As of the writing of this review, I have yet to complete Zombi once. You may ask why that would be, and the answer is a simple one. It is because Zombi is one of the most horrendous, broken, buggy, and downright awful games I have ever played in my life. What makes this game a train wreck that should have stayed a Wii U exclusive, you may ask?
Conceptually, Zombi has quite a lot to workAs of the writing of this review, I have yet to complete Zombi once. You may ask why that would be, and the answer is a simple one. It is because Zombi is one of the most horrendous, broken, buggy, and downright awful games I have ever played in my life. What makes this game a train wreck that should have stayed a Wii U exclusive, you may ask?
Conceptually, Zombi has quite a lot to work with, and could have been a great game if it was utilized by actual video game developers. You are a survivor during a zombie apocalypse set in London, being aided by the mysterious "Prepper" to continue living. The Prepper entrusts you with a scanning and mapping device to hack CCTV boxes all over the city as to be the Preppers eyes and ears. A great concept that is just utterly wasted.
The graphics in this game are subpar at best, definitely not up to the standard of even most independently developed Xbox One games, or even Xbox 360 games. A lot of the scare factor is sucked right out of environments and enemies that look like a budget title from 2008. The environments are somewhat varied, but are wasted given the scope this game should have encompassed. You're in a zombie filled London, and yet are maneuvering through the same gray, drab buildings and sewers for the majority of the game. The enemies are slightly more varied, all being zombies but most being dressed differently. This gets old incredibly quickly, however, as after an hour of killing the same construction worker and SWAT zombies the game seems to drag horrendously. The facial expressions and appearance of the living human characters is simply laughable, to put it kindly.
So the graphics, enemies, and environments are nothing special. How about the gameplay? Another disaster to report on this end, unfortunately. You get quite a few weapons in the game, but what amounts to very little ammo for them and not nearly enough space to accommodate half of what you're given . Most of the game will consist of you swinging around a bat as you lure zombies into your hit zone, because it's the only thing that seems to work the vast majority of the time. One section of the game, an arena, forces you into gun combat and it is awful and clunky. The guns seem to be an afterthought, as using your bat seems to be the most effective thing.
The biggest point this game makes is that death is permanent, Dark Souls style. If your character is killed, you start back in the safe room and must retrieve your items from your characters corpse. Why does this work in Dark Souls, but not even the least bit in Zombi? In Dark Souls, you have the option to NOT GO BACK! If the area was difficult and you feel like you'll die again attempting to retrieve your items, and therefore lose them forever, you can just simply not go back. In Zombi you are forced to go and retrieve the items necessary for your current mission, but also fight through all the zombies (including your zombified previous character) that you left in that area...Without your weapons or health items. Who thought this was a good idea at all?
Unluckily for you, death will come often, but almost never from a scenario that pits you against too many zombies to handle. I only died due to zombies with gas canisters on their backs, which somehow magically explode if you hit their faces and heads with a melee weapon. This kills you instantly. Very, VERY irritating in a game like this, where death is permanent and environments are dark, even with maximum brightness. The other time death is almost certain is in the aforementioned arena, where you are given a gun and very little ammo against a horde of armored zombies.
The last issue that needs to be addressed about this steamy pile is the bugs. I had mentioned at the beginning of the review that I have yet to complete this game due to the glitches, and it certainly needs to be addressed. If you do the missions in a certain order (Doing the arena before refueling the generator) the game will permanently glitch on you, no longer allowing you to progress. That killed my first playthrough. My 2nd playthrough got me all the way up until the last 10 minutes of the game, where I died while escaping from the Palace (from whacking at a group of zombies, only to find one was strapped with a fuel canister). Thus began my life as a new character (an act which automatically overwrites the games only save file, mind you) and went to retrieve my mission items and finally complete this garbage, only to find that all shortcuts outside the safe house were inaccessible, and taking the long way through the sewers led only to a barricaded door, forcing me to delete yet another save and restart if I were to complete the game. I also have had friends encounter game breaking glitches such as these multiple times, these are not isolated incidents.
1/10… Expand
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