Walking Zombie 2 Review on Xbox
Walking Zombie 2 is best described as an apocalyptic single-player first person shooter, that has been ported over from mobile. All reviews (unless stated otherwise) are based on the Developer/Publisher providing myself with a review code, which i am grateful for, but does not influence my outcome.
The premise is that you are born with an immunity to the zombie virus, giving the world hope. Your aim to find out why, in abid to further help humanity.
The game boasts hundreds of quests, in-depth storyline, Karma system, progression system, weapon/skin attachments, a variety of mini games, mixed with a polygon style aesthetic.
Gameplay
The gameplay starts with your infected mum giving birth to you and then turning which leads to all out carnage. Luckily you are saved by and taken to a place of safety where we then return to many years later.
You wake up from a drunken night in the safety of your camp, and this is where the game then really begins as you take on quests, find out your immune and subsequently go in search for answers.
This first of 5 HUBs is a perfect tutorial to the games mechanics and general quests you shall be getting as you make your way through the game. Here you will find a variety of NPC’s whom will give you quest in exchange for loot and experience in a bid to level up your gear and stats. You’ve got a number of attributes you can unlock along with permanent perks, like speaking with animals, which in turn could give you unique quests.
The quests themselves are a good mix of character-driven, well-rounded gameplay blended in with some humorous silliness. One of my first quests, for example, involved me searching through actual piles of polygonal poo to in a bid to find a watch. SMELLY. Some of these are used in the games KARMA system which in turn will directly impact on what mission further down the line you will get.
Some of the key strengths of The Walking Zombie 2 is its nod to other RPG titles and how they do things. For instance, to open some doors, you need to hack computer terminals in a similar fashion to that of Fallout 4, and you can pick safes using a lock picking mechanic similar to Skyrim.
These elements of the gameplay really enhanced things for me, and provided a welcome break from the standard waves of zombie-killing. There is even the option to purchase houses and fill it with your favourite stuff.
Overall though quests will often be about killing zombies whilst finding something, fixing something or saving something in a small area. But at no point does it feel grindy or forced, it’s a very enjoyable experience. Zombie attacks come from all angles and will relentlessly hunt you down, back never to the point you really get overwhelmed. This is however in stark contrast to the hub boss levels who difficulty is ramped up and pushes all your dodging and attacking skills to the limit.
The weapons all feel smooth and do have that nice impact feel to each of them, and with a huge variety to choose from and unlock there is always something to aim for. There is also a lot of customization to the weapons you can do, ranging from sights or different skins.
Control wise, it does feel abit clunky and switching weapons has been placed on the d-pad, which I found very annoying, when a button option would have been more suited.
Now whilst the game is hugely fun to play, it does come with some pretty serious caveats. As of the time of this review, the console version is the only version where you pay for the game. PC and mobile, the game is Free to play. This would not normally be an issue, however, the console version retains all the heavy monetization and advertisements from the Free to play versions, which is a big no-no for me, if you are paying full price.
The stuff you buy isn’t just skins either, they are assets that make the game easier which would have been better suited to be in the game as an unlockable. And because of this, it really dampens the experience of a really good game.
The microtransactions are so over the top in numbers that there are segments of the stats/crafting page dedicated to it, and that’s not including the heavy advertisement, popping up every other mission. This is perfectly acceptable on free to play games, as it helps the developers, but in a fully paid game, it should have these significantly reduced and the Ads turned off.
Graphics
The games polygon animation has a distinctly Minecraft feel but with more guts and square blood flying everywhere. It really looks fantastic and suits the game so well, especially when you blow away bits of brain and body parts. Visually there is such a wide range of different NPC and locations, I think you will be hard pushed to say it has a repetitive feel and in general find something to dislike with its visual style.
Again though there is a caveat. The game has been classified as been optimised for the Series X, which if you have one means, you can only play it from your internal SSD or approved SSD memory card. I would argue this is not the case, as the amount of pop-in and screen tearing I saw was numerous for such a visually simplistic style. Now this isn’t a major issue being its only 1gb, but with space a premium on the console, it would be better to have a external hard drive option until it gets patched.
Sound
The game does have voiced characters in its cut-scenes, which is great, however, when listening to them, it feels very robotic. I think they are more software voiced characters than real ones, either that or they were going for an almost emotionless style, which could very well be the case. Either way, it didn’t bother me too much as was soon forgotten about when the enjoyability of the gameplay hit.
The games does have some great audio effects, from the moaning the zombies to the heartbeat audio effects in the initial scenes of the game, which really enhances the sense of immersion. There is also basic piano tinkling as the main source of sound, but this can get quite annoying after a while. Overall all though, the game excels in the areas its meant to, which is the sound of the zombies and the oomph of the weapons you use against them. I will never tire of hearing that double barrel shotgun.
Verdict
This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Walking Zombie 2 is a "On Sale".
Without a doubt this is fun game to play and you will enjoy yourself. However I cannot over look the fact that the console version is the only platform where you pay for the game and put up with the free to play heavy microtransactions and ads.
The game is currently priced on Xbox at £9.99 or approx $12, and depending on skill and patience would give you about 30+ hours worth of gameplay. Add in the different quests to unlock, different perks, and different skin unlocks and there is easily enough content here to keep you entertained.
This game frustrates me, because I really wanted to put this in the ‘’great purchase’’ category. But being as there are other platforms that offer this game as free-to play, and the console version in my opinion doesn’t offer enough extra to be the only platform to warrant a full price purchase, I can’t. Should you play this game and support the developers, 100%, but maybe not on xbox.