Developed By: Saber Interactive
Published By: Focus Interactive, MadDog Games
Release Date: April 16th, 2019
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Anyone who has
played Left 4 Dead will feel right at home once they get into World
War Z. In the campaign you’ll play as various characters as they
fight for survival in various location spread out across the world.
The level design in these missions isn’t really much to brag about as
they’re all pretty linear but the hordes of zombies and the fact that
the mission objectives are never in the same spot help to keep the
campaign missions interesting. The zombies are pretty basic and
almost feel like a copy and paste of Left 4 Dead’s zombies with the
exception of the human ladder they make when climbing up walls(which
is really cool). Hazmat zombies fill the area with a noxious gas and
Screamers bring in reinforcements until dealt with. Bulls charge at
players while Creepers hide around corners waiting to pounce. Both
zombies do the same thing though and pin the players down until other
people on the team can come and save the day but the Bulls tend to be
a lot tankier than the Creepers.
One minor complaint I
have about the campaigns is that there are a handful of characters to
play as but choosing the ones you want to play as always feels
difficult. While you’re in the lobby, you have the option to choose a
preferred character but if you aren’t fast enough or the game finds a
lobby where another player has already chosen said character, then
you get stuck with whoever wasn’t chosen. I more than often got stuck
playing as someone I wasn’t remotely interested in and it became
rather obnoxious when I was trying to unlock all of the character’s
biographies. The game was always putting me into the role of the same
guys over and over.
At the end of each chapter players are
rewarded with credits, class experience and depending on what weapons
players used, experience for those guns too. The class system is
decently deep and the skills all feel pretty useful. Gunslinger is a
great class for anyone getting into the game and has skills that
allow grenades to explode on impact or even lower friendly fire
damage(damage which increases on higher difficulties). By using a
specific weapon, you’ll eventually earn enough experience to unlock
higher tiers of said gun. Eventually you’ll have a gun with higher
ammo capacity, better penetration and even a silencer for a
stealthier approach to help avoid hordes.
World War Z
manages to maintain a solid framerate with it’s huge hordes of
zombies and looks decent while doing it. Graphically, I’d say my only
complaint is that while the hordes look pretty terrifying when
they’re running at you like a tidal wave tearing through a city
street, they kind of look like a clump of clay when they’re climbing
up on top of one another. It’s still a really cool looking when you
throw a grenade into the pile and watch their human ladder fall
apart. Where the audio is concerned, I’d say my biggest issue is the
Creeper Zombie who hides behind corners. Your character will normally
indicate when one is nearby but I found the game to be a little too
chaotic to notice whatever indication they give off. Not to mention
some other audio issues where it just cuts out for a moment or
two.
Overall, World War Z is the perfect zombie slaying
game if you want something similar to Left 4 Dead. There are also 5
PvP modes and the PvP includes it’s own version of the campaign’s
classes to progress through. For $40 the game has more than enough
content to make it worth your while. The 5 campaign missions are a
blast and I’d even suggest it does more than most full priced games
these days.
WeTheNerdy gives World War Z 8 zombie hordes out of 10.
