Unturned is a zombie survival game developed and published by Smartly Dressed Games, which is made up of designer Nelson Sexton. It has stripped-down polygonal graphics comparable to Minecraft, but it's far less about crafting and building and more about fighting off hordes of zombies and upgrading the player character.
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One of the unique things about Unturned, other than the fact that it's a free-to-play game, is that it has several maps for the player to choose from. Each is based upon a real-world location and offers different challenges and elements to test the player's skill. Today, the 10 best Unturned maps are going to be ranked.
10 France
France is one of the Unturned maps that weren't created by Smartly Dressed Games. This is a fan-made map that was released in November of 2018 and is currently only available through the Steam Workshop. As the name suggests, the map consists of much of western France and the townships within.
This is a great map with a lot of space and a fair amount of lore behind it involving the fall of Germany, France's response, and how several groups within France responded. The geography of the map makes it so that the player can enjoy a lot of small towns, more urban areas, rural sections, and even coastal zones. It's a great map to get lost in--so long as you're armed.
9 California
This is another fan-made curated Unturned map. It consists of the Monterey County area of California and was initially dubbed "Carmel Valley". It was added in late 2019 but is now available only through the Steam Workshop. This is another fairly varied map with streams, towns, and semi-mountainous terrain that can provide an interesting survival challenge.
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There are several radioactive Dead Zones spread throughout the California map to really up the ante. It may be smaller than the France map, but it's tougher to survive upon while shooting down zombies. That gives it a leg up and a higher slot on this list.
8 Rio De Janeiro
Another curated fan-made map for Unturned, Rio de Janeiro is another coastal map that sits around a vast bay. It was added to the Steam Workshop in early 2019 and is currently only available there.
The geography and setup of Rio make for another interesting survival experience. It largely consists of coastal urban areas surrounded by greenery and forests. There's a lot to do and find in those urban zones, and the abundance of urban areas helps Rio de Janeiro stand out in the zombie-filled wasteland.
7 Easter Island
Another curated island map (there's just something extra fun about the coastal and island-based Unturned maps), Easter Island was added to the game in early 2020. It's largely undeveloped and has a lot of underwater secrets for the player to discover.
It also has plenty of volcanic terrains to navigate and master, which is an addition that most other maps in Unturned can't boast. Fighting zombies on the Easter Island map definitely has its own unique flavor.
6 Elver
Elver is another curated Unturned map, this time attempting to provide a broad Eastern European theme for the player. It's a medium-sized map with a small town in the center and a lot of greenery surrounding it. It's more of a roughing-it map than most of the Unturned offerings.
Elver is also one of the newest maps, having been released in July of 2020. This map attempted to vastly change the way Unturned is played in terms of crafting and weapons, and it does truly provide a distinct feeling from other Unturned maps.
5 Hawaii
The tropical setting and brighter coloring of the Hawaii map give it several points right out the gate. The island terrain brings its own unique challenges and makes for a compelling survival experience. Like the prior two maps, Hawaii was a curated fan-made map. It was added in early 2017 but can now only be obtained through the Steam Workshop.
Hawaii has several caves to explore as well, and Unturned allows players to explore the ocean around the island as well. The Unyielding faction gives the player a survivor group to interact with. Like the France map, Hawaii has its own fair share of lore and even an easter egg puzzle that leads the player to the Magma Zombie Boss.
4 Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island, or PEI, is one of the official Unturned 3.0 maps and replaced an earlier map simply called, "Canada." It's a highly enjoyable island map that provides its own secrets and lore that point at the story behind Unturned's zombie apocalypse.
It's a smaller map than most of the others listed here, and that gives it a sense of identity steeped in claustrophobia and a sense of limited resources. There are very few buildings and facilities spread throughout Prince Edward Island, which makes everything feel just a bit more intense. There are also four variants of PEI in Unturned: Halloween, Festive (holiday season-themed), Moon (low-gravity), and PEI Arena (a PVP arena map).
3 Ireland
Ireland is a curated map that provides the entirety of Ireland in a microcosm. Consequently, it has several townships a lot of territory to cover. It also provides a trio of NPC factions to interact with: the Coalition, the Irish Defense Force, and the Irish Freedom Republic. This map is particularly packed with lore and backstory to dig into as well.
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The caveat with the Ireland map is that it's technically been properly removed. While other curated maps were moved to the Steam Workshop after a time, Ireland has been left without Unity engine updates and may not be compatible with most updated versions of Unturned.
2 Washington
Washington is another official Unturned 3.0 map that takes place in Washington state. It's a darker map that offers plenty of military bases to raid for weapons during the player's quest for survival. It's intended more for player vs player combat, but a single-player experience is also an option.
This one is possibly the most lore-rich in terms of explaining how the zombie virus came to be in Unturned, and it provides a lot of wilderness areas to explore around those aforementioned military bases.
1 Yukon
The Yukon is an official Unturned 3.0 map that takes the player to the tundras of Northern Canada, allowing players to experience the frigid experience of trying to survive in the Arctic Circle. It forces players to maintain their body temperature, and this map has the addition of wolves that the player must fight off.
This map is fairly lore-rich as well, having a Skorpion-7 hidden base. This is a truly challenging map with few resources and confusing terrain. It also has a Mega Zombie boss to beat. That said, it's also possibly the best map in the game.