Hidden Panda games comments on controversial elements in Survivor Zero

A few days ago, we posted a news article announcing Survivor Zero, a realistic zombie survival game that sounds really exciting. One of the points I mentioned in that article was that the game would include zombie children and babies, which many people considered to be in poor taste. I reached out to developer Hidden Panda Games to ask what they thought about the situation.

Since Survivor Zero strives to be as realistic as possible, it would only make sense for the zombie population to include some children of various ages. After all, it would be absurd if all youngsters are immune to whatever zombie strain torments humanity and, even if that was the case, the streets would still be littered with their corpses, which would be even more morbid. The studio had the following to say regarding the matter:

Yes, we plan on incorporating as many realistic elements that we think would befall an apocalyptic zombie scenario, so zombie babies would add to the realism of the experience gamers would feel when they play Survivor Zero. Having elements in the game that become hard choices for players to choose from makes Survivor Zero stand out as a game that will inspire people to truly feel the consequences for their actions. Also we are discussing options of turning certain features on or off, so players that feel zombie children/babies are too much, may turn this feature of the game off.

I like this stance, because it puts the final decision on the player. Developers need a certain degree of control over their work, but if a feature is not essential to realizing their vision, then I don’t see any problem with letting users decide whether or not they want it in their game. Heck, knowing the PC community, somebody would have modded it in or out at some point anyway.

Would you keep the feature on yourself or are undead children something you’d rather not deal with?