double-check records and master the flow of repetitive tasks. Quarantine Zone: The Last Check follows in the footsteps of indie hits That’s Not My Neighbor, Papers, Please, and Contraband Police, adding to the steady incline of indies simulating day-to-day jobs. 

In these types of games, you’re often a police inspector or commander. And you either allow or deny people access to a restricted facility. You’re handed a checklist of red flags to look out for. And must use the powers of observation and, at times, moral obligation, to either let people through your checkpoint or commit them to a worse fate. While there aren’t too many games in this up-and-coming “checkpoint genre,” it’s earned the “puzzle simulation” moniker that might please anyone with an interest in brain-teasing, interactive games, or stress relief.

With the demo quickly going viral on TikTok, interest in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check’s development has gone through the roof. But do developer Brigada Games and publisher Devolver Digital deliver? Let’s find out in our Quarantine Zone: The Last Check review below.

Zombie Outbreak 

Zombie survival games often focus on scavenging for scarce resources and fighting for your life. But Quarantine Zone: The Last Check takes a different turn, where the survivors of a zombie apocalypse queue up at a military checkpoint, hoping to be let through to safety. Ideally, the inspectors at the checkpoint wouldn’t want to let through anyone who’s been infected, as they will go on to spread the zombie virus to the lucky few that have managed to escape. And so, your work begins. The tough job of deciding which people to let through the checkpoint, and which ones to leave for dead.

Well, it’s more complicated than that, of course. There has to be a basis for committing someone’s life to an end. To which Quarantine Zone: The Last Check hands you a checklist of symptoms and odd behaviors to look out for that might indicate whether a person has been infected. Yet, you’ll probably already suspect that this might often be difficult to tell from person to person. Symptoms include bloodshot eyes, skin rashes, and bite marks. But perhaps some people may have simply contracted a disease. They may be injured in the struggle to escape a zombie attack. Perhaps they simply gobbled down one too many bottles of alcohol, and thus, look weary. 

Close Eye

The way forward is clear when inspecting a survivor at the checkpoint doesn’t arouse any suspicion of their behavior. You simply let them through to join the survivors waiting to be evacuated to safety. It may also be obvious what to do when a survivor exhibits very clearly the signs and symptoms of a zombie infection. And here’s where you’ll buckle up for the next cause of action, which secludes them in a container to be “liquidated” or otherwise, shot in the head. If you’re worried about the executions making your stomach turn, just think about the lives you’ll have saved as a result. There’s no cure for a zombie infection. And so, the merciful thing to do is put them out of their misery.

But then comes the hard part. You encounter people exhibiting suspicious symptoms and behavior, not quite normal to let them through, but also not definitively infectious to send them to their deaths. Those suspicious persons are sent to the quarantine zone, to sit out their symptoms and behavior for a few days until you can clear them (or execute them when they turn into zombies). But there’s a catch: the quarantine zone can only accommodate a certain number of survivors. At least until you can buy more space and upgrade supplies to accommodate more people. It’s here that you begin to realize that Quarantine Zone: The Last Check may have more depth than initially perceived.

Power of Observation

You quickly learn to make careful observations of the people coming through the checkpoint. One mistake could result in letting the wrong people through to the safety, quarantine, or liquidation zone. It really creates peak tension when you have to say yes or no to the next person. After all, these are, in fact, actual people: men, women, children, who could easily be your loved ones. But perhaps because their animations and expressions aren’t as vivid as you might hope, no sense of fear, anxiety, or hope from the faces of the people you meet, whichever decision you make doesn’t really end up having the heavy impact you might expect. 

In the end, hearing that “bang” cut through the air as the gun goes off at yet another suspected, infected person doesn’t really ignite guilt. Worse, when you discover that you have executed the wrong person, who was actually free of the zombie virus, the guilt you expect to feel simply doesn’t land. There’s an uncomfortable desensitization to your job, one that is perhaps intentional. Without having that strong gut to liquidate infected people, they may go ahead to turn into zombies and attack the ones you’ve placed in the safety and quarantine zone. And that’d have a negative impact. Not just figuratively on the survival of humanity, but practically, on the in-game currency you receive as a reward for doing your job.

The Greater Good

Yup, Quarantine Zone: The Last Check also has a progression system, where every five days, you must meet your quota of survivors to be taken to safety. Failure to which will result in restarting the mission. There are five missions in the campaign mode. So, definitely an engaging challenge for goal setters. Meanwhile, new mechanics and tools unlock over time. From thermometers to scanners and even a rubber mallet to test a person’s reflexes, you’ll have a flourishing number of tools to test incoming survivors for the zombie virus. Plus, the symptoms will continue to update in your handbook, based on the discoveries you make. See, even researchers at the military camp don’t have the full knowledge of how zombie infections work. 

And so, yet another new mechanic is introduced, which lets you send persons you suspect of having the virus to the research lab for further examination. Perhaps a strange symptom that isn’t quite clear, even from your handbook, might end up revealing new information about the virus. And in turn, you earn research points that help you expand and upgrade the camp. But some of the additional mechanics don’t quite hit the mark. Take the surgery minigame, where you take out test subjects’ organs for testing. While fun, it’s rather basic. The same goes for the drone tower defense system, where you might have to protect your camp from invading zombies. It doesn’t quite translate as smoothly as I hoped, and might even be better scraped off completely. 

Supply and Demand

Resource management is the one mechanic that does carry depth, especially after the developers did away with manually hauling supplies across the camp. Instead, you manage resources from a clean UI, wide-ranging, from food to medicine and new labs. These allow you to give more people the benefit of the doubt. Camping at the quarantine zone, rather than straight-up sending them to liquidation. And it’s in these moments that I wish Quarantine Zone: The Last Check had dug a little deeper to add more strategic play. Because after a while, it does get repetitive. And with the endless mode, I’m uncertain how many people can remain hooked to the core gameplay loop. With the stakes eventually flattening out onward into your playthrough.

Verdict

Let’s not assume that Quarantine Zone: The Last Check doesn’t play with fire, choosing to build its concepts around heavy, morally conflicting themes. And perhaps, if they’d lean strongly into the tension and intensity that comes with leaders making tough decisions, the playthrough could have really broken records. You’re practically deciding who lives and who dies, yet feel little remorse whenever you make the wrong decision. That’s just sloppy work, adding the fact that there’s no learning curve. 

Yet, I can’t deny that Quarantine Zone: The Last Check has its special moments. When you’re deep in the groove of saying yes or no to people. That invisible power and control has its appeal, giving you all the freedom you need to manage the most optimum military checkpoint for the best survival chance of humanity. With great power comes great responsibility. And to a certain extent, it does truly feel rewarding to be playing a vital role at such a chaotic time in human civilization.

It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly a fun time, without any baggage weighing heavily on your soul. If anything, it might actually turn out to be a relaxing time, as you sink into the groove of observation, record-keeping, and follow-through.