This aptly named survival shooter comes from Straight Right Studio based out of Melbourne, Australia. Pairing up with Ubisoft, Zombi has arrived on PC and Xbox One screens. Set in London, United Kingdom, the player travels around London encountering iconic locations in the hunt to survive. Oh boy, it is enjoyable!
The game opens with your character trying to escape from a zombie infestation, however, unlike other franchises where you typically go up, or to somewhere secluded (see Dead Island), this time round, you go down, specifically the Mile End underground station. You wake up on a sleeping bag, and are instantly greeted by a voice who introduces himself as ‘The Prepper’ because he’s “always prepared.” As your character is sent out into London, you take advantage of all the standard survival trends: looting, returning to base, upgrading your weapons.
In Zombi, players are given are ‘prepper pad’, which acts as a mini-map and a scanner. By pressing ‘C’ you can use the pad as a scanner to spot potential items within containers, you can also scan electrical relays to gain access to the CCTV network, which then transfers onto your map. This is a refreshing change from other zombie survivals which I have played, as the map is something you have to earn in every new segment you go into. Progressing through the story, you gain upgrades to the ‘pad’ which enable you to have a passive radar, which is a massive boon as you’re not constantly pressing ‘T’ to scan the surrounding area.
Zombi does not function like a standard zombie game. In most of them, when you die, it is either ‘Game Over’ or you respawn at a previous checkpoint as your chosen character. In this, the player is respawned as a fresh character, with minimal equipment and tasked to recover your previous character’s items–as they are now a member of the undead. This changes how you play, as you are more aware of what is going on around, and mentally, the constant checking of corners keeps you on your toes. This is a game changer for me, as it effectively resets your character, wipes your ammunition, but you do keep anything you placed in your raven box, and weapon upgrades.
As you would expect, the player unlocks more weapons and kit as the game goes on. Straight from the start you are given a cricket bat, which whilst being a wonderful ode to Shaun of the Dead, becomes your melee option. If you’re accurate enough with the bat, you can obliterate zombies with ease. Later on, when you’re scoping out the Brick Lane Supermarkets, you find Molotov Cocktails. Going on from there, you can find Silenced Pistols, Bolt-Action Rifles, Land Mines, Frag Grenades, and no doubt many others. There are weapon upgrades to find throughout each area. You can only use these once per weapon, and not all weapons accept certain upgrades. The upgrades are Damage, Accuracy, Ammo Capacity, and Weapon Firing Speed.
The zombies, ah, those well-known foes. They are varied in appearance, but not so much in actual abilities. You have the base level zombie, standard shufflers, equipped in all forms of Uniform, from the standard zombie, up to policemen and soldiers lookalikes. These are your standard run of the mill zombies. Quickly you encounter RIOT zombies, these ones have head gear which prevents them from being head-shotted. A few swings from the cricket bat, or shots to the face will remove it and you can plug away at him as normal. When you reach the royal palace, you encounter the “Spitters.” These ones are a little harder, as they take away your main advantage, your range. These guys can spit an acid at you, taking a little health, and reducing your vision to nothing more than a blur. The third zombie to be aware of is the Exploder. This guy is obvious to spot, but can sneak up on you–as I found to my cost–he carries equipment on his back which explodes. Handy for you if there are zombies near him.
Zombi has some outstanding sound done to it, and in other senses not so much. The audio changes based on location, weather, roaming zombies and environmental hazards. The effects, such has guns, are ok. Let me expand on that, as you progress through, you open up more areas which you can explore for loot. The beginning area is quiet with crows cawing, Buckingham Palace features a baroque soundtrack (which I believe is Bach). The sewers are dank, and the music reflects that. Green Park is my favourite. Not only is it dark and gloomy, but the rain pouring down adds an extra level to it. Walking through shipping containers and hearing the barrage of rainfall almost makes you believe that you are present in the game.
The graphics are good, but not mind-blowing. This is perhaps a downside, but this is not something that I agree with. A zombie based game is supposed to be a dark, grimy, adrenaline pumping, pulse-pounding survivalist adventure. The graphics do not need to be outstanding pixelated love auditions for your eye-balls. In this manner, Zombi’s graphics are on point. They provide what is needed, and that is that. The environment hazards, fire and rain, show what’s meant to be shown. The Spitter zombie clouds your vision into a blur. The graphics do what needs be done, and they are good at it.
Gameplay is fun, but not pulse-pounding. There is an overarching want to survive and gather materials, and to obtain upgrades for your weapons. As a whole, ideally try and keep zombies in front and not let them near you. When you access the Virucide, this gives you an emergency second wind but with a single use, that can be a dangerous move. Combining with the Prepper, you become a force for the zombies to be reckoned with. The use of ‘E’ as an action button, and fast travel locations (manhole covers) make the game slightly simpler. ‘E’ is used to break barricades off doors, use items, and climb up/down things. Whilst it is irritating to have to mash a button to either crouch or climb up things.
On a whole Zombi is good fun, but there are flaws. The gameplay and zombies make it slightly fun, but the narrowness of the storyline bugs me. The whole idea is to escape London, but that comes around quite quickly. Your conversations with the Prepper, and the other characters in the game make it clear that they are opposing factions, essentially fighting over nothing to create some sort of rivalry to provide an additional thought process for the player. The rest of the game is good old zombie combat, along with mystery finding and a good soundtrack.
I’d rate it 7/10, taking into account the various things which provided me with some irritation. Ultimately, it’s a good game, with enjoyable gameplay and good characters. The respawn feature is wholly endearing and I ended up being frustrated when I did die, which I imagine is entirely the point. The London setting is refreshing, and that is a good thing to have.
Ben was a regular ICXM contributor between 2014–2017, publishing 45 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative.