Co-op Campaign (PvE)

• New York

A group of survivors fail to reach an evacuation point set up by the U.S. Army and are forced to fight their way back down to the streets. They are soon contacted by another group of survivors, who have procured a subway train that will take them to another evacuation site. The group manages to reach the train and help prepare it for departure while fighting off swarms of zombies trying to overrun them. Although they manage to get the train started, they are stopped by a sealed door that was previously guarded by other survivors who were supposed to open it upon their arrival. After opening the sealed door, the group fights their way to the last Army evacuation site but finds all the ships have left and the remaining soldiers and survivors have been killed. Finding a boat attached to a winch, the group desperately tries to bring it ashore as their last chance of escape while fighting off a massive zombie horde. After boarding the boat, the survivors leave New York. Somewhere along the way, however, the boat runs out of fuel and the survivors are once again left stranded in a zombie-infested town. They eventually come across another evacuation site still occupied by the Army and full of wounded civilians. With the help of a gunship, the group desperately tries to defend the site under siege from multiple hordes as the soldiers evacuate the civilians. Things take a turn for the better when the Air Force arrives and destroys the remaining hordes, allowing everyone else to escape via helicopters.

• Jerusalem

A group of IDF soldiers and a photojournalist are tasked with rescuing a scientist whom high command regards as crucial in putting an end to the zombie epidemic. The group manages to rescue the scientist, who reveals that he was part of a team developing an experimental orbital particle cannon that can be used to wipe out large swarms of zombies in a single shot. They escort the scientist to the facility where the weapon can be fired and manage to protect him long enough to activate the weapon and escape. While flying away from the facility, the group witnesses the devastating firepower of the cannon, which wipes out a large zombie swarm which overruns the facility.

• Moscow

A group of survivors searching for food and other supplies witnesses the crash of a military helicopter and moves in to save anyone who survived. When they reach the crash site, they find only one survivor, a female Russian Army officer, and fight off a massive swarm that attempts to overrun the crash site. After fending off the zombies, the officer enlists the group's help in activating a deadly nerve agent throughout Moscow that is lethal to both humans and zombies. The plan is to evacuate any survivors in the city and kill all of the zombies, but the nerve agent will leave Moscow uninhabitable for six months. After sending out a signal to warn all survivors to evacuate before the nerve agent is released, the group infiltrate a secret facility where the nerve agent can be released. They successfully release it throughout Moscow, killing all of the zombies in the city. Five days after being stranded in the bunker, the group believes they have been abandoned, but re-establish a connection with the officer who tells them to gas the tunnels to kill off the zombies hiding inside. Soon after, the Russian Army arrives and evacuates the group from the station as it is being attacked by multiple zombie hordes.

• Tokyo

Following the outbreak, the entirety of Japan is being evacuated. A volunteer rescue team finishes a final check for survivors in the city and assists in escorting a bus of survivors to a military checkpoint. The team is then tasked with assisting the JSDF in defending a large cruise ship, the only remaining evacuation transport. The team manages to hold off a massive swarm by destroying a large fuel facility that acts as a wall of fire and manage to reach the cruise ship in time as it departs Japan. However, some infected have gotten aboard due to rushed screening operations, leaving the ship in danger of being overrun as the infection spreads. The team assists the onboard military forces in repelling and ultimately eliminating the infected from the ship. Though they have abandoned their country, the team hold hope that they will one day return to reclaim their land.

• Marseille

With one of the largest zombie hordes in Europe headed straight for Marseille, four members of the French Resistance battle their way through the streets to obtain weapons and medicine before it arrives. They soon learn that a missile battery set up in Fort Niolon across the bay has gone dark, depriving the area of its much needed firepower required to stop the horde. Volunteering to investigate, the group finally arrives at the fort after fighting through a town and a factory. There, they find survivors holed up in a fortified building, and a giant swarm of zombies climbing up the hill toward their position. With no time to lose, the group is forced to commandeer the battery in order to stop the swarm. Using missile launchers to trigger avalanches that halt the swarm, they eventually succeed in lifting the siege, and returns to Marseille upon learning that the city is under attack. Rallying at Fort Saint-Jean, the group stages a final stand against the horde as night approaches, setting up fire moats and sealing breaches along the way. Overwhelmed and outnumbered, they struggle to contact Fort Niolon as their radios are disabled in the attack. They eventually signal the battery with a flare gun, who respond with a missile barrage that obliterates much of the horde, thereby saving the city.

Multiplayer (PvPvZ)

A maximum of eight players divided into two teams compete in a campaign.

• Swarm Deathmatch
• Swarm Domination
• King of the Hill
• Scavenge Raid
• Vaccine Hunt

Post-release content

World War Z is supported with regular updates, patches, new episodes including major content for horde Mode and hub fixed, which most of them were free.

A Game of the Year Edition of the game was released on 5 May 2020, and includes new weapon and character packs, a new three-mission PvE episode set in Marseille, France, as well as all previously released downloadable content. Alongside the reveal of the Game of the Year Edition, a Nintendo Switch port was announced. Matt Karch, the CEO of developer Saber Interactive, called getting the game to run on Nintendo's console "the hardest thing that we have had to do".^[10] It was released on 2 November 2021.^[11]

An upgraded version of the game titled Aftermath, which includes the Game of the Year Edition and introduces three new locations (Marseille, Rome, and the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia), new characters, a revamped melee system and a first-person mode, was released on 21 September 2021.^[12][13]

All compiled information about updates and patches made BEFORE Aftermath release, comes directly from the Focus Home Interactive Forums for World War Z. All compiled information about updates and patches made AFTER Aftermath release, comes directly from the Steam news hub of World War Z and Saber Interactive support site.