Zombie Apocalypse Review (XBLA)

With company over to my house one night recently, I was showing off some games to a pair of father and son gamers. Zombie Apocalypse came up in conversation. We’d all seen it, but not one of us had tried the Nihilistic Software developed, Konami published downloadable title. I downloaded it on a lark, because we had lots of people sitting around, looking for something to play. We started playing, and within moments everyone, with our various skill levels, just began to have fun.

Zombie Apocalypse takes various stylistic cues from Left 4 Dead and combines them with twin stick shooter mechanics. The main gameplay mode is made up of 55 “days,” each with waves of zombies of various types. Between one and four players can play together at the same time as the four “survivor” archetypes. Armed with a machine gun and chainsaw, the survivors chew through the zombies on each stage. Players rack up a score multiplier as they either execute one zombies with the chainsaw or every five zombies with their guns. The survivors can also nab weapon pickups with limited ammo to help them stem the flow of the incoming horde. If caught by the zombies, the survivors can sometimes shake off the grapple, but later stages of the game feature enemies that instantly kill the players on contact.

The mechanics are simple, one stick to move and the other to shoot. Overall, it’s similar to Geometry Wars or Robotron; however, standing out among the recent glut of twin stick shooters and zombie games, Zombie Apocalypse manages to combine two overwroughtgenres into something fun. It nips at the heels of Left 4 Dead a little too much, but it lampoons the popular game somewhat while avoiding going too far in its poking fun. Little touches–like the survivors’ special weapon, a teddy bear armed with C4 that attracts zombies–are priceless. The first time the bomb proclaimed, “I’m stuffed with love… and C4,” I doubled over laughing.

The 55 days in the game introduce new zombie types as well as sometimes imposing special restriction on the players. Sometimes you may experience a blackout which darkens the level except for around the players; sometimes the game restricts the use of weapons to just the chainsaw. There are also a few boss fights in the game, but these encounters all feature the same boss character who grows progressively more difficult.

Zombie Apocalypse’s main fault is that the levels repeat a bit too much. In the 55 days, the same number of set piece backgrounds get repeated far too often. This leads to the same days seemingly repeating themselves over… and over… and over. That being said, when played with friends, this game is lot of fun.

When you’ve finished the game’s basic mode, you can play any of the levels again with any number of unloackable modifiers. Also, you can unlock the “7 Days of Hell”mode, which is an especially hard set of levels. The game lacks a bit of replayability if you’re going to play by yourself, but the real fun in this game comes together when you’re either going to play online or locally with a set of friends. The bottom line is that Nihilistic has put together a pretty fun game filled, with quite a few hours of engaging action, for the reasonable price of $10. Played with friends it can be a frantic good time filled with zombie blasting and flying body parts, as long as you don’t mind another twin stick shooter with a bit of charm.

The Good

Co-op Zombie Blasting Fun: Zombie Apocalypse is a pretty solid twin stick shooter. The co-op element and setting definitely appeal to me. Lots of fun for the whole zombie killing psychotic family.

The Right Price: At $10, there is a lot of content here. 55 levels, plus alternate gameplay modes. You’ll be playing for hours.

The Bad

Déjà  vu: The levels and set pieces repeat far too often. You may feel like you’re playing the same level over and over. You’d think they could do with a couple more levels. Déjà vu all over again.

The Ugly

Recommendation: If you like twin stick shooters and/ or co-op games, Zombie Apocalypse is better than many in the genre. Get it.

Playthrough Details: Purchased by the reviewer. I played this through all 55 days. Took me about 6 or 7 hours.