E3 2009: Hands-on: Zombie Apocalypse - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 13 June 2009 / 4,471 Views
There was the age of Robotron. Then came Smash TV. Then there were the great Geometry Wars. The top-down spray-and-pray shooter genre is now passing the torch to Zombie Apocalypse.
What sets this game aside from its ancestors is the 4 player co-op action, online or offline. Some are even calling the game a cross between Geometry Wars and Left 4 Dead, but I don't see how that can be a bad thing. If you were ever a big fan of Robotron, Smash TV, or Geometry Wars, or their friends, but wanted to have 3 friends helping you out, and you hate zombies as much as I do, then this is the game for you.
Zombie Apocalypse puts you in the middle of a zombie-infested hellscape. You walk with one trigger and shoot with the other. Zombies come at you from every direction. The area I was in had a crashed plane with one of the jets still running. I could shoot zombies towards the jet and they'd get sucked in and instantly blended into zombie soup. That can't be healthy. There was also a crashed helicopter with the blades still spinning, dicing up zombie skulls that got too close.
Every once in a while I'd find an unlucky survivor who would just stand around like an idiot screaming for help. As if all the zombies rushing at them were bringing help. Unfortunately I wasn't able to kill the survivors to spare them the inevitable zombie transformations that were coming. They'd be eaten, they'd lay dead a few seconds, and then get up as a zombie and join the uncoming hordes. So I gave in and started saving survivors. If you keep one alive long enough, a ladder drops down from a rescue chopper and they're lifted to safety while you're left to rot in the apocalypse. To thank you for your troubles they throw down a stuffed teddy bear. The teddy is full of C4. You can throw it any direction, and it will work as zombie bait. All the zombies that surround the "teddy bombers" will be gone in a few seconds, so you can either run up behind them and put a chainsaw down their skull or use the distraction to escape or rescue a teammate or another survivor.
There are 11 weapons in the game, and everybody has a chainsaw with two attacks. You can hold in the chainsaw button and aim as usual, either running through zombies or spinning around like a windmill. Or you can do an instant kill attack where you cram the chainsaw down through the top of their head. It gets more style points (in and out of the game), but is a little slower to deliver, and leaves you open to an attack from behind while you pull it back out. That didn't stop me from doing it to every zombie I saw though.
The thinner zombies can grab you, and you get a second to shake them off before they sink their teeth into your tasty human flesh. But the fatter meaner zombies give you no breathing room. Once one of the fatties tackles you it's over. I only played the first two days, so I didn't get to see any of the other environments, but right at the beginning I was completely surrounded and I got to use a flamethrower, shotgun, chainsaw, helicopter blades, and teddy bear grenades. And that's the recipe for classic arcade action.
There are 55 days to endure, across seven different environments. Each environment has two unique hazards. You can unlock seven different game modes after surviving the whole ordeal. And then you can crank up the spook factor and fight the zombies in the dark.
Konami hasn't committed to a release date yet, but Zombie Apocalypse should be coming to XBL and PSN fairly soon.
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@Scruff7, Some of each.
Look like a blast, I likey killin me some zombies.
this sounds exactly like Burn Zombie Burn, which is a great game!
are these fast zombies (a la Left 4 Dead) or traditional slow zombies?
Zombies+Smash TV=WIN
This game sounds awesome. Oh how I miss the old 4 player co op days.
I'll also tick in first that I will be missing out on this one.
Wish it was also on the Wii. Well have fun PS360 owners :)
