So we’re a month or so away from Left 4 Dead 2, and to help kill time (by shooting it in the head, natch) Zombie Apocalypse has come up for download for PS3 and XBox 360. Anybody download the demo or the full game?
It’s basically Robotron 2084 with nicer graphics and a zombie theme. Run, shoot, protect humans… There are weapon pickups and environmental methods of wasting the walking dead, with a tongue-in-cheek presentation that makes it a pure action game instead of any kind of horror.
As a zombie fan, all I can say is… Meh. Left 4 Dead, in spite of the travesty of having sprinters vs. shamblers, had the atmosphere plus the feeling of dread and helplessness of fighting off the undead hoardes. It’s the difference between George Romero and Uwe Boll. For me, a zombie game without the hopelessness is just a run-n-gun shooter.
Which, of course is all Zombie Apocalypse is aiming to be, so I don’t know why I’m being so hard on it. Maybe it’s because some of the zombies have guns and shoot back? It’s a little action arcade shooter… what should I expect?
I haven’t tried multiplayer yet… I could see how working together with 3 other people might add some zing. Has anybody tried it out?
Also on the horizon, at least for PS3 zombie killers: Dead Nation, a top down cooperative shooter with a much more serious tone. The game will apparently track your efforts along with all players in the world to rid your respective countries of the zombie plague.