Well then, zombie games seem to be all the rage these days, and I for one, am not fine with this. However, so long as it detracts from the ever-growing need to find "Halo killers" or "CoD killers" I'm happy to leave the rotting corpses be. However, this is no ordinary zombie game. This is not waves of Nazi zombies. This is not a mall full of eager double-ended chainsaw-victims. This is not even a football match, Mr Piercy. This is a fantastic, highly enjoyable nearly top-down, third person shooter that, whilst not revolutionary, is by far the best zombie game I have ever played. I am discounting Tripwire Interactive's godly "Killing Floor" because its all multiplayer and a proper game would have to feature a single player portion to qualify for my comparison. "Killing Floor" also rocks, of that there is no doubt.
So lets break it down, Thriller style. And by that i mean in perfectly choreographed synchronicity with a dead pop star.
The plot of Dead Nation focuses around Mr Protagonist, if you're playing single player, or Mr and Mrs Protagonist, if you've dragged the local MP gimp out of the attic for a quick bash through. Standard zombie story line, some infection turns everyone into zombies, you are immune and alone fighting to survive, squishing the faces of those whom you used to share a brewski and a slice with as you try and carve a path through the horde to.....well, for a while there I didn't really know where we were going, it just seemed like Captain Anonymous had some anger issues to work out. Soon enough though mysterious radio signals and evil scientists turn up and we're right back in that warm'n'comfy arse-grove on the sofa that is a standard zombie story line.
With the faff of pretending there's a story aside, the real juicy bits. Gameplay, visuals and replay value.
Throwing you right into a horde of zombies atop your roof, the gameplay is easy to learn but hard to master. Completely ignoring the right thumb-buttons (square, triangle etc) frees up the right thumb to use the right analogue stick for dedicated 360 degree aim. Combined with a lovely, long laser sight (available on all weapons for the low, low price of $50000) makes aiming a breeze. Trigger buttons are used for firing (R1), items like grenades etc (L1), sprint (L2) and melee (R2) May I just say thank The Guardians of Ga'hoole melee wasn't R3 or L3 because the number of games doing that these days will break my controllers)
The game breaks down into 10 levels, and features a variety of zombies. The standard Zed, the exploding zed, the uber-melee zed etc but a lovely touch which I really didn't expect is the variety seen in the "standard Zed" enemies. In a hoard of about 50 Zeds you can expect to find at least 10 different kinds of standard Zed. For example, soldiers take 2 head shots to kill due to their army helmets, firemen are immune to fire, policemen sometimes carry pistols and office workers come rushing you a'swinging their attaché cases for extra melee damage like Bill from Cubicle 3 beat them in sales for the 23rd quarter in a row and they just can't go home to Marie and look her in the eyes anymore. Another touch of simplicity and brilliance; fat = health, so the larger the jiggly body of rotting flesh the more health the standard Zed has.
Weapons. Well, well, well. Weapons indeed. There is a good selection. There are cool ones. There are effective ones. But few are both cool and effective. The standard single shot rifle, which comes with unlimited ammo, once fully upgraded, is pretty much all you need until you get swarmed. There are a few pretty useless ones, like the SMG, tesla cannon and blade cannon (also, very, very cool but limited ammo/rate of fire/reload time = waste of $100000 in my opinion) but as with all zombie games the flamer and shotgun are always handy. Items are useful, varied and smart to boot. Molotovs, when thrown create a rectangle of fire which, so long as its in the general area of two pieces of terrain, will align itself to form a firewall between them for maximum toasty-zeds. Grenades and mines attract zombies to them before they explode, and once mines are fully upgraded they explode five times and are devastating, and nearly game breaking if you weren't limited to carrying just 4.
Visually, there's not a lot to complain about really. Because the player is so removed from the blood-splattering action detail isn't an issue at all. The game does look nice, but its not groundbreakingly beautiful. It'll do, and it has no flaws really. The upside of not being processor-meltingly shiny is the sheer volume of the living impaired that can "be all up in yo face, noshin' on yo jubblies" at once is ridiculously high at times. So much so that it has actually caused my PS3 to lag on occasion, something MGS4 didn't manage. This, however, entertained me for more than half an hour and didn't take a year to install. Unlike MGS4.
Replay value? I say that with an inflection of question because, for once, this isn't a wave-based zombie game, there isn't any Hidden Director bollocks that supposedly makes every play of a level different or such nonsense, so I'm unsure as to how many people will happily play the game through, all 10 levels, and then want to sit down and do it all again. I mean, I of course shall be doing this. There are trophies for finishing it on 4 different difficulties. That's all the incentive I need, being a trophy whore and all. This is not to say the game loses all value when you finish it, it certainly doesn't make a quick MP play through any less fun, only that I slightly doubt everyone who finishes it will be bothered to do so 3 more times. There is also an online MP option, but judging by the international online ranking based on percentage of game complete and number of zombies killed you either have to be Japanese, Polish or from the Oman to even compete with most of the zombie-hunters out there. Interestingly enough, ranked just one place above the US was a country listed as "Unknown." I would assume this to be the crew of the International Space Station, or penguins in Antarctica. Either way they're better at it than the Yanks.
The overview then; would I recommend this to someone? Yes. Would I recommend this to a non-zombie game fan? Yes, its a shining jewel in the sea of filth that has become the zombie plague on gaming of late. (I'm looking at you Rock Star International. Why!? Why did you have to desecrate John Marston's corpse for that pile of balls?!) Would I have payed money for this had I not got it free? No, probably not, and I would have really missed out.
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