Quarantine Zombies: Contamination

Introduction

Quarantine Zombies: Contamination, released 20 January 2026 by Stones Games, is a first-person shooter that combines zombie combat with checkpoint refugee inspection, tasking players with screening survivors for infection while surviving thirty days in a devastated Chicago and fighting through the city to rescue a younger brother before the army arrives. It sits Mixed across both a full multilingual sample of 73 reviews and a smaller English-language sample of 36, and reading widely through them shows a game whose reception is dominated by one central, unavoidable question: how much credit does it deserve for building on an obvious inspiration.

A close relative of an existing hit, and a split verdict on that

The single most repeated observation in this sample, by a wide margin, is a direct comparison to Quarantine Zone, an existing and clearly better-known game with a similar checkpoint-inspection core. Reviewers split sharply on what to make of that resemblance: a meaningful share dismiss it outright as a cheap clone or asset flip, several explicitly recommending players buy the original instead, while a comparable number argue the additions here, combat outside the checkpoint, a car- repair driving sequence, and a more personal rescue narrative, earn it a place as a genuine variant rather than a copy. This review reads that split as the defining fact of this game's reception, one that shapes almost every other judgement reviewers make about it.

A story reviewers keep singling out as a genuine strength

Set against that debate, this review found consistent, specific praise for the game's narrative. Multiple reviewers specifically credit the personal stakes of the rescue plot, several describing a late scene involving the player's brother as genuinely emotional, and multiple reviewers explicitly say they're already hoping for a sequel. This review reads that praise as a real differentiator from the game's obvious inspiration, one that several reviewers on both sides of the clone debate acknowledge even when they're otherwise critical.

Widely reported performance problems

This review found the most consistently repeated technical complaint in this sample: multiple reviewers independently report stutters and severe frame-rate drops, several specifically noting the problem worsens as zombie numbers increase, with at least one describing the game's late stages as barely playable even on low settings. This review treats the specificity and repetition of these reports, precise conditions under which performance degrades rather than vague instability complaints, as a genuine and current problem, one several reviewers acknowledge has measurably improved through post-launch patches without yet being fully resolved.

Distracting AI-generated voices and a spawn exploit that breaks the loop

This review found two further specific, well-corroborated complaints. Multiple reviewers separately criticise the refugee inspection NPCs' voices as distracting and clearly AI-generated, describing repeated lines and excuses for injuries that don't visibly exist, undermining a mechanic central to the game's core loop. This review also found a specific, separately corroborated exploit where zombies spawn infinitely near the checkpoint entrance, allowing a stationary automatic turret to farm cash passively while making full clearance of the area structurally pointless, a problem this review reads as a genuine design oversight in a system the rest of the economy depends on.

An economy and control scheme still being worked out

Beyond the issues above, this review found a specific complaint about balance: multiple reviewers describe the cost of quarantining a suspected case as disproportionate to the reward for a correct diagnosis, and several separately note inconsistent or unclear infection symptoms that make confident judgement calls difficult even with the game's diagnostic tools. Multiple reviewers also separately report controller-specific bugs, including an inability to save custom button layouts despite every button appearing correctly assigned, a problem at least one reviewer says appeared only after developers added controller support in a post-launch patch.

Combat that some reviewers find satisfying, others find sluggish

This review found a further, smaller split around the moment-to-moment shooting itself. Several reviewers specifically praise the variety of weapons and the satisfaction of fighting outside the checkpoint rather than being confined to inspection duties, describing runs into the ruined city as a highlight. Set against that, multiple reviewers separately criticise specific enemy types, several naming faster "jumping" zombies as disproportionately hard to hit, and more than one reviewer specifically notes that headshots require more hits than they'd expect from a game in this genre, describing the resulting time-to-kill as frustrating rather than tense. This review reads that as a real, if secondary, balance complaint distinct from the performance and exploit issues described above.

Why this review lands where it does

It's worth being direct about how this review weighs a genuine, specific story strength against a real cluster of technical and balance problems layered on top of an obvious and contested resemblance to an existing game. The rescue narrative and the additions to the core inspection loop clearly land for a meaningful share of this sample, and this review credits that as a real achievement distinct from the clone debate. But widely reported performance problems, distracting AI-generated NPC voices, and a specific exploit that undermines the game's own economy are current, concrete weaknesses that keep this from being an easy recommendation regardless of how the originality question is resolved. This review scores Quarantine Zombies: Contamination as a genuinely ambitious but rough variant best approached with patience for its current state.

Final Verdict

Quarantine Zombies: Contamination delivers a personal, well-regarded rescue story and real additions to its obvious inspiration's formula, backed by an atmosphere multiple reviewers compare favourably to Dying Light. What holds this score down is widely reported poor optimisation, distracting AI-generated NPC voices, and a specific zombie-spawn exploit that undercuts its own economy. Worth trying on sale for genre fans willing to tolerate rough edges.