World War Z fails to capitalise on its single contribution to the zombie shooter genre.
World War Z fails to capitalise on its single contribution to the zombie shooter genre.
World War Z is Saber Interactive’s new game, taking inspiration from the zombie film rather than the book.
The setup is simple enough: four episodes set in four cities around the world (New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, and Tokyo), each with a unique cast of characters. There’s no throughline connecting them; they’re simply all tales of local survivors trying to outrun zombies. All chapters are unlocked from the start, and the same goes for their various characters. The narrative is light enough that it doesn’t really matter which episode or chapter you start with, as they’re all self-contained.
Story is clearly not a focus, and seemingly neither are character personalities. Whether because of the corny, repetitive dialogue or the actors’ hammy delivery, you never really get to make a connection with anyone. The focus, of course, is on massive hordes of zombies which you’ll have plenty of chances to chew through using an arsenal of firearms, and explosives. The game’s so called swarm tech is impressive because of its scale, but not so much gameplay potential.
Each horde attack is carried out by thousands of zombies, split into different waves depending on the objective. In defence missions, the prep phase positions you to face one or two directions. This is a very effective way of getting players to appreciate the scale – and perhaps a little bit of the terror – of seeing thousands of angry, fast zombies rushing towards you.
The tech is certainly capable, and it allows the game to funnel them in through any hole big enough for it. It looks like a flood of bodies pushing in from all sides.
While their numbers can be impressive, that feeling quickly dissipates upon closer inspection. Some concessions likely had to be made to maintain a decent level of performance, but what ended up in the game are fast body bags with jittery animations and unpredictable behaviour. I can’t say if it’s a technical limitation or the game’s AI pulling punches to try to keep things balanced, but the size of the horde never felt oppressive. The sheer numbers alone should be overwhelming – even if just for a brief moment.
It would have been great to see a few hundred zombies physically preventing you from advancing onto an area, or blocking a crucial escape route. You’re never really forced to cut through the waves or make any decisions other than figuring out the most efficient way of dealing with them.
