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This thread has been linked to the game 'Left 4 Dead 2'.
Having never played the original Left 4 Dead, I hadn't heard much about this title, due out in just a couple of days, but since I saw the free demo pop up on Steam it seemed rude not to give it a try. Obviously I knew this was a game about survivors versus zombies, but didn't know much else. Now I've played through the demo levels quite a few times and done a bit of reading up on the title I can confidently say this is shaping up to be something pretty special.
The intro movie before the demo begins shows your band of four survivors stocking up on supplies before busting out of a safe-house and gunning down hordes of zombies. It also shows a couple of the special zombies, the jockey who jumps on your back, riding you so you lose control over your character, and the spitter who projectile vomits noxious green goo. Towards the end of the intro you see the survivors descending in an elevator towards the ground floor of a shopping mall full of the undead, which is sure to set pulses racing for fans of Dawn of the Dead.
As you get stuck into the demo, the first thing you notice is that the zombies aren't your usual shambling corpses, but are actually capable of sprinting at full pelt, faster in fact than your character can run. This means running through the crowd to save ammo is not really an option – conserving munitions here is a case of shooting more accurately and aiming for the head. Luckily your standard pistols have unlimited ammo, although you still need to reload when the clip runs out, or you can trade your pistol in for a melee weapon – those on show include a frying pan, a police baton, a machete, and, my favourite, a guitar, which makes a satisfying twang each time you pummel an enemy with it. The intro video also shows a chainsaw, but I'm assuming that is left as something for the full game as I've never come across it in the demo – it should be damn fun though! If you opt to keep the bog standard pistol, you can sometimes find another and upgrade to dual pistols for some John Woo style action. As well as your pistol or melee weapon, you can also get a 'powerful' gun, the basics are a shotgun or an uzi, but there's also AK47s, sniper rifles, assault rifles, a wide assortment of weapons that feel sufficiently meaty and cause some pretty serious damage to your foes. Then you can carry a single throwable, including molotov cocktails, boomer bile and pipe bombs. The latter two attract zombies to them, meaning you can throw them and watch as numerous zombies run towards the spot they were thrown – the pipe bomb then explodes, showering bodies in all directions, while the bile leaves you to do the hard work. Of course, if you come across a boomer in the flesh, it might just get some bile on you, which will cause a lot of unwanted attention in addition to the unpleasant green-yellow goo covering your vision – you're best taking out boomers from afar since they explode on death. Your other two item slots are for healing items such as health packs (but you sometimes find electrical paddles to shock a team-mate back to life should they kick the bucket) and a slot for 'boosts', including pain pills which temporarily up your health, and an adrenaline shot which also boosts health and increases speed.
Of course, it's all very well and good being armed to the teeth and stocked full of medicine, but the game relies on teamwork, so going it alone is really a no-no. The fact is, these zombies are fast, and at some point you're going to need to reload. A right click on your mouse will whack enemies back with your gun, but they'll only stumble back for a second before they're upon you again. And you can't even run away – once they get close and start punching, kicking, scratching and biting, you slow right down, presumably to simulate them pulling at you and trying to prevent you escaping. And of course you can't run through them, so if they surround you completely, as will often happen, you've nowhere to run at all. So best stick together, watch each others backs and protect one another. This really is a team game.
The demo takes you through a single campaign stage, which in the full game will comprise three mini stages. The demo only gives you access to the first two of these from a single campaign mission, but the second in particular is pretty thrilling. The first is good too, but doesn't have quite the same climax. You start by being dropped off by a boat, and there's a few weapons to pick up before you begin fighting your way through the streets – there's upturned buses, collapsed balconies, even a café with a jukebox where you can stick on some tunes to accompany the slaughter. The game also sometimes changes the route you have to take through the level, bricking up doorways or barricading streets, and the positioning of the enemies are different each time, as well as the times and places a horde will pounce, rushing your position from all directions. The finale of the first mini stage takes place after going through a kitchen, and stumbling upon a street lined with alarmed cars – accidentally shoot one or walk into one, and angry rotting corpses will be climbing the barricades, rushing towards you and getting up close and personal – they're not fans of load noises apparently. This is just the moment when you don't want a jockey to leap on your back or for a smoker to grab you from afar with it's long tongue – either can leave you involuntarily headed for a car, before the alarm starts blaring and then the nasty smelling stuff really hits the fan. If the horde pummel you too much, you'll be left on the floor unable to get up – you can still shoot with your pistol, and you'll often have to since a downed human seems to attract any nearby zombies. This makes getting knocked down very frantic, as usually all you can see in every direction is the zombie horde up close and personal, undead faces wildly contorting as you desperately try to shoot them all and stay alive with no means to escape and a tilted angle of the action to represent you being on the floor. Assuming you and your fellow survivors mop up the zombies, one of them can help you up, the sooner the better since your health will steadily drop the longer you're floored, and if you go down one too many times you're down for good. A nice touch is that if you're very low on health you'll get 'tunnel vision', where the edges of your vision are blurred, and everything goes black and white. You'll also move steadily slower as your wounds get worse, another nice touch that adds to the desperation if things start to go downhill. If you are unfortunate enough to 'die' you may be found later locked in a room which your allies will have to open for you. Of course, you'll have low health and only the most basic weapons, but it's a nice re-spawning mechanism that preserves tension without making life too boring should you die early on.
When you complete the first stage of the demo by reaching a safe house and closing the door behind you, you get to restock, then open the next door to begin the second stage. This time the first set-piece is a large park, the centrepiece of which is a fountain surrounded by circular hedges, ideal for enemies such as hunters to sneak up on you – these are hoodied zombies, and as the Daily Mail readers among you may expect, these hoodies are hooligans of the highest order, prowling around on all fours and growling aggressively, before letting out a piercing shriek and leaping through the air with clawed arms outstretched. These are perhaps the most scary 'super-zombies' as they are so fierce looking and leap with such agility and speed that they're incredibly difficult to dodge. However, if they pounce and down someone, they're very easy to deal with – just hope that if you're the one pinned your allies aren't otherwise occupied as the hunter slashes at your throat. Another route through the park is via the bandstand, which often becomes a tenuously guarded stronghold from the horde. Next you make your way through a tiny alleyway to a road under the motorway. In my experience this alleyway is often the place where a tank strikes, forcing you to retreat back down the alleyway, attempting to shoot this insanely powerful and durable zombie while trying not to hit your allies with friendly fire and avoid the chunks of pavement it rips up and throws at you. If caught unawares, one of these can easily spell game over. You'll then come across a small armoured vehicle, climb in and close the door. You're safe here, but the only way out is another door, and opening it causes an alarm to sound in the next area.
This is the most thrilling and visceral part of the demo hands down. As you open the door, you come out into a large parking lot, blockaded with an assortment of wire fences. The alarm is ringing and you can hear zombies coming from all directions. You need to run the gauntlet of these fences, clamber up some scaffolding and turn off the alarm before becoming totally overwhelmed. Easier than it sounds, as they really do come from everywhere, and the winding path the fences force you down is easily blockaded by the poisonous green phlegm from spitters, and they're suitably narrow to make avoiding the bull-like chargers near impossible, and if they hit you you'll be rammed back some distance and perhaps suffer the indignity of being pummelled repeatedly into the concrete. If you and your team do make it up to the alarm, it's not too hard to defend as the zombies have to climb the scaffolding and you can just shoot them as they ascend, or await them with a machete ready to slice them open. Once the alarm is off and the approaching crowd massacred, it's a relatively simple romp to the finish, although occasionally you'll open the door to the safe house to be greeted by a few nasty surprises in the shape of special zombies, lying in wait to finish you off at the final hurdle.
Overall, this is a pretty thrilling ride. The emphasis on team play means it's surely more fun when playing with friends, but it was still great with strangers online, and even pretty good playing the single player version where the remaining three survivors are controlled by the CPU. The full version promises five full campaign settings, even more modes of play, the ability to play as the 'special' zombies attempting to cut short the survivors lives (although there is already a mod/hack available for the demo to allow you to do just this), and of course more weapons and special zombies. Even though the level is largely the same each time, the experience is different enough to warrant multiple play throughs, and there's the challenge of the harder modes to test your mettle against. The promise of playing against real people controlling the undead should also add an extra dimension and new skills to master, as well as upping the challenge for those playing as the survivors. And apparently the campaign levels will be strung together to form a coherent plot, although frankly a zombie apocalypse seems all the plot that's necessary for this title.
So, whether you're an avid reader of The Zombie Survival Guide and need a good simulator to plan your escape from the impending end of civilisation, or you're a fan of team-based games, or you just love shooting stuff up, explosions and gore, this game is pretty much perfect for you. As long as the full version lives up to the promise displayed in this demo, you can count on it being brilliant.
Ratings - NOTE: Based on the DEMO VERSION only
Graphics - While the graphics aren't going to stun you, they're good. The zombies look suitably gruesome and the huge amount of them that can be on-screen at any given time is pretty impressive, and everything else looks great. [8/10]
Sound - There's not a lot of music in the game, although there are little atmospheric flourishes of audio, and when a horde attacks the tempo picks up. The effects are great too, the maniacal laughter of jockeys, disturbing crying of witches, and general snarls of the other zombies putting you suitably on edge, while the guns make a satisfying bang when you squeeze that trigger. [9/10]
Gameplay - The gameplay here is fast and frenetic keeping you constantly on the edge of your seat. Even if you're not generally a fan of the FPS genre, this is different enough from the run of the mill stuff to keep you interested, and the team aspect should help out those who aren't too experienced in the genre while building camaraderie as you keep each other out of harms way. [9/10]
Longevity - Playing the same levels over and again may not sound too interesting, but the zombies are placed differently each time, different weapons and items available, different routes through the level. Ultimately, while a lot is the same each time, a lot is also different. Different enough to keep you coming back again and again, although ultimately, like with anything, you'll eventually need a break from it. [8/10]
Overall – A great game, and a great experience to be had. Not perfect, but pretty damn good nonetheless. [9/10]
The intro movie before the demo begins shows your band of four survivors stocking up on supplies before busting out of a safe-house and gunning down hordes of zombies. It also shows a couple of the special zombies, the jockey who jumps on your back, riding you so you lose control over your character, and the spitter who projectile vomits noxious green goo. Towards the end of the intro you see the survivors descending in an elevator towards the ground floor of a shopping mall full of the undead, which is sure to set pulses racing for fans of Dawn of the Dead.
As you get stuck into the demo, the first thing you notice is that the zombies aren't your usual shambling corpses, but are actually capable of sprinting at full pelt, faster in fact than your character can run. This means running through the crowd to save ammo is not really an option – conserving munitions here is a case of shooting more accurately and aiming for the head. Luckily your standard pistols have unlimited ammo, although you still need to reload when the clip runs out, or you can trade your pistol in for a melee weapon – those on show include a frying pan, a police baton, a machete, and, my favourite, a guitar, which makes a satisfying twang each time you pummel an enemy with it. The intro video also shows a chainsaw, but I'm assuming that is left as something for the full game as I've never come across it in the demo – it should be damn fun though! If you opt to keep the bog standard pistol, you can sometimes find another and upgrade to dual pistols for some John Woo style action. As well as your pistol or melee weapon, you can also get a 'powerful' gun, the basics are a shotgun or an uzi, but there's also AK47s, sniper rifles, assault rifles, a wide assortment of weapons that feel sufficiently meaty and cause some pretty serious damage to your foes. Then you can carry a single throwable, including molotov cocktails, boomer bile and pipe bombs. The latter two attract zombies to them, meaning you can throw them and watch as numerous zombies run towards the spot they were thrown – the pipe bomb then explodes, showering bodies in all directions, while the bile leaves you to do the hard work. Of course, if you come across a boomer in the flesh, it might just get some bile on you, which will cause a lot of unwanted attention in addition to the unpleasant green-yellow goo covering your vision – you're best taking out boomers from afar since they explode on death. Your other two item slots are for healing items such as health packs (but you sometimes find electrical paddles to shock a team-mate back to life should they kick the bucket) and a slot for 'boosts', including pain pills which temporarily up your health, and an adrenaline shot which also boosts health and increases speed.
Of course, it's all very well and good being armed to the teeth and stocked full of medicine, but the game relies on teamwork, so going it alone is really a no-no. The fact is, these zombies are fast, and at some point you're going to need to reload. A right click on your mouse will whack enemies back with your gun, but they'll only stumble back for a second before they're upon you again. And you can't even run away – once they get close and start punching, kicking, scratching and biting, you slow right down, presumably to simulate them pulling at you and trying to prevent you escaping. And of course you can't run through them, so if they surround you completely, as will often happen, you've nowhere to run at all. So best stick together, watch each others backs and protect one another. This really is a team game.
The demo takes you through a single campaign stage, which in the full game will comprise three mini stages. The demo only gives you access to the first two of these from a single campaign mission, but the second in particular is pretty thrilling. The first is good too, but doesn't have quite the same climax. You start by being dropped off by a boat, and there's a few weapons to pick up before you begin fighting your way through the streets – there's upturned buses, collapsed balconies, even a café with a jukebox where you can stick on some tunes to accompany the slaughter. The game also sometimes changes the route you have to take through the level, bricking up doorways or barricading streets, and the positioning of the enemies are different each time, as well as the times and places a horde will pounce, rushing your position from all directions. The finale of the first mini stage takes place after going through a kitchen, and stumbling upon a street lined with alarmed cars – accidentally shoot one or walk into one, and angry rotting corpses will be climbing the barricades, rushing towards you and getting up close and personal – they're not fans of load noises apparently. This is just the moment when you don't want a jockey to leap on your back or for a smoker to grab you from afar with it's long tongue – either can leave you involuntarily headed for a car, before the alarm starts blaring and then the nasty smelling stuff really hits the fan. If the horde pummel you too much, you'll be left on the floor unable to get up – you can still shoot with your pistol, and you'll often have to since a downed human seems to attract any nearby zombies. This makes getting knocked down very frantic, as usually all you can see in every direction is the zombie horde up close and personal, undead faces wildly contorting as you desperately try to shoot them all and stay alive with no means to escape and a tilted angle of the action to represent you being on the floor. Assuming you and your fellow survivors mop up the zombies, one of them can help you up, the sooner the better since your health will steadily drop the longer you're floored, and if you go down one too many times you're down for good. A nice touch is that if you're very low on health you'll get 'tunnel vision', where the edges of your vision are blurred, and everything goes black and white. You'll also move steadily slower as your wounds get worse, another nice touch that adds to the desperation if things start to go downhill. If you are unfortunate enough to 'die' you may be found later locked in a room which your allies will have to open for you. Of course, you'll have low health and only the most basic weapons, but it's a nice re-spawning mechanism that preserves tension without making life too boring should you die early on.
When you complete the first stage of the demo by reaching a safe house and closing the door behind you, you get to restock, then open the next door to begin the second stage. This time the first set-piece is a large park, the centrepiece of which is a fountain surrounded by circular hedges, ideal for enemies such as hunters to sneak up on you – these are hoodied zombies, and as the Daily Mail readers among you may expect, these hoodies are hooligans of the highest order, prowling around on all fours and growling aggressively, before letting out a piercing shriek and leaping through the air with clawed arms outstretched. These are perhaps the most scary 'super-zombies' as they are so fierce looking and leap with such agility and speed that they're incredibly difficult to dodge. However, if they pounce and down someone, they're very easy to deal with – just hope that if you're the one pinned your allies aren't otherwise occupied as the hunter slashes at your throat. Another route through the park is via the bandstand, which often becomes a tenuously guarded stronghold from the horde. Next you make your way through a tiny alleyway to a road under the motorway. In my experience this alleyway is often the place where a tank strikes, forcing you to retreat back down the alleyway, attempting to shoot this insanely powerful and durable zombie while trying not to hit your allies with friendly fire and avoid the chunks of pavement it rips up and throws at you. If caught unawares, one of these can easily spell game over. You'll then come across a small armoured vehicle, climb in and close the door. You're safe here, but the only way out is another door, and opening it causes an alarm to sound in the next area.
This is the most thrilling and visceral part of the demo hands down. As you open the door, you come out into a large parking lot, blockaded with an assortment of wire fences. The alarm is ringing and you can hear zombies coming from all directions. You need to run the gauntlet of these fences, clamber up some scaffolding and turn off the alarm before becoming totally overwhelmed. Easier than it sounds, as they really do come from everywhere, and the winding path the fences force you down is easily blockaded by the poisonous green phlegm from spitters, and they're suitably narrow to make avoiding the bull-like chargers near impossible, and if they hit you you'll be rammed back some distance and perhaps suffer the indignity of being pummelled repeatedly into the concrete. If you and your team do make it up to the alarm, it's not too hard to defend as the zombies have to climb the scaffolding and you can just shoot them as they ascend, or await them with a machete ready to slice them open. Once the alarm is off and the approaching crowd massacred, it's a relatively simple romp to the finish, although occasionally you'll open the door to the safe house to be greeted by a few nasty surprises in the shape of special zombies, lying in wait to finish you off at the final hurdle.
Overall, this is a pretty thrilling ride. The emphasis on team play means it's surely more fun when playing with friends, but it was still great with strangers online, and even pretty good playing the single player version where the remaining three survivors are controlled by the CPU. The full version promises five full campaign settings, even more modes of play, the ability to play as the 'special' zombies attempting to cut short the survivors lives (although there is already a mod/hack available for the demo to allow you to do just this), and of course more weapons and special zombies. Even though the level is largely the same each time, the experience is different enough to warrant multiple play throughs, and there's the challenge of the harder modes to test your mettle against. The promise of playing against real people controlling the undead should also add an extra dimension and new skills to master, as well as upping the challenge for those playing as the survivors. And apparently the campaign levels will be strung together to form a coherent plot, although frankly a zombie apocalypse seems all the plot that's necessary for this title.
So, whether you're an avid reader of The Zombie Survival Guide and need a good simulator to plan your escape from the impending end of civilisation, or you're a fan of team-based games, or you just love shooting stuff up, explosions and gore, this game is pretty much perfect for you. As long as the full version lives up to the promise displayed in this demo, you can count on it being brilliant.
Ratings - NOTE: Based on the DEMO VERSION only
Graphics - While the graphics aren't going to stun you, they're good. The zombies look suitably gruesome and the huge amount of them that can be on-screen at any given time is pretty impressive, and everything else looks great. [8/10]
Sound - There's not a lot of music in the game, although there are little atmospheric flourishes of audio, and when a horde attacks the tempo picks up. The effects are great too, the maniacal laughter of jockeys, disturbing crying of witches, and general snarls of the other zombies putting you suitably on edge, while the guns make a satisfying bang when you squeeze that trigger. [9/10]
Gameplay - The gameplay here is fast and frenetic keeping you constantly on the edge of your seat. Even if you're not generally a fan of the FPS genre, this is different enough from the run of the mill stuff to keep you interested, and the team aspect should help out those who aren't too experienced in the genre while building camaraderie as you keep each other out of harms way. [9/10]
Longevity - Playing the same levels over and again may not sound too interesting, but the zombies are placed differently each time, different weapons and items available, different routes through the level. Ultimately, while a lot is the same each time, a lot is also different. Different enough to keep you coming back again and again, although ultimately, like with anything, you'll eventually need a break from it. [8/10]
Overall – A great game, and a great experience to be had. Not perfect, but pretty damn good nonetheless. [9/10]
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Having never played the original Left 4 Dead, I hadn't heard much about this title, due out in just a couple of days, but since I saw the free demo pop up on Steam it seemed rude not to give it a try. Obviously I knew this was a game about survivors versus zombies, but didn't know much else. Now I've played through the demo levels quite a few times and done a bit of reading up on the title I can confidently say this is shaping up to be something pretty special.
The intro movie before the demo begins shows your band of four survivors stocking up on supplies before busting out of a safe-house and gunning down hordes of zombies. It also shows a couple of the special zombies, the jockey who jumps on your back, riding you so you lose control over your character, and the spitter who projectile vomits noxious green goo. Towards the end of the intro you see the survivors descending in an elevator towards the ground floor of a shopping mall full of the undead, which is sure to set pulses racing for fans of Dawn of the Dead.
As you get stuck into the demo, the first thing you notice is that the zombies aren't your usual shambling corpses, but are actually capable of sprinting at full pelt, faster in fact than your character can run. This means running through the crowd to save ammo is not really an option – conserving munitions here is a case of shooting more accurately and aiming for the head. Luckily your standard pistols have unlimited ammo, although you still need to reload when the clip runs out, or you can trade your pistol in for a melee weapon – those on show include a frying pan, a police baton, a machete, and, my favourite, a guitar, which makes a satisfying twang each time you pummel an enemy with it. The intro video also shows a chainsaw, but I'm assuming that is left as something for the full game as I've never come across it in the demo – it should be damn fun though! If you opt to keep the bog standard pistol, you can sometimes find another and upgrade to dual pistols for some John Woo style action. As well as your pistol or melee weapon, you can also get a 'powerful' gun, the basics are a shotgun or an uzi, but there's also AK47s, sniper rifles, assault rifles, a wide assortment of weapons that feel sufficiently meaty and cause some pretty serious damage to your foes. Then you can carry a single throwable, including molotov cocktails, boomer bile and pipe bombs. The latter two attract zombies to them, meaning you can throw them and watch as numerous zombies run towards the spot they were thrown – the pipe bomb then explodes, showering bodies in all directions, while the bile leaves you to do the hard work. Of course, if you come across a boomer in the flesh, it might just get some bile on you, which will cause a lot of unwanted attention in addition to the unpleasant green-yellow goo covering your vision – you're best taking out boomers from afar since they explode on death. Your other two item slots are for healing items such as health packs (but you sometimes find electrical paddles to shock a team-mate back to life should they kick the bucket) and a slot for 'boosts', including pain pills which temporarily up your health, and an adrenaline shot which also boosts health and increases speed.
Of course, it's all very well and good being armed to the teeth and stocked full of medicine, but the game relies on teamwork, so going it alone is really a no-no. The fact is, these zombies are fast, and at some point you're going to need to reload. A right click on your mouse will whack enemies back with your gun, but they'll only stumble back for a second before they're upon you again. And you can't even run away – once they get close and start punching, kicking, scratching and biting, you slow right down, presumably to simulate them pulling at you and trying to prevent you escaping. And of course you can't run through them, so if they surround you completely, as will often happen, you've nowhere to run at all. So best stick together, watch each others backs and protect one another. This really is a team game.
The demo takes you through a single campaign stage, which in the full game will comprise three mini stages. The demo only gives you access to the first two of these from a single campaign mission, but the second in particular is pretty thrilling. The first is good too, but doesn't have quite the same climax. You start by being dropped off by a boat, and there's a few weapons to pick up before you begin fighting your way through the streets – there's upturned buses, collapsed balconies, even a café with a jukebox where you can stick on some tunes to accompany the slaughter. The game also sometimes changes the route you have to take through the level, bricking up doorways or barricading streets, and the positioning of the enemies are different each time, as well as the times and places a horde will pounce, rushing your position from all directions. The finale of the first mini stage takes place after going through a kitchen, and stumbling upon a street lined with alarmed cars – accidentally shoot one or walk into one, and angry rotting corpses will be climbing the barricades, rushing towards you and getting up close and personal – they're not fans of load noises apparently. This is just the moment when you don't want a jockey to leap on your back or for a smoker to grab you from afar with it's long tongue – either can leave you involuntarily headed for a car, before the alarm starts blaring and then the nasty smelling stuff really hits the fan. If the horde pummel you too much, you'll be left on the floor unable to get up – you can still shoot with your pistol, and you'll often have to since a downed human seems to attract any nearby zombies. This makes getting knocked down very frantic, as usually all you can see in every direction is the zombie horde up close and personal, undead faces wildly contorting as you desperately try to shoot them all and stay alive with no means to escape and a tilted angle of the action to represent you being on the floor. Assuming you and your fellow survivors mop up the zombies, one of them can help you up, the sooner the better since your health will steadily drop the longer you're floored, and if you go down one too many times you're down for good. A nice touch is that if you're very low on health you'll get 'tunnel vision', where the edges of your vision are blurred, and everything goes black and white. You'll also move steadily slower as your wounds get worse, another nice touch that adds to the desperation if things start to go downhill. If you are unfortunate enough to 'die' you may be found later locked in a room which your allies will have to open for you. Of course, you'll have low health and only the most basic weapons, but it's a nice re-spawning mechanism that preserves tension without making life too boring should you die early on.
When you complete the first stage of the demo by reaching a safe house and closing the door behind you, you get to restock, then open the next door to begin the second stage. This time the first set-piece is a large park, the centrepiece of which is a fountain surrounded by circular hedges, ideal for enemies such as hunters to sneak up on you – these are hoodied zombies, and as the Daily Mail readers among you may expect, these hoodies are hooligans of the highest order, prowling around on all fours and growling aggressively, before letting out a piercing shriek and leaping through the air with clawed arms outstretched. These are perhaps the most scary 'super-zombies' as they are so fierce looking and leap with such agility and speed that they're incredibly difficult to dodge. However, if they pounce and down someone, they're very easy to deal with – just hope that if you're the one pinned your allies aren't otherwise occupied as the hunter slashes at your throat. Another route through the park is via the bandstand, which often becomes a tenuously guarded stronghold from the horde. Next you make your way through a tiny alleyway to a road under the motorway. In my experience this alleyway is often the place where a tank strikes, forcing you to retreat back down the alleyway, attempting to shoot this insanely powerful and durable zombie while trying not to hit your allies with friendly fire and avoid the chunks of pavement it rips up and throws at you. If caught unawares, one of these can easily spell game over. You'll then come across a small armoured vehicle, climb in and close the door. You're safe here, but the only way out is another door, and opening it causes an alarm to sound in the next area.
This is the most thrilling and visceral part of the demo hands down. As you open the door, you come out into a large parking lot, blockaded with an assortment of wire fences. The alarm is ringing and you can hear zombies coming from all directions. You need to run the gauntlet of these fences, clamber up some scaffolding and turn off the alarm before becoming totally overwhelmed. Easier than it sounds, as they really do come from everywhere, and the winding path the fences force you down is easily blockaded by the poisonous green phlegm from spitters, and they're suitably narrow to make avoiding the bull-like chargers near impossible, and if they hit you you'll be rammed back some distance and perhaps suffer the indignity of being pummelled repeatedly into the concrete. If you and your team do make it up to the alarm, it's not too hard to defend as the zombies have to climb the scaffolding and you can just shoot them as they ascend, or await them with a machete ready to slice them open. Once the alarm is off and the approaching crowd massacred, it's a relatively simple romp to the finish, although occasionally you'll open the door to the safe house to be greeted by a few nasty surprises in the shape of special zombies, lying in wait to finish you off at the final hurdle.
Overall, this is a pretty thrilling ride. The emphasis on team play means it's surely more fun when playing with friends, but it was still great with strangers online, and even pretty good playing the single player version where the remaining three survivors are controlled by the CPU. The full version promises five full campaign settings, even more modes of play, the ability to play as the 'special' zombies attempting to cut short the survivors lives (although there is already a mod/hack available for the demo to allow you to do just this), and of course more weapons and special zombies. Even though the level is largely the same each time, the experience is different enough to warrant multiple play throughs, and there's the challenge of the harder modes to test your mettle against. The promise of playing against real people controlling the undead should also add an extra dimension and new skills to master, as well as upping the challenge for those playing as the survivors. And apparently the campaign levels will be strung together to form a coherent plot, although frankly a zombie apocalypse seems all the plot that's necessary for this title.
So, whether you're an avid reader of The Zombie Survival Guide and need a good simulator to plan your escape from the impending end of civilisation, or you're a fan of team-based games, or you just love shooting stuff up, explosions and gore, this game is pretty much perfect for you. As long as the full version lives up to the promise displayed in this demo, you can count on it being brilliant.
Ratings - NOTE: Based on the DEMO VERSION only
Graphics - While the graphics aren't going to stun you, they're good. The zombies look suitably gruesome and the huge amount of them that can be on-screen at any given time is pretty impressive, and everything else looks great. [8/10]
Sound - There's not a lot of music in the game, although there are little atmospheric flourishes of audio, and when a horde attacks the tempo picks up. The effects are great too, the maniacal laughter of jockeys, disturbing crying of witches, and general snarls of the other zombies putting you suitably on edge, while the guns make a satisfying bang when you squeeze that trigger. [9/10]
Gameplay - The gameplay here is fast and frenetic keeping you constantly on the edge of your seat. Even if you're not generally a fan of the FPS genre, this is different enough from the run of the mill stuff to keep you interested, and the team aspect should help out those who aren't too experienced in the genre while building camaraderie as you keep each other out of harms way. [9/10]
Longevity - Playing the same levels over and again may not sound too interesting, but the zombies are placed differently each time, different weapons and items available, different routes through the level. Ultimately, while a lot is the same each time, a lot is also different. Different enough to keep you coming back again and again, although ultimately, like with anything, you'll eventually need a break from it. [8/10]
Overall – A great game, and a great experience to be had. Not perfect, but pretty damn good nonetheless. [9/10]
The intro movie before the demo begins shows your band of four survivors stocking up on supplies before busting out of a safe-house and gunning down hordes of zombies. It also shows a couple of the special zombies, the jockey who jumps on your back, riding you so you lose control over your character, and the spitter who projectile vomits noxious green goo. Towards the end of the intro you see the survivors descending in an elevator towards the ground floor of a shopping mall full of the undead, which is sure to set pulses racing for fans of Dawn of the Dead.
As you get stuck into the demo, the first thing you notice is that the zombies aren't your usual shambling corpses, but are actually capable of sprinting at full pelt, faster in fact than your character can run. This means running through the crowd to save ammo is not really an option – conserving munitions here is a case of shooting more accurately and aiming for the head. Luckily your standard pistols have unlimited ammo, although you still need to reload when the clip runs out, or you can trade your pistol in for a melee weapon – those on show include a frying pan, a police baton, a machete, and, my favourite, a guitar, which makes a satisfying twang each time you pummel an enemy with it. The intro video also shows a chainsaw, but I'm assuming that is left as something for the full game as I've never come across it in the demo – it should be damn fun though! If you opt to keep the bog standard pistol, you can sometimes find another and upgrade to dual pistols for some John Woo style action. As well as your pistol or melee weapon, you can also get a 'powerful' gun, the basics are a shotgun or an uzi, but there's also AK47s, sniper rifles, assault rifles, a wide assortment of weapons that feel sufficiently meaty and cause some pretty serious damage to your foes. Then you can carry a single throwable, including molotov cocktails, boomer bile and pipe bombs. The latter two attract zombies to them, meaning you can throw them and watch as numerous zombies run towards the spot they were thrown – the pipe bomb then explodes, showering bodies in all directions, while the bile leaves you to do the hard work. Of course, if you come across a boomer in the flesh, it might just get some bile on you, which will cause a lot of unwanted attention in addition to the unpleasant green-yellow goo covering your vision – you're best taking out boomers from afar since they explode on death. Your other two item slots are for healing items such as health packs (but you sometimes find electrical paddles to shock a team-mate back to life should they kick the bucket) and a slot for 'boosts', including pain pills which temporarily up your health, and an adrenaline shot which also boosts health and increases speed.
Of course, it's all very well and good being armed to the teeth and stocked full of medicine, but the game relies on teamwork, so going it alone is really a no-no. The fact is, these zombies are fast, and at some point you're going to need to reload. A right click on your mouse will whack enemies back with your gun, but they'll only stumble back for a second before they're upon you again. And you can't even run away – once they get close and start punching, kicking, scratching and biting, you slow right down, presumably to simulate them pulling at you and trying to prevent you escaping. And of course you can't run through them, so if they surround you completely, as will often happen, you've nowhere to run at all. So best stick together, watch each others backs and protect one another. This really is a team game.
The demo takes you through a single campaign stage, which in the full game will comprise three mini stages. The demo only gives you access to the first two of these from a single campaign mission, but the second in particular is pretty thrilling. The first is good too, but doesn't have quite the same climax. You start by being dropped off by a boat, and there's a few weapons to pick up before you begin fighting your way through the streets – there's upturned buses, collapsed balconies, even a café with a jukebox where you can stick on some tunes to accompany the slaughter. The game also sometimes changes the route you have to take through the level, bricking up doorways or barricading streets, and the positioning of the enemies are different each time, as well as the times and places a horde will pounce, rushing your position from all directions. The finale of the first mini stage takes place after going through a kitchen, and stumbling upon a street lined with alarmed cars – accidentally shoot one or walk into one, and angry rotting corpses will be climbing the barricades, rushing towards you and getting up close and personal – they're not fans of load noises apparently. This is just the moment when you don't want a jockey to leap on your back or for a smoker to grab you from afar with it's long tongue – either can leave you involuntarily headed for a car, before the alarm starts blaring and then the nasty smelling stuff really hits the fan. If the horde pummel you too much, you'll be left on the floor unable to get up – you can still shoot with your pistol, and you'll often have to since a downed human seems to attract any nearby zombies. This makes getting knocked down very frantic, as usually all you can see in every direction is the zombie horde up close and personal, undead faces wildly contorting as you desperately try to shoot them all and stay alive with no means to escape and a tilted angle of the action to represent you being on the floor. Assuming you and your fellow survivors mop up the zombies, one of them can help you up, the sooner the better since your health will steadily drop the longer you're floored, and if you go down one too many times you're down for good. A nice touch is that if you're very low on health you'll get 'tunnel vision', where the edges of your vision are blurred, and everything goes black and white. You'll also move steadily slower as your wounds get worse, another nice touch that adds to the desperation if things start to go downhill. If you are unfortunate enough to 'die' you may be found later locked in a room which your allies will have to open for you. Of course, you'll have low health and only the most basic weapons, but it's a nice re-spawning mechanism that preserves tension without making life too boring should you die early on.
When you complete the first stage of the demo by reaching a safe house and closing the door behind you, you get to restock, then open the next door to begin the second stage. This time the first set-piece is a large park, the centrepiece of which is a fountain surrounded by circular hedges, ideal for enemies such as hunters to sneak up on you – these are hoodied zombies, and as the Daily Mail readers among you may expect, these hoodies are hooligans of the highest order, prowling around on all fours and growling aggressively, before letting out a piercing shriek and leaping through the air with clawed arms outstretched. These are perhaps the most scary 'super-zombies' as they are so fierce looking and leap with such agility and speed that they're incredibly difficult to dodge. However, if they pounce and down someone, they're very easy to deal with – just hope that if you're the one pinned your allies aren't otherwise occupied as the hunter slashes at your throat. Another route through the park is via the bandstand, which often becomes a tenuously guarded stronghold from the horde. Next you make your way through a tiny alleyway to a road under the motorway. In my experience this alleyway is often the place where a tank strikes, forcing you to retreat back down the alleyway, attempting to shoot this insanely powerful and durable zombie while trying not to hit your allies with friendly fire and avoid the chunks of pavement it rips up and throws at you. If caught unawares, one of these can easily spell game over. You'll then come across a small armoured vehicle, climb in and close the door. You're safe here, but the only way out is another door, and opening it causes an alarm to sound in the next area.
This is the most thrilling and visceral part of the demo hands down. As you open the door, you come out into a large parking lot, blockaded with an assortment of wire fences. The alarm is ringing and you can hear zombies coming from all directions. You need to run the gauntlet of these fences, clamber up some scaffolding and turn off the alarm before becoming totally overwhelmed. Easier than it sounds, as they really do come from everywhere, and the winding path the fences force you down is easily blockaded by the poisonous green phlegm from spitters, and they're suitably narrow to make avoiding the bull-like chargers near impossible, and if they hit you you'll be rammed back some distance and perhaps suffer the indignity of being pummelled repeatedly into the concrete. If you and your team do make it up to the alarm, it's not too hard to defend as the zombies have to climb the scaffolding and you can just shoot them as they ascend, or await them with a machete ready to slice them open. Once the alarm is off and the approaching crowd massacred, it's a relatively simple romp to the finish, although occasionally you'll open the door to the safe house to be greeted by a few nasty surprises in the shape of special zombies, lying in wait to finish you off at the final hurdle.
Overall, this is a pretty thrilling ride. The emphasis on team play means it's surely more fun when playing with friends, but it was still great with strangers online, and even pretty good playing the single player version where the remaining three survivors are controlled by the CPU. The full version promises five full campaign settings, even more modes of play, the ability to play as the 'special' zombies attempting to cut short the survivors lives (although there is already a mod/hack available for the demo to allow you to do just this), and of course more weapons and special zombies. Even though the level is largely the same each time, the experience is different enough to warrant multiple play throughs, and there's the challenge of the harder modes to test your mettle against. The promise of playing against real people controlling the undead should also add an extra dimension and new skills to master, as well as upping the challenge for those playing as the survivors. And apparently the campaign levels will be strung together to form a coherent plot, although frankly a zombie apocalypse seems all the plot that's necessary for this title.
So, whether you're an avid reader of The Zombie Survival Guide and need a good simulator to plan your escape from the impending end of civilisation, or you're a fan of team-based games, or you just love shooting stuff up, explosions and gore, this game is pretty much perfect for you. As long as the full version lives up to the promise displayed in this demo, you can count on it being brilliant.
Ratings - NOTE: Based on the DEMO VERSION only
Graphics - While the graphics aren't going to stun you, they're good. The zombies look suitably gruesome and the huge amount of them that can be on-screen at any given time is pretty impressive, and everything else looks great. [8/10]
Sound - There's not a lot of music in the game, although there are little atmospheric flourishes of audio, and when a horde attacks the tempo picks up. The effects are great too, the maniacal laughter of jockeys, disturbing crying of witches, and general snarls of the other zombies putting you suitably on edge, while the guns make a satisfying bang when you squeeze that trigger. [9/10]
Gameplay - The gameplay here is fast and frenetic keeping you constantly on the edge of your seat. Even if you're not generally a fan of the FPS genre, this is different enough from the run of the mill stuff to keep you interested, and the team aspect should help out those who aren't too experienced in the genre while building camaraderie as you keep each other out of harms way. [9/10]
Longevity - Playing the same levels over and again may not sound too interesting, but the zombies are placed differently each time, different weapons and items available, different routes through the level. Ultimately, while a lot is the same each time, a lot is also different. Different enough to keep you coming back again and again, although ultimately, like with anything, you'll eventually need a break from it. [8/10]
Overall – A great game, and a great experience to be had. Not perfect, but pretty damn good nonetheless. [9/10]