What a letdown of a game.
Tonally the game is somber and horrific. I was expecting something a bit more lighthearted (for some reason), but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the atmosphere was handled. The resorts and the Downtown district painted a picture of livelihood before the zombies came. Cars and food carts sprawled out everywhere in the Downtown district while luggage, beer bottles, and beach accessories littered the resort area. The music was tense, the environments were tense, some of those fights were really tense, like dodging Rams in a tight hallway, fighting Punks in a green mist, fighting off a horde of zombies on fire really did wonders for the game.
The game fighting and weapon mechanics were okay as well. Not the best, but serviceable. Melee weapons had durability, but it never felt unmanageable. Stomping enemies heads in and dismantling zombies was pretty fun. The gun ammunition was a tidbit scarce, so you had to reserve ammunition for certain situations. I hint it made for more tense gun battles. You could modify your weapons to give them different attributes and shake up gameplay a bit. You could have melee weapons shock your enemies or give bleed damage to help reduce the wear-and-tear to your durability. The guns, however, could have had more impact or power. The sound the guns made when they were fired was almost negligible. They could generally takedown bigger zombies faster than your melee options and they were much more useful for enemies with guns, but they were never as satisfying to use. Unfortunately, this is not where the problems end. To make matters worse, these are not enough to excuse the game’s problems with everything else. For example, its repetitiveness.
I think I can excuse some of the repetitive things in the game. Overused assets like trash cans, litter, charred bodies and broken down cars are to be expected. No video game is going to have no reused assets. Cutting corners is also prevalent in this game. Interiors of houses looking the same, similar voice actors used all across the board. However, there’s an uglier side to the repetitiveness, and that’s in its missions.
The game’s missions were bloated and, again, repetitive. A big chunk of Act IV is running errands for a man who you will never see again and gives no indication of having any use. You essentially meet him and start doing things for him. Clear out this place, clear out that place. Bye! Most of the story missions feel like this as well. They feel like filler, like the story wouldn’t change a bit if these missions didn’t exist. There is a story mission in Act II in which you must get food for the people in the church. In order to do this, you must go across town, go through the sewers and get to the police station. Fine. You run the gauntlet, you get your supplies and you return to the church. But, uh oh! It seems as if someone from your group got kidnapped and taken to the police station. I think you know where this is going. You are then told to go back to the police station. But wait! The station is still closed off, so you have to go across town and through the sewers all over again. Not fine. I literally just did that.
The story and the writing are not interesting enough to give this game any meaningful credit. The beginning was great when you meet people in a pool of their family’s blood because he killed them before they could kill him. Then there is a man who wants you to take his wife to safety because he’s been bitten and he’s afraid of hurting her. Then there’s the woman who goes back to her father to ultimately end his misery. And then there’s the 28 year-old who is totally inconsolable because she doesn’t have her teddy bear. The story itself isn’t great. You’re on an island, shit hits the fan, you’re contacted by a man who claims to have a way off the island. You do all you can to try to find this man by helping other people who claim they can help you. It’s not the worst thing ever, but it really wasn’t interesting. And the more you think about it the less sense certain things make. Things like “How long has this catastrophe been going on?” You have only been experiencing this for about a day or two, but the tribesmen worship the infected and have called them their warriors for a long time? This island is a popular tourist attraction rife with celebrities and luxuries, at no point before hand has anybody ever seen this?
Speaking of questionable trash in this game, the NPCs and A.I. weren’t anything to call mom about. NPCs are generally never given any time to have any impact on your overall perception of their outcomes…if you even see said outcomes. NPCs are generally just boring or static characters there only to give you errands. NPCs, despite having combat and survival experience, seldom lift a finger to help on escort missions.
Overall, if you want a generic zombie stomper then you could give it a try, but I think I would have to be in a very generous mood to call the game good. And honestly, it has turned me off from trying the other games in the series any time soon. It’s just a terribly, painfully okay game.
Tonally the game is somber and horrific. I was expecting something a bit more lighthearted (for some reason), but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the atmosphere was handled. The resorts and the Downtown district painted a picture of livelihood before the zombies came. Cars and food carts sprawled out everywhere in the Downtown district while luggage, beer bottles, and beach accessories littered the resort area. The music was tense, the environments were tense, some of those fights were really tense, like dodging Rams in a tight hallway, fighting Punks in a green mist, fighting off a horde of zombies on fire really did wonders for the game.
The game fighting and weapon mechanics were okay as well. Not the best, but serviceable. Melee weapons had durability, but it never felt unmanageable. Stomping enemies heads in and dismantling zombies was pretty fun. The gun ammunition was a tidbit scarce, so you had to reserve ammunition for certain situations. I hint it made for more tense gun battles. You could modify your weapons to give them different attributes and shake up gameplay a bit. You could have melee weapons shock your enemies or give bleed damage to help reduce the wear-and-tear to your durability. The guns, however, could have had more impact or power. The sound the guns made when they were fired was almost negligible. They could generally takedown bigger zombies faster than your melee options and they were much more useful for enemies with guns, but they were never as satisfying to use. Unfortunately, this is not where the problems end. To make matters worse, these are not enough to excuse the game’s problems with everything else. For example, its repetitiveness.
I think I can excuse some of the repetitive things in the game. Overused assets like trash cans, litter, charred bodies and broken down cars are to be expected. No video game is going to have no reused assets. Cutting corners is also prevalent in this game. Interiors of houses looking the same, similar voice actors used all across the board. However, there’s an uglier side to the repetitiveness, and that’s in its missions.
The game’s missions were bloated and, again, repetitive. A big chunk of Act IV is running errands for a man who you will never see again and gives no indication of having any use. You essentially meet him and start doing things for him. Clear out this place, clear out that place. Bye! Most of the story missions feel like this as well. They feel like filler, like the story wouldn’t change a bit if these missions didn’t exist. There is a story mission in Act II in which you must get food for the people in the church. In order to do this, you must go across town, go through the sewers and get to the police station. Fine. You run the gauntlet, you get your supplies and you return to the church. But, uh oh! It seems as if someone from your group got kidnapped and taken to the police station. I think you know where this is going. You are then told to go back to the police station. But wait! The station is still closed off, so you have to go across town and through the sewers all over again. Not fine. I literally just did that.
The story and the writing are not interesting enough to give this game any meaningful credit. The beginning was great when you meet people in a pool of their family’s blood because he killed them before they could kill him. Then there is a man who wants you to take his wife to safety because he’s been bitten and he’s afraid of hurting her. Then there’s the woman who goes back to her father to ultimately end his misery. And then there’s the 28 year-old who is totally inconsolable because she doesn’t have her teddy bear. The story itself isn’t great. You’re on an island, shit hits the fan, you’re contacted by a man who claims to have a way off the island. You do all you can to try to find this man by helping other people who claim they can help you. It’s not the worst thing ever, but it really wasn’t interesting. And the more you think about it the less sense certain things make. Things like “How long has this catastrophe been going on?” You have only been experiencing this for about a day or two, but the tribesmen worship the infected and have called them their warriors for a long time? This island is a popular tourist attraction rife with celebrities and luxuries, at no point before hand has anybody ever seen this?
Speaking of questionable trash in this game, the NPCs and A.I. weren’t anything to call mom about. NPCs are generally never given any time to have any impact on your overall perception of their outcomes…if you even see said outcomes. NPCs are generally just boring or static characters there only to give you errands. NPCs, despite having combat and survival experience, seldom lift a finger to help on escort missions.
Overall, if you want a generic zombie stomper then you could give it a try, but I think I would have to be in a very generous mood to call the game good. And honestly, it has turned me off from trying the other games in the series any time soon. It’s just a terribly, painfully okay game.