Quarantine Zone: Miami Zero Free DLC: Tasers, Sharks & Chaos
Miami Zero launched on October 15, 2026 as a free expansion for existing owners of Quarantine Zone: The Last Check. It introduces a prequel campaign set at the beginning of the outbreak, wanted-person checks, a Research Ward, new screening tools and a yacht you must repair to escape. You still need the base game, either purchased or through eligible Game Pass access. The first PC patch arrived October 16.
The original game puts you in charge of a checkpoint where frightened survivors line up to be examined, quarantined or turned away. Sometimes the decisions are lethal. It's airport security with a significantly worse passenger satisfaction survey and consequences nobody should be trusted to resolve with a clipboard.
Miami Zero has apparently looked at that job description and decided it lacked responsibilities.
Enjoy deciding which unfortunate civilian deserves to have their day ruined by official paperwork? Our Beholder: Conductor review takes that talent aboard a train, where inspecting luggage can become a state-sponsored career in being an absolute bastard.
Wanted in Miami, dead or merely coughing?
The campaign rewinds to the outbreak's early days rather than extending the original storyline. And Miami isn't simply another queue with different palm trees. The expansion introduces new reasons for someone to fail inspection, several of which have absolutely nothing to do with becoming a zombie.
Wanted Bulletins let you compare incoming survivors against photographs of wanted individuals. Drugs can be concealed under hats, in clenched fists or even swallowed, according to the developer. New infection symptoms complicate screening, while more than 30 new unique survivors bring additional faces and dialogue.
Now the person standing in front of you might be infected, concealing contraband or wanted by the authorities. They might be perfectly healthy and still have the sort of photograph on file that makes security reach for the phone. That changes the questions you ask, even if the precise consequences of each identification haven't yet been independently established.
Naturally, the equipment budget has responded by buying a taser. Its official job is testing muscular responses. Yes, electrical shocks are now apparently part of the medical examination. Somewhere, an insurance assessor has just set fire to their desk. You also get a detection dog to help identify symptoms.
Between the dog, the taser and the wanted photographs, Miami's checkpoint is slowly becoming a hospital, a police station and an extremely badly reviewed border crossing sharing one reception desk.
The Research Ward has a small problem with research
The biggest addition may be the Research Ward, where infected subjects become part of experiments connected to developing a cure. The original game already has an uncomfortable relationship with medical ethics. Miami Zero pushes it further: the developer confirms that experiments can produce dangerous mutants, potentially giving the checkpoint an entirely new emergency.
Consider the administrative achievement. A disease is turning people into monsters, and someone has decided the best response is to create additional monsters under controlled laboratory conditions. You can practically see the incident report. Cause: experiment. Recommended action: more experiments, pending budget approval.
Underneath that absurdity is the expansion's most promising idea. You are responsible for protecting survivors, but scientific progress may depend on decisions that endanger them. It's a more troubling form of authority than simply identifying symptoms and moving the queue along.
How far does it go? That remains unproven. We know the experiments exist and may create mutants. We don't yet know every outcome, the best research choices or how dramatically your decisions change the campaign. Claiming a sprawling branching morality system would be writing the developer's game for them.
Your authority no longer ends when someone passes inspection. There are decisions to make about what happens after they're in your care.
Had enough of inspecting the living? Crime Scene Cleaner puts you in charge of the bodies, blood and evidence nobody wants to explain to the police. Apparently, mopping up a massacre is more relaxing than dealing with actual customers.
The escape plan involves a yacht. Of course it does.
Miami Zero also changes the destination. You're working toward repairing a yacht to escape the outbreak, with the vessel central to the campaign's research-and-escape setup. It's a more immediate objective than keeping checkpoint operations running while the rest of civilisation circles the drain.
The outbreak has barely begun, and somebody has already reached the entirely reasonable conclusion that the best solution is a boat. A yacht, specifically. Even the end of the world apparently has a premium seating section.
And then there are the sharks.
The developer has explicitly discussed feeding infected people to sharks. Actual sharks. It's an astonishing detail to find alongside the advertised research equipment and escape plan, as though pest control, marine catering and medical science were three departments in the same disaster-response agency.
We don't have reliable evidence of the precise costs, rewards or consequences of using that option, so pretending it's an optimal strategy would be nonsense. Its confirmed existence is quite enough.
The October 16 patch, and what remains uncertain
Miami Zero didn't arrive without problems. PC patch 2.0.1.2567, released October 16, addressed yacht reports incorrectly listing living survivors as dead, duplicated yacht-popup text and presentation issues including low-contrast text.
Of all the bugs a game about deciding whether people are alive or dangerous could have, a yacht officially declaring living passengers dead is almost performance art. Imagine passing every inspection only to be pronounced deceased by a spreadsheet on a boat.
The platform distinction matters. The developer said the corresponding PC patch would reach Xbox later, subject to certification, and separately announced an Xbox fix for certain input and progression problems. Players have also reported crashes and softlocks, particularly on console. Those complaints deserve attention, although they don't establish how widespread the issues are or prove every reported problem remains unfixed.
As of October 18, don't assume the PC fixes have automatically reached Xbox, or that the expansion's technical condition is settled.
Should you return for Miami Zero? If you already enjoy The Last Check, this is a substantial free reason to do so. The new searches, dubious research and yacht objective expand the original's uniquely unpleasant exercise in deciding other people's futures. Whether the systems remain interesting across the full campaign needs a proper assessment.
For now, there's enough verified substance to make Miami worth another shift. Just don't expect the yacht's paperwork to know whether you've survived it.
Still haven't had enough of humanity's spectacularly poor survival decisions? Enter CRIMENET's Horror Hub, where monsters, murderers and psychological nightmares prove that the zombie apocalypse was merely one department in a much larger catastrophe.
Quarantine Zone: Miami Zero FAQ
Is Miami Zero free?
Yes. Miami Zero is a free expansion for existing owners of Quarantine Zone: The Last Check. You still need access to the base game.
When did Miami Zero release?
Miami Zero launched on October 15, 2026, with its first PC bug-fix patch arriving October 16.
Is Miami Zero a separate campaign?
Yes. It's a prequel campaign set in Miami at the beginning of the zombie outbreak, featuring new survivors, research systems and a yacht escape objective.
What does the Research Ward do?
It lets you experiment on infected subjects while researching a cure. Unfortunately, those experiments can also create dangerous mutants. Apparently, the zombie apocalypse wasn't producing enough problems naturally.
What new tools does Miami Zero add?
A taser for testing muscular responses, a detection dog for identifying symptoms and Wanted Bulletins for comparing survivors against photographs of wanted individuals.
Is Miami Zero available on Xbox?
Yes, through the base game's Xbox Series X/S version. However, the October 16 PC patch was not immediately available on Xbox, and some console players reported crashes and progression problems.
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