Pandemic Express Has Gone Free-to-Play

Pandemic Express, the multiplayer/co-op survival shooter from TALLBOYS and tinyBuild has gone free-to-play. The game tasks one player, as a zombie, to infect all other players as they traverse the map and escape via train. As the survivors succumb to the zombie threat, the balance of power will tip in favour of the infected and the struggle to escape will get increasingly difficult for the few remaining players. The developers compare the gameplay to "Left 4 Dead, if the swarm was player-controlled".

Any game going free-to-play can raise concerns among its playerbase. Audiences are wary of pay-to-win mechanics, especially in online multiplayer games like Pandemic Express. It's fortunate, then, that this title's free-to-play implementation hasn't affected gameplay. Instead, Pandemic Express has implemented a star-based currency system that can be used to earn cosmetics, emotes and music tracks. These stars are earned during regular gameplay (although the earn-rate is presumably quite low) and can also be purchased with real money. Players who bought the game pre-free-to-play will also be granted 2000 stars to use in the in-game store —enough to buy "a bunch of music tracks, skins and emotes".

Pandemic Express is available for free now on Steam.