REVIEW: Zombie Army Trilogy

I am a big fan of the Sniper Elite series, and in particular (despite a few glitches and flaws) Sniper Elite 3 was tremendous fun. As the name suggests this is a Standalone title made up of two remastered 2013 titles (Nazi Zombie Army and its sequel- originally DLC for for Sniper Elite V2) and a previously unreleased third title. It is drawn directly from the Sniper Elite series, using much of the same game mechanics and all of the same weapons etc.

However despite the incredibly similar basis, Zombie Army Trilogy manages to play as a very different game. Obviously, the addition of Zombies is the most immediate and fundamental difference. However, the co-operative focus a very different pacing make this a reassuringly distinct game that stands separate to its parent title.

The game starts you in Berlin, 1945. The Allies are on the brink of crushing the Nazi forces. In a desperate attempt to turn the tide, Hitler has unleashed one last unholy gambit – a legion of undead super soldiers. Focusing on the Nazi’s well documented preoccupation with the occult, the game sees you dropped into this intense alternate vision of World War II in the form of a Third Person shooter.

On the basis that many of you may not be familiar with the Sniper Elite games, I’ll ‘take it from the top’. The style of play is a third person stealth shooter. Your main weapon is a sniper rifle, chosen from a number of options with various zoom rates, reload speeds, mag sizes and muzzle velocities etc. You also have a secondary weapon, which can be a submachine gun such as a Thompson/MP40, or something more specialised, liked a shotgun (which you might like to keep handy… for close encounters). You also have a sidearm (a pistol) for those last stand moments. Your firearms are backed up by several traps and explosives. You have grenades and land mines, as well as trip-wire explosives and dynamite.

All of this is pretty much the same as the Sniper Elite series. You move cautiously about, lining up headshots and luring enemies into traps. As with the parent title, a particularly well taken shot will be rewarded with the now iconic ‘x-ray cam’. A long range bullseye will see the game slow down and the camera cinematically follow the bullet from barrel to target. It will then show in gruesome X-Ray detail exactly what the round does to the unfortunate recipient –both inside and out. This is a great touch, and really well implemented, and despite this being its 3rd outing it is still far from getting boring.

However, it may be a stretch to call this a ‘stealth’ game in the traditional sense. You see, whereas the other titles in the series rely on silence and going unseen as you attempt to line up the perfect shot to take unnoticed, ZAT is a very different game. Rather than sneaking through enemy camps as a hunter, you are now attempting to survive a zombie horde as the hunted. There is no option to avoid the enemy, only to survive their onslaught. The undead can withstand a lot of damage to their bodies and limbs, but a well-placed bullet to the brainpan will put them down outright (or more often remove their heads completely).

As such, the tactic of choice is to pull out your trusty bolt action and scope those zombies in the eye socket. This is given a fantastic sense of urgency and pressure by the fact that the targets are shambling towards you, often in large groups, as you are trying to put them down. You need to prioritise targets and shoot quickly and well to ensure you aren’t reached and overwhelmed.

You will often find yourself covering your approach (or even your rear) with the aforementioned explosive traps to buy yourself time and space, and switch to your Close Quarters weapons when things get too intimate.

There are 15 missions to play through, spread across 3 campaigns. In single player these are tough as nails and incredibly atmospheric. making it though a building siege or getting to the next safe room is a genuine test of skill and reactions on normal difficulty or higher. In terms of that traditional ‘zombie feel’ the solo campaign nails it. Keeping your nerves calm enough to line up a headshot as a horde is moving fast towards you is not an easy task, and the total removal of your peripheral vision once you look down your scope really helps that tension.

However, where the game really shines, and what it seems to have been designed for, is the Co-Op, which allows three of your friends to join up with you and take on the undead together.

Our team has really given this mode a beating, and interestingly we all came away from it with different views (although I have to say all positive). I found it a lot of fun, but for me it lost a lot of the tension and anxiety of the solo mode. It is great fun to blast through together, and its nice to pull off a great shot in view of three compatriots. The negative to me, however, was that it felt a bit too…. competitive. You have to keep in mind there are no class types or roles to take on to support each other. You are all snipers. Think how that would play in Battlefield or CoD and you start to get an idea of my gripe.

All four players are trying to make are trying to make long shots or grenade the same crowds. This can get a bit frustrating when it becomes a bit of an indirect race to get the last hit on a zombie, or when someone else’s grenade goes off a fraction of a second before yours, robbing you of the 15-for-1 clusterkill.

In my mind this is a deliberate move by the devs, as the game seems set up for it. Consecutive headshots bring score multipliers and combo bonuses. The longer and better placed a shot, the more points its worth. Killing multiple combatants flashes up a rewarding message -not just on your screen but also to tell your friends what you managed. Add to this, the scoreboard is omnipresent in the top right, trading player names in the list as they outdo each other.

This is a nice way to get to compete with your friends, but the downsides in my view are that it makes the action far more frantic and frenetic. I’d also suggest that it encourages the players to eschew teamwork in favour of racing for kills and directly competing.

Interestingly, this view was not universally shared among the team. To provide a contrasting view, our Andy suggested that it is purely down to how you choose to play it, and the style of the game just provides options. If you want to turn it into a competition then that’s the players choice. He wasn’t really bothered about score or combos, but instead was more focussed on making it to the end.

Andy compared it to Battlefield 4 or CoD, where some people focus more on how many kills they get whereas others will concentrate on taking or holding objectives. He made a very good point that if the combos actually provided bonuses like giving you extra damage or a special move, it may have been a different situation.

Also, harking back to the difficulty I mentioned ealier; although in the early sections you can get away with running around, as we found the end sections are totally different. When we failed, every single time it was because we weren’t working well enough together or our plan wasn’t good enough.

Another feature of the game is that the AI is fairly limited. Enemies spawn from predetermined positions in each area, and these will be the same every time you play. Once they spawn they will either move directly towards you on mass or try to shoot you (depending on Zombie type).

I marked this down as another negative, but Jez viewed it very differently. To put it in Jez’ own words: “I seriously fucking ADORE this game“. In looking at the predictability, his view was that he loved how the waves are pre-determined, as it allowed the team to formulate strategies and plans, and to try to set up defences before the waves were triggered. Jez went as far as saying that it really reminded him of World of Warcraft in that respect.

There are other problems that it is only fair to note. The game is fundamentally great fun but limited. There is a reasonable selection of weapons to choose from, but no options for customisation. likewise there is only one character ‘class’ and no opportunity for customisation or upgrading etc. Also, not a major issue, but we have become used to environmental interaction/destruction this generation and that is noticeably absent here.

One final note is that the coop campaign is not the only multiplayer mode available. There is also a ‘Horde Mode’ which (as you would expect) sees the team pitted against increasingly tough waves of enemies. Its fun, but without the depth and variety of the Campaign we found ourselves going back before too long.

To close, I think its only fair to leave you with a summary from each of us:

HOOKSAN: it’s fun and atmospheric shooter in single player, and a really fun skill test in Co-op. It was a good blast in both modes, but I felt it was more an ‘add-on’ than a full title. I will carry on playing it with friends, but I there is a lot more that could be added if the series moves forward.

JEZ I love the gore, I love the level designs and layouts. I mean yeah its rough in places, and screen tearing is rife at times. Regardless, for a comparatively small studio, Rebellion are proving with this one that games don’t need to be big budget to be big fun.

LIAM It reminds me of the left 4 dead games, in that level progression leads to a safe room where you can take a breather, re-arm and then head out for the next chapter. ‘Hard’ mode is brutal and very challenging. The three chapters feel distinct and very different to each other. Level diversity is a huge feature of the game and will really keep you coming back.

ANDY: ZAT may have a few graphical flaws but it’s a great game to jump on with your fellow gamers and have some zombie killing fun, while still offering a good challenge during the hoarde sections. Think Left4Dead with sniper rifles & you know what your in for!”

So there you go. Not a genre defying title or a highly polished Halo challenger. Its something more simple. Something that too many games miss in their quest to be art…

…its FUN.

HooksaN (@HooksaN)