on Google Preferred Source Google News Link copied to clipboard By Jen Glennon Published Aug 6, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT What to Play In this zombie apocalypse, you’re more NPC than hero
The 25 best games on Game Pass Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a gorgeous fighting game with Hulk-sized problems 30 years later, Quake gets a major update with loads of new content Don't sleep on the quietly great zombie game that just landed on Xbox Game Pass Image: Brigada Games / Devolver Digital Quarantine Zone: The Last Check Sign in to your Polygon.com account Gamers are typically afforded a certain level of privilege when it comes to the zombie apocalypse. We’re usually cast as the heroes of these stories, empowered to sneak past the terrifying shamblers or take them down with a well-aimed bullet. Quarantine Zone: The Last Check , developed by indie studio Brigada Games and published by Devolver Digital, offers no such pampering. Instead, you’re working at a checkpoint, inspecting jittery survivors for symptoms to determine whether they’re healthy enough to be evacuated. The game’s been out for several months on Steam , and it recently came to Xbox Game Pass . If you’re a fan of survival horror, this unique genre mash-up is absolutely worth checking out.
The core gameplay loop of Quarantine Zone centers around the inspection line. One by one, you’ll wave people forward and check to see if they have any symptoms. At first, these investigations are purely visual; you’ll take a flashlight and check if their eyes are red, or if they’re covered in oozing bites or worrisome scratches. Later, you’ll get more diagnostic tools like a stethoscope, a reflex hammer, and a portable X-ray. You’ll note the symptoms each person has on a tablet, then decide whether to send them to the survivors' block, quarantine, the laboratory, or “liquidation,” which is… exactly what you think it is.
Symptoms range in severity from green (mild), to orange (iffy), to red (definitely infected). Some people have one or two symptoms, others may have none at all, and once in a while you’ll find some fool with dozens of bites hidden under their clothes. Folks with any code-red symptoms go to liquidation — unless they have a new symptom you can potentially track in future survivors, in which case it’s off to the laboratory. After each inspection, you’ll see a pop-up in the top-right corner indicating whether your inspection was excellent, competent, or poor, depending on whether you correctly noted their symptoms and sent them to the right place.
It seems pretty straightforward at first, but things get complicated fast. Is that dirt or scratches? Is that a bruise, or necrosis, or a tattoo? Are those “normal” freckles or “potentially a mild symptom and thus quarantine-worthy” freckles? You’ll have to rely on your instincts, and you’ll consistently be reminded that your instincts suck. As your quarantine space fills and survivor quotas get higher, the more you’ll be tempted to let someone through who’s probably fine, fingers crossed.
While inspections are the meat of Quarantine Zone , the game does integrate a variety of other systems, with varying results. The best of these are the raids, which happen every few days at night. Piloting a drone armed with an array of guns, you’ll take out hordes of zombies attempting to infiltrate your compound. It’s straightforward arcade-style shooting, and a fun shift from the more deliberate pace of inspections that doesn’t overstay its welcome. I hav…