I’m not sure of the reception concerning the in-browser gaming industry, but when someone combines zombies, survival role-playing, and Google Maps, it’s hard not to notice. What we have here is a persistent browser-based game (PBBG) called World of the Living Dead, where the player has to survive a messy zombie apocalypse with the help of, among other things, Google Maps to help you plan escape routes and avoid zombie hordes.

A description from the game’s wiki confirms the idea:

World of the Living Dead (WotLD) is a massively-multiplayer zombie game which features strategy gameplay and life or death resource management in a huge sandbox world. WotLD is played in the web browser as a Persistent browser-based game (PBBG) and utilizes Google Maps. Players interact simultaneously and compete with each other in a vast environment. WotLD is free to play and is currently in beta testing.

There’s also a five-plus minute video that acts as both a trailer and something of a tutorial:

From the looks of the video, resource management is a front-and-center aspect of the game, so if you don’t like fooling with inventory screens, you probably won’t like WotLD. As for the technical requirements, it’s all based on the browser you use:

WotLD is a game you play in your internet browser. No downloads or plug-ins are needed. You need to use a modern browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Users of Internet Explorer are recommended to install the Google Chrome frame for the best experience.

While I’ve only tooled around with the interface for a few minutes, over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Craig Pearson has played it a little bit longer and offers this take on the game:

I’ve only played an hour or so, but there’s an sense of dread whenever I look away from my browser: the world ticks along if I’m there or not. I’m already pondering telling the survivors to hide so I can get back to work: there’s a lot of information to parse, and plenty of missions to leap into, and it feels like it might be just a little too involved as a game to play while at work, even if you need to rest the survivors after running them from place to place. It’s rather intense.

Considering you can play the game for the grand total of free, is WotLD something that interests you or are in-browser games something you’ve decided to pass on? Let us know what you think.