Title: Zombie Army Trilogy
Platform: PC, PS4 (reviewed), Xbox One
Developer: Rebellion Oxford
Publisher: 505 Games
Release date: March 6th (worldwide)
Family Focus: Click here for more information.
The Zombie Army franchise started off exclusively on PC as a Sniper Elite V2 spinoff titled Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army. Rebellion remastered these games in 1080p, included a new Horde Mode, 4 new female characters and a third chapter to introduce the Zombie Army series to a brand audience of gamers. This spinoff franchise is set in an alternate World War II universe where Hitler leads an army of the undead.
When starting up Campaing mode, you choose between a total of 8 characters; 4 men and 4 women; along with selecting your loadout before starting heading out. The game’s campaign mode features a total of 15 missions. They are basically a compilation of mini hordes. As one of the game’s 8 protagonists, you’re required to move from checkpoint to checkpoint, where you’ll be tasked to survive the onslaught or defend your ground by shooting every living dead coming your way to snack on your brains. Although this game is heavily focused on surviving hordes of zombies, the fact that its a spin off of the Sniper Elite franchise, the most effective weapon will be your trusty sniper rifle. And also getting from point A to point B will require players to move in carefully and kill from afar any large group of enemies because you can be overwhelmed pretty quickly. Besides grenades, mines or dynamites, the sniper rifle will easily provides one hit kills; providing you hit a head shot. Other weapons such as handguns or shotguns are good backups, but netting kills with these weapons will require you to waste a lot of ammo.
If enemies get too close for comfort, players can knock the undead on their ass with a swift kick; a very powerful kick that can kill a zombie lying on the ground. Once you’ve managed to kill an enemy, you can search their decomposed carcasses in order to find ammo; but hurry up as after a few minutes, the corpses vanishes; taking with them any useful items. Ammo isn’t that scarce as you’ll either automatically pick up ammo left behind by fellow soldiers that didn’t survive or when searching corpses. When moving from objective to objective, you’ll also come across Safe house; which gives you a chance to fully replenish your weapons or pick up alternative guns.
And don’t expect things to be easy. Playing solo can prove challenging on Normal as some objectives will throw a lot of enemies your way and well using the sniper up close isn’t the best way to fend off the undead. Luckily, most deaths don’t feel cheap, but get yourself surrounded by 3 to 5 zombies that hit you simultaneously and you’re worm food. Dying will be caused by poor judgment and recklessness by going all Rambo on the upcoming horde of zombies. And the variety of enemies will keep you on your toes. It can, however, be utterly frustrating dying at the hands of a single enemy after you’ve successfully survived waves and waves of zombies.
Besides the generic slumbering zombies, you’ll be able to take down skeletons which require a one hit in the chest to die, kamikaze zombies armed with a bomb and running towards you, sniper ghost zombies, among others. Interestingly enough, while some sequence will require you to simply stand your ground, making your way to certain objectives will require to take a cautious approach as either sniper zombies are looking for you or kamikaze ones running to your spot. The more you progress through the campaign, new and tougher enemies will appear.
As Zombie Army Trilogy is a port of previously released standalone content for Sniper Elite V2, don’t expect this game to have impressive visual. It does look good, but they do look like PS3/Xbox 360 games. Standard little odd poppings here and there; and also the detection is sometimes hit and miss as well. Zombies considered viewed further than arms length will still manage somehow to hit you. Objects in front of you are closer than they appear! Sound wise, it’s pretty standard atmospheric horror score; nothing note worthy, but still sets the mood perfectly.
Playing on the PS4 version will provide a fun little quirk; once you’re about to be thrown to the horde of zombies, a weird incantation will be coming from the DualShock 4’s microphone, giving you a heads up and a few seconds to get ready for the upcoming attacks.
The Kill Cam is back! One of the best and most interesting mechanic from Sniper Elite III is back in full force in this zombie fest…well not so much. Unlike the 3rd game of the Sniper Elite franchise, Kill Cam kills are a bit more of a rare occurrence. Even if you aim perfectly at the zombie’s head with your sniper rifle and hit a headshot, it won’t result in a kill cam (boooo!) if you’re “too close” to enemies (which occurs often); but no matter, seeing a zombie’s head explode or a limp flying away is always good times.
Zombie Army Trilogy is just fun. The type of game where you can just turn off your brain and run and make brains explode. The Kill Cam still provides a gruesome view of a zombie’s death and the lengthy campaign is sure to provide enough to keep you playing for a while. Despite it’s ok visuals and the fact that it can get a bit rough and boring while playing by your lonesome, you’ll always end up coming back for more. Add a few friends in there and expect multiple sleepless nights.
Headshot
- Good crazy fun
- Horde Mode
- Ideal for co-op with friends
- Killcam is Back! Woooo!
Bitemark
- A few minor detection issues
- Can get boring when playing solo
- So-so visuals
- Annoying jumping enemy snipers
Family Focus
With its M rating in North America and PEGI 18 in the UK, Zombie Army Trilogy contains blood, gore and violence. The gore content is accentuated through the killcam; which details the destruction of the human anatomy.
