I'm tempted to say that ZombiU is a good game, as I did when I wrote my review of the PlayStation 4 version that landed on the front page of GameFAQs in 2016. There's some merit to that admiration: ZombiU is one of the few zombie games that feels true to the genre's origin. This isn't your Left4Dead or Black Ops zombies of the day. When the game says that this is a deadly disease that's gone viral, it's believable. You aren't an action hero; you are vulnerable at all times. All it takes for you to go down is one misstep. The use of the Wii U gamepad, while too gimmicky for some, hammers this home. Everything but the pause menu plays out in real-time, but unlike the ports of this game that would later come out, there's a genuine layer of tension that coats the entire experience. At any moment, you could be sorting through your inventory, and you won't notice a zombie pop up. Especially in an era where big studios weren't making the most memorable survival horror games, ZombiU stood out.
Ten years later, though? I hate to disappoint my eleven-year-old self, but ZombiU is not the most impressive game ever made.
I suppose I have more respect for this game than outright admiration. It's fitting that the GameFAQs review was written in the era where I used the format of reviews as writing practice, even if it meant I was writing about games I had never played before. I have consistently played through a quarter of this game, dropped it, and then picked it up again. I know the gamepad interactions get more complex because my older brother got much farther in this than I ever did. But he eventually dropped it, too, and all of these years later, I haven't ever heard him talk about it.
ZombiU is fascinating in concept, but facts are facts: it was developed in less than a year. Ubisoft's big game for the Wii U at launch was supposed to be Killer Freaks from Outer Space, a generic-looking fast-paced shooter with a hint of self-awareness. Perhaps they weren't too assured of that direction, though, because they took the feedback they got from it dead seriously. Here you had the Wii U gamepad, an excellent fit for large hands but not nearly as compact as your Xbox 360 controllers or Dualshock 3's of the world. They tried putting Call of Duty on this thing twice and couldn't justify doing it a third time; go figure. This put Ubisoft in a bit of a sticky situation. Do they keep pressing forward with a launch title that will likely sour their reputation with anything Nintendo-related, or do they course correct and create something more tailor-made to the hardware they're working with? Whoever was in charge of the projects that had effort put into them said "fuck it" and pressed the button on something else entirely.
Out comes something else.
I know for a fact that ZombiU was released in 2012 because I've immortalized that year into the farthest reaches of my consciousness. But let's say I wasn't a goofy fifth grader turning dumb middle schooler that year and I was handed this years after it came out. Honestly, I'd think this came out in 2006 instead. Several of the ideas that ZombiU has would lead you to think that its world has the same layer of believable aspects that its inhabitants do. But by the end of the game's five-minute prologue, you come to a wall and hit a realization. There's a ladder. If you've played a first-person game before, you should know where this is going. You keep pressing up; you go up. Or, that's typically the case. In ZombiU, pressing forward will only make you walk into the wall. In order to climb the ladder in front of you, you have to hit the contextual button for it. This doesn't seem all that damning until you realize that it's not the only aspect of ZombiU that's like this. You can't jump or crouch unless you're in a spot that the game designers want you to be in. The level of interactivity within the world you occupy is next to none. For a game all about survival, ZombiU leans a little too far on linearity. And it's not like any of this was done to make the game look good, either. This isn't one of those launch titles made to wow you with its visuals. It certainly has style, and that has to be commended. But once you look past that, ZombiU isn't exactly pleasant to look at. It's not ugly; it's just very plain and without a discernable personality.
And then you get to the act of playing the game itself, and another realization hits you with the force of this game's cricket bat: this game gets repetitive quickly. Staying in line with the developer's approach to survival horror, ammo isn't exactly in abundance. If you want to play this game like it's a 90s shooter, you're boned beyond the grave. This is where the cricket bat comes in. If you can't shoot your way through all of the hordes the game presents you with, you should at least have an option for self-defense that doesn't require ammunition. On paper, this is a fantastic idea and adds to what they were aiming for. Combat becomes less focused on the act of killing and is more a game of consideration. Do I need to kill this zombie? Should I waste my ammo on them, or would it be better to use the more risky alternative? If ZombiU had more time in the oven, I'm sure this would have played out in the way it was intended. Unfortunately, the linearity absolutely knee-caps you here. There are zombies that you need to kill, and you can't use your ammo on all of them. The solution to this problem? Take no risks; use your cricket bat—every time. What starts out as an intense struggle for survival becomes comical the more you have to do it, let alone exhausting. Eventually, the game opens up and gives you more to work with. But you really have to stick with the monotony to get to that point. It's not as noxious the first time around, but the more you find yourself in that opening area, the less accepting you become. It becomes its own struggle for survival, and the thing you're surviving against is your boredom.
So let's say you get tired of what the singleplayer offers and want to indulge in the multiplayer content—like the base game, fascinating in concept. A 1v1 match of asymmetrical multiplayer, where the player with the gamepad is responsible for spawning zombies and special infected around the player. The player competiting is just as vulnerable as the survivors are in the base game, so it's not always a one-sided victory. This should have been a slam dunk, but there are only two modes and a handful of stages at best. This is where the time constraints become all the more evident. Everything about it screams "afterthought." There's enough bite for a few rounds to be compelling, but past those few rounds, you won't find yourself coming back to it all that much. What's there works better in a room of twelve people competing in a bracket, not the one-on-one approach the game presents you with. As it stands, try to be surprised when I tell you that this multiplayer didn't make it into the other ports of this game.
Not every game needs a sequel or a remake. Sometimes it's good to leave well enough alone. But like another game I've played this year, ZombiU is one of the rare exceptions to this clause. It's honestly depressing that Ubisoft stopped caring about this after it sold poorly. Can you imagine you sweet and terrifying a game like this would be if the developers were given more time to make it? Let alone how much crunch they'd probably avoid in the process. ZombiU, in concept, is what makes me say that horror is a genre suited to interactivity like no other. In execution, it's a game that I haven't played seriously in years. Take that as you will.
Ten years later, though? I hate to disappoint my eleven-year-old self, but ZombiU is not the most impressive game ever made.
I suppose I have more respect for this game than outright admiration. It's fitting that the GameFAQs review was written in the era where I used the format of reviews as writing practice, even if it meant I was writing about games I had never played before. I have consistently played through a quarter of this game, dropped it, and then picked it up again. I know the gamepad interactions get more complex because my older brother got much farther in this than I ever did. But he eventually dropped it, too, and all of these years later, I haven't ever heard him talk about it.
ZombiU is fascinating in concept, but facts are facts: it was developed in less than a year. Ubisoft's big game for the Wii U at launch was supposed to be Killer Freaks from Outer Space, a generic-looking fast-paced shooter with a hint of self-awareness. Perhaps they weren't too assured of that direction, though, because they took the feedback they got from it dead seriously. Here you had the Wii U gamepad, an excellent fit for large hands but not nearly as compact as your Xbox 360 controllers or Dualshock 3's of the world. They tried putting Call of Duty on this thing twice and couldn't justify doing it a third time; go figure. This put Ubisoft in a bit of a sticky situation. Do they keep pressing forward with a launch title that will likely sour their reputation with anything Nintendo-related, or do they course correct and create something more tailor-made to the hardware they're working with? Whoever was in charge of the projects that had effort put into them said "fuck it" and pressed the button on something else entirely.
Out comes something else.
I know for a fact that ZombiU was released in 2012 because I've immortalized that year into the farthest reaches of my consciousness. But let's say I wasn't a goofy fifth grader turning dumb middle schooler that year and I was handed this years after it came out. Honestly, I'd think this came out in 2006 instead. Several of the ideas that ZombiU has would lead you to think that its world has the same layer of believable aspects that its inhabitants do. But by the end of the game's five-minute prologue, you come to a wall and hit a realization. There's a ladder. If you've played a first-person game before, you should know where this is going. You keep pressing up; you go up. Or, that's typically the case. In ZombiU, pressing forward will only make you walk into the wall. In order to climb the ladder in front of you, you have to hit the contextual button for it. This doesn't seem all that damning until you realize that it's not the only aspect of ZombiU that's like this. You can't jump or crouch unless you're in a spot that the game designers want you to be in. The level of interactivity within the world you occupy is next to none. For a game all about survival, ZombiU leans a little too far on linearity. And it's not like any of this was done to make the game look good, either. This isn't one of those launch titles made to wow you with its visuals. It certainly has style, and that has to be commended. But once you look past that, ZombiU isn't exactly pleasant to look at. It's not ugly; it's just very plain and without a discernable personality.
And then you get to the act of playing the game itself, and another realization hits you with the force of this game's cricket bat: this game gets repetitive quickly. Staying in line with the developer's approach to survival horror, ammo isn't exactly in abundance. If you want to play this game like it's a 90s shooter, you're boned beyond the grave. This is where the cricket bat comes in. If you can't shoot your way through all of the hordes the game presents you with, you should at least have an option for self-defense that doesn't require ammunition. On paper, this is a fantastic idea and adds to what they were aiming for. Combat becomes less focused on the act of killing and is more a game of consideration. Do I need to kill this zombie? Should I waste my ammo on them, or would it be better to use the more risky alternative? If ZombiU had more time in the oven, I'm sure this would have played out in the way it was intended. Unfortunately, the linearity absolutely knee-caps you here. There are zombies that you need to kill, and you can't use your ammo on all of them. The solution to this problem? Take no risks; use your cricket bat—every time. What starts out as an intense struggle for survival becomes comical the more you have to do it, let alone exhausting. Eventually, the game opens up and gives you more to work with. But you really have to stick with the monotony to get to that point. It's not as noxious the first time around, but the more you find yourself in that opening area, the less accepting you become. It becomes its own struggle for survival, and the thing you're surviving against is your boredom.
So let's say you get tired of what the singleplayer offers and want to indulge in the multiplayer content—like the base game, fascinating in concept. A 1v1 match of asymmetrical multiplayer, where the player with the gamepad is responsible for spawning zombies and special infected around the player. The player competiting is just as vulnerable as the survivors are in the base game, so it's not always a one-sided victory. This should have been a slam dunk, but there are only two modes and a handful of stages at best. This is where the time constraints become all the more evident. Everything about it screams "afterthought." There's enough bite for a few rounds to be compelling, but past those few rounds, you won't find yourself coming back to it all that much. What's there works better in a room of twelve people competing in a bracket, not the one-on-one approach the game presents you with. As it stands, try to be surprised when I tell you that this multiplayer didn't make it into the other ports of this game.
Not every game needs a sequel or a remake. Sometimes it's good to leave well enough alone. But like another game I've played this year, ZombiU is one of the rare exceptions to this clause. It's honestly depressing that Ubisoft stopped caring about this after it sold poorly. Can you imagine you sweet and terrifying a game like this would be if the developers were given more time to make it? Let alone how much crunch they'd probably avoid in the process. ZombiU, in concept, is what makes me say that horror is a genre suited to interactivity like no other. In execution, it's a game that I haven't played seriously in years. Take that as you will.
They spelled Zombie wrong lol this game sucks
This game is genuinely terrible. I played it with somewhat low expectations (as I do with most new games I play just so I can be wowed if it's really good) even after high praise and recommendations from so many other people but this game couldn't even bother to meet those low expectations. I'm not trying to be a contrarian either, this game is genuinely a humongous chore to play. The main gameplay loop in ZombiU essentially boils down to bumbling around a hallway or other such area trying interact with every single door you come across, constantly running into locked or broken doors and constantly checking your map over and over again to make sure which doors you've already accessed, until you magically locate the one that leads to an item or other area that lets you move to another room and...basically repeat what you just did. That's it. That is the ENTIRE main gameplay loop in ZombiU, and it gets old extremely fast. This isn't fun, this isn't engaging, this is tedious and boring to the Nth degree. You do occasional riddles and puzzles sprinkled throughout the game; some of them were fine, others I managed to solve by complete accident without even knowing what the puzzle even was. And if you aren't satisfied with the incredibly boring gameplay loop of checking the Wii U gamepad over and over again, you have the option of engaging in combat with (admittedly pretty bizarre and kinda freakily designed) monsters that lurk throughout London, and somehow this ends up being just as bad as the exploration. Melee combat is stiff, slow, clunky and insanely repetitive, and the finishing kick to kill downed enemies is so finicky in execution that half the time I swear it's luck based that I'm able to pull it off without failing and having to readjust to finally HIT the thing. Firearm combat is just as bad but less troublesome considering they do the job much quicker than melee weapons and ammo is pretty easy to come by. Enemies in this game never feel like a threat, or something that fills me with dread and actively makes me not want to progress into the next area like other horror games have done; they're just an annoyance at best. There's no tension to be had and consequently there's no scares to be had either, as once the shit combat is complete you're back to doing the same dull monotonous routine you always do. And on top of that the "bosses" (if you can even call them that) are so laughably bad that it's genuinely a sight to behold. There's one section in the game where you're trapped in a room with The Queen and you basically have to run around in circles avoiding her slow easily telegraphed attacks for a certain period of time until Liz just suddenly decides to piss off and leave allowing you to progress. Like...huh?? Am I missing something here? What was the point of that?
On the positive side, the atmosphere is nice and I like the story for as weird as it is, but these 2 are not enough to save this insipid slog of a game. Don't bother playing, it's not worth it.
On the positive side, the atmosphere is nice and I like the story for as weird as it is, but these 2 are not enough to save this insipid slog of a game. Don't bother playing, it's not worth it.
This was genuinely scary it had British people and everything
this game had one (1) cool mechanic and it was having to look down at the gamepad to know where zombies came unavoidably forcing you to look away from the screen
It's a good thing british people aren't real
Ao revisar alguns jogos para jogar, deparei-me com Zombi U, que joguei quando foi lançado em 2012. Lembro-me de que o jogo recebeu uma campanha de marketing bastante significativa, considerando seu nível. Na época, durante o lançamento do Wii U, o jogo se destacou por apresentar uma proposta completamente diferente daquilo a que estávamos acostumados nos consoles da Big N.
No entanto, para surpresa de zero pessoas, uma vez que estamos em 2023, esse jogo é medíocre ou até mesmo ruim em tudo o que se propõe a fazer. Isso não me deixa muitas opções sobre o que falar sobre ele, já que a palavra "medíocre" define completamente o jogo.
No entanto, para surpresa de zero pessoas, uma vez que estamos em 2023, esse jogo é medíocre ou até mesmo ruim em tudo o que se propõe a fazer. Isso não me deixa muitas opções sobre o que falar sobre ele, já que a palavra "medíocre" define completamente o jogo.
This game is amazing and I love it and it's so underrated and cool.
The online service is down so it's a shame no one can experience what it used to be anymore: finding players in the map where they died and became zombies. And the notes on the walls that were cryptic but also informative.
This is one of the only Wii U games that actually took advantage of the hardware. It wasent just a gimmick, it was a way to create an extremely unique type of gameplay dynamic. Looking away from the screen at critical moments when something pops out at you is brilliant. It seems small on paper but it changes the entire core experience.
Visually the environments still look very pretty. Lots of detail and fun to explore. Gameplay with permadeath was intense.
I had so much fun with this game I even beat the survivor mode where if you die once it's a game over. That felt amazing to beat. I survived so many moments with the tiniest sliver of health.
It has issues. It's super janky and buggy. Playing survivor mode is risky bc of game breaking bugs.
But this is one of those times where I look past the bugs. Because the experience I had was unforgettable. One of my favorite zombie games for sure.
The online service is down so it's a shame no one can experience what it used to be anymore: finding players in the map where they died and became zombies. And the notes on the walls that were cryptic but also informative.
This is one of the only Wii U games that actually took advantage of the hardware. It wasent just a gimmick, it was a way to create an extremely unique type of gameplay dynamic. Looking away from the screen at critical moments when something pops out at you is brilliant. It seems small on paper but it changes the entire core experience.
Visually the environments still look very pretty. Lots of detail and fun to explore. Gameplay with permadeath was intense.
I had so much fun with this game I even beat the survivor mode where if you die once it's a game over. That felt amazing to beat. I survived so many moments with the tiniest sliver of health.
It has issues. It's super janky and buggy. Playing survivor mode is risky bc of game breaking bugs.
But this is one of those times where I look past the bugs. Because the experience I had was unforgettable. One of my favorite zombie games for sure.
Both ZombiU and its multiplatform counterpart, ZOMBI are incredibly rough and repetitive experiences and yet the horror is effective and the gameplay loop is addictive.
It has some frustrations, but what oddly charming horror game doesn't?
It has some frustrations, but what oddly charming horror game doesn't?
Premier jeu sur Wii u, j'en garde une bonne expérience. Un bon jeu de zombie pour moi.
An interesting game on the wii U, that's for sure, but I guess I was expecting a little something more from it. There are a lot of cool ideas put in this game, such as the "permadeath" concept, where you have to kill your previous self as a zombie if you die, as well as the many various uses of the Wii U gamepad in order to increase tension. However, those ideas really aren't put to the very best use, since the gamepad stuff just has you constantly scanning every room to make sure you see items and the permadeath stuff doesn't really matter since the story progresses anyways. I think it would have been cooler if they had made a more difficult, shorter roguelike kinda game where the gamepad stuff is more prevalent to keep you constantly on edge from the zombies instead of the game that they made here. The game is paced kinda poorly and there's a huge big dumb mcguffin hunt for no reason at the end which sucks. Game was disappointing because I could see what it was trying to be, it just wasn't doing the best job being that.
my mom called me a pussy when i played this game at 6 and since then i swore vengeance on her that i would beat this game. lowkey a better story than berserk
Still haven't played a survial horror game like it.
The multiplayer is actually better the worse the Wii controller connection is to the sensor bar.
I got stuck
Wait, this isn't silent hill
This is by far the most unique and interesting horror game I have ever experienced. It's criminally underrated, tough as nails, and best of all, it's genuinely scary. Easily the best horror title I've played yet.
The permadeath system is fantastic. I love that when you get bitten, there is no coming back. All of the weapon skills you have obtained, and your survivor score are completely reset, which creates huge tension when you want to avoid failure. It makes death actually mean something, and it makes even the most common grunt zombies a legitimate threat, something I don't think any horror game has done before or since. With the combat, you're capable of dealing damage and getting the job done, but you aren't superhuman. The combat system makes you feel vulnerable, but not to the point where combat becomes a repetitive mind numbing slog like in Silent Hill 2. This ties into the survival part of survival horror: you need to plan ahead, take it slow, and use the resources you have wisely because they're very scarce, and I think this is ingenious design coupled with all the other mechanics I mentioned. Not to mention, when you die, you need to track down your previous now infected survivor to get your stuff back, which is a really cool and interesting fresh spin on these typical zombie games, almost like a roguelite esc take on survival horror.
The Wii U gamepad is what really sells this however. You need to constantly glance down at the gamepad screen to do a whole myriad of tasks: check radar, scan for potential loot, inventory management, picking locks and hacking doors, and so on. The thing is when you do this, the game itself doesn't pause, so the infected can easily have a chance to sneak up behind you and try to kill you, forcing you to multitask different things at once. This adds huge amounts of tension to the game, as while you're doing anything with the gamepad you're vulnerable at all times. It really does feel like an experience you can only get on Wii U.
As for the rest of the game, the atmosphere is top notch, and really sells the feeling of complete ruin and isolation. The fog penetrating certain areas, the crows flapping all over, the screams echoed in the distance of far off infected, the grunge of the decaying London subway system and sewer tunnels, it's all handled wonderfully, and areas that take it one step further (such as Buckingham Palace and The Nursery) are done even better. The music is surprisingly very well made as well, more of a somber soundtrack with a few instances of heavy tense techno. On top of the main campaign, there's also a fun multiplayer mode that has the gamepad user control a hoard of zombies, spawning them and leveling up and gaining new perks as the match continues, while the pro controller player plays a survivor, killing the infected in a variety of game modes.
However, I do still have some issues even with a game as great as this. The game is a tad on the short side (only about 10-15 hours for a single campaign), the loading times can be frequent and pretty bad, and the game visually could stand to be improved even though I think it looks great as is. Regardless, please consider checking this game out on Wii U, it is an extremely underappreciated gem.
The permadeath system is fantastic. I love that when you get bitten, there is no coming back. All of the weapon skills you have obtained, and your survivor score are completely reset, which creates huge tension when you want to avoid failure. It makes death actually mean something, and it makes even the most common grunt zombies a legitimate threat, something I don't think any horror game has done before or since. With the combat, you're capable of dealing damage and getting the job done, but you aren't superhuman. The combat system makes you feel vulnerable, but not to the point where combat becomes a repetitive mind numbing slog like in Silent Hill 2. This ties into the survival part of survival horror: you need to plan ahead, take it slow, and use the resources you have wisely because they're very scarce, and I think this is ingenious design coupled with all the other mechanics I mentioned. Not to mention, when you die, you need to track down your previous now infected survivor to get your stuff back, which is a really cool and interesting fresh spin on these typical zombie games, almost like a roguelite esc take on survival horror.
The Wii U gamepad is what really sells this however. You need to constantly glance down at the gamepad screen to do a whole myriad of tasks: check radar, scan for potential loot, inventory management, picking locks and hacking doors, and so on. The thing is when you do this, the game itself doesn't pause, so the infected can easily have a chance to sneak up behind you and try to kill you, forcing you to multitask different things at once. This adds huge amounts of tension to the game, as while you're doing anything with the gamepad you're vulnerable at all times. It really does feel like an experience you can only get on Wii U.
As for the rest of the game, the atmosphere is top notch, and really sells the feeling of complete ruin and isolation. The fog penetrating certain areas, the crows flapping all over, the screams echoed in the distance of far off infected, the grunge of the decaying London subway system and sewer tunnels, it's all handled wonderfully, and areas that take it one step further (such as Buckingham Palace and The Nursery) are done even better. The music is surprisingly very well made as well, more of a somber soundtrack with a few instances of heavy tense techno. On top of the main campaign, there's also a fun multiplayer mode that has the gamepad user control a hoard of zombies, spawning them and leveling up and gaining new perks as the match continues, while the pro controller player plays a survivor, killing the infected in a variety of game modes.
However, I do still have some issues even with a game as great as this. The game is a tad on the short side (only about 10-15 hours for a single campaign), the loading times can be frequent and pretty bad, and the game visually could stand to be improved even though I think it looks great as is. Regardless, please consider checking this game out on Wii U, it is an extremely underappreciated gem.
This sure is a Wii U launch title
underated as fuck and a great use of the wiiu's central gimmicks
lol
Zombi U is one of the most effective horror games I ever played. The level of tension as you explore the City streets is always very high since enemies are very aggressive and strong. On top of that, there is a 'souls-esque' mechanic that makes the player lose all of its equipment, weapons and loot every time you die and you can only recover your items by reaching the exact point you died at. Other tension-building features include crafting of material which was masterfully done using the Wii U gamepad all while the game is running on your TV meaning that you could get attacked as you were crafting items in your gamepad.
This being an effective horror game doesn't mean it automatically makes it a good overall game: I had some issues with the pacing and design. Overall this is a good game that stands out in building tension and providing excellent horror elements. Unfortunately, the proper way of playing this game is with a Wii U gamepad which will make its enjoyment harder to experience for gamers not owing this somewhat obscure Nintendo system.
That doesn't mean this is one of my favorite all-time games but
This being an effective horror game doesn't mean it automatically makes it a good overall game: I had some issues with the pacing and design. Overall this is a good game that stands out in building tension and providing excellent horror elements. Unfortunately, the proper way of playing this game is with a Wii U gamepad which will make its enjoyment harder to experience for gamers not owing this somewhat obscure Nintendo system.
That doesn't mean this is one of my favorite all-time games but
Honestly got this game because I thought it would be like Black Ops Zombies when I was younger. Revisited it, played it for 30 minutes, found that it was even worse than I remembered (I remembered it being bad), and that's all I have to say about it.
cool but really annoying at times and extremely unforgiving even on easy mode. you spend half the game whacking zombiu's with the cricket bat because you're out of ammo. and if you die on the final level the game just ends lol. on the more positive side, it uses the gamepad pretty well and there are some scary and tense parts.
debería revisitarlo
I hate cricket.
Decent zombie game the Wii U gamepad definitely made it more unique and fun.
for a launch title and ubisoft original it was fine I guess, cricket bat is funny and being able to salvage your gear with a new character after you died prior was a neat feature
Top 50 Favorites: #19 (2015 Zombi version)
Games I Like That Everybody Else Dislikes
Phenomenal zombie crusher with some of the most unique gimmicks I've ever seen in a horror game. Clearly a product not afraid to take risks, and it's all the more nuanced because of it - its atypical quirks which, at the time, were read as blemishes now seem like highly original and bold moves. This includes but is certainly not limited to its terrific use of setting, moving keenly from the grimy slums of post-apocalyptic England all the way up through Buckingham Palace and beyond (each level as excellently designed as the last). It's got great scares, devilishly fun combat, tons of definable setpieces, and - a must for any good horror game - backtracking that actually seems tense, strategic, and enjoyable. Can't sing the praises of this criminally under-respected curio enough. It's wonderful - plain and simple.
Games I Like That Everybody Else Dislikes
Phenomenal zombie crusher with some of the most unique gimmicks I've ever seen in a horror game. Clearly a product not afraid to take risks, and it's all the more nuanced because of it - its atypical quirks which, at the time, were read as blemishes now seem like highly original and bold moves. This includes but is certainly not limited to its terrific use of setting, moving keenly from the grimy slums of post-apocalyptic England all the way up through Buckingham Palace and beyond (each level as excellently designed as the last). It's got great scares, devilishly fun combat, tons of definable setpieces, and - a must for any good horror game - backtracking that actually seems tense, strategic, and enjoyable. Can't sing the praises of this criminally under-respected curio enough. It's wonderful - plain and simple.
two player mode was good.
I played the ps4 port, which makes the U in the title meaningless. Has some neat ideas, but they aren't executed particularly well. The graphics are exceedingly ugly and the game has a fundamental misunderstanding of light and darkness. The permadeath idea is interesting, but I only died like once in the entire campaign, so it didn't end up mattering. The ending makes the miscalculation of leaning into the game's least effective ingredients. Overall, entirely forgettable in the sea of zombie games