ZombiU

A game that successfully utilizes the Wii U's GamePad features, provides a spooky atmosphere, and has some innovative elements that make it a worthy purchase for many. Unfortunately, the combat is not as refined as it could be and I found the gameplay somewhat tedious.

The game-ending glitches can be a real pain and the same goes for some of the developers choices concerning the use of the GamePad. But if you are willing to look past those problems you'll be left with a true and immersive survival horror experience.

ZombiU is too packed full of controls and gameplay ideas to make a cohesive whole, but it's still a welcome addition to the genre. [Jan 2013, p.58]

ZombiU is hardly everything it could have been. But it has to be commended for not reducing its gameplay to a handful of technical gimmicks. Its ideas are brave and while they tend to alternately make you love and hate the game, in the end they still make ZombiU a tense and worthwhile affair.

In this Ubisoft launch title for the Wii U, some very good ideas are sadly spoiled by poor action and an average technical execution. ZombiU is still worth a try though, if you really are into the Survival Horror genre.

Some games gather the players together. Some divide them. Obviously, ZombiU belongs to second category. On the one hand, Ubisoft did very well to use the Wii U Gamepad and asymmetric gameplay brings something new to the multiplayer experience. But, on the other hand, ZombiU isn't visually impressive and some players won't appreciate the difficulty level that sometimes has been pushed too high.

If just a few nagging flaws would have been corrected, ZombiU could have been a revelation for the floundering genre. Still, with top-notch graphics, a huge world and great exploration elements in play, it remains a must-buy for the console for those with the patience to see it through.

A survival horror game that delivers tense exploration with more than a few drawbacks, ZombiU succeeds in making the Wii U's gamepad feel like an essential part of the experience and proving well-designed mature games can flourish regardless of what console it's played on.

A pure, authentic Survival Horror, which is something to celebrate nowadays. It has some flaws and some uses of the Wii U Gamepad doesn't work well, but the core ideas are solid, there are tons of interesting details and great touches that create a really solid experience.

A smart and engaging exploration of what Nintendo's strange new machine can muster. Historically, thirdparty releases on a console launch day have been chequered and timid affairs made by inexperienced teams fearful of losing their footing on unknown terrain. When Ubisoft Montpellier's ZombiU works in smart union with its host console, however, it frequently delights.

ZombiU does deliver a distinctive survival experience, albeit one stymied by awkward meanderings and dull undead. It's not likely you'll die of boredom per se, though the good sections are strung few and far between. More than anything else, ZombiU feels like it was rushed to launch, which is too bad--a little more time in the incubator and it could have been something special.

ZombiU has so many great ideas from looting with the Wii U GamePad to permadeath to its spooky setting, but none of them grow into a great game. Controls are clunky, melee combat is annoying, and the game doesn't look good.

ZombiU is an atmospheric game that can be very tense and even sometimes scary. You just have to be willing to over look its flaws.

Despite how interesting the gamepad is used to play the game, the ten-plus hour campaign itself just isn't fun. The multiplayer is a better experience, but that's not saying much. ZombiU is for those gamers that truly want difficult survival horror with no end purpose, and that's fine for those that don't need complexity to their zombie apocalypse.

ZombiU's complete and utter dedication to creating a tense, realistic zombie survival game can be problematic, and its often at odds with itself. Despite this, the game successfully proves that horror games can be enhanced by the Wii U's GamePad, and does a great job at showing how the new controller can create an incredibly immersive experience.

As much as I'd love to heap praise on ZombiU for a smashing debut on a console that needed a good proof-of-concept, it ultimately comes off as a game that tried to get there the easy way-and failed. I applaud Ubisoft's desire to bring fear back to the genre while leveraging the Wii U's unique capabilities, but I wish they could've found a way to do so that didn't require so much needless pandering.

It takes a couple of hours to fully realize that ZombiU – not an eerie game, but a rather eerily boring one – is a goner. I hope that Ubisoft will hack the head off this franchise before it turns into ZombiU 2 and starts biting people’s wallets.

Fundamentally difficult, repetitive and boring. Playing it makes you feel like one of the zombies you're constantly whomping upside the head with a cricket bat. It's so frustrating at times, you almost wish you could take that bat to your own head.