Rob Lake reviews Zombie Army 4...
Zombies have taken a lot of stick over the years. The undead menace has appeared in a multitude of video games throughout the last 10-15 years. They are an incredibly versatile enemy and as such can be used within both horror (Resident Evil) and comedy (Stubbs The Zombie, Dead Rising) settings. One other Zombie trend is to see the shambling rotting bodies used in an alt-history setting. Call of Duty's Zombie mode is, of course, the heavy hitter amongst these. But publisher Rebellion has its own alternative to the World War 2 scenario - Zombie Army.
Zombie Army started life as a "What-If " to the developer's popular Sniper Elite franchise. In it you would fight the undead through various WW2 settings whilst completing various objectives along the way. The game would also feature the tight sniping mechanics that made Sniper Elite a hit, but rather than Nazi troops your fighting Zombie Nazi troops instead. Since then Zombie Army has spawned three full campaigns, which sees teams of up to 4-players battle vanquish Hitler and his occult followers and to then save the day.
The latest release in the franchise is Zombie Army 4, and it's what I'm going to talk about today. So strap on that helmet soldier! We've got Zombies to fight!
Story
Zombie Army 4 takes place in an alternative version of war-torn Europe. On the verge of defeat, Hitler unleashed his doomsday scenario which sees most of Europe overrun by the Undead. With corpses reanimated in the streets, and strange hellish creatures roaming the shadows. Within days Europe had fallen to the dead and the free Allies stood in defeat. To stop this the Allies send a team of highly-skilled fighters to tackle this threat and to finally end Hitler's reign once and for all.
The basis for this is seen in the Zombie Army Trilogy which is available now on a multitude of consoles and PC, and it's well worth checking out!
Zombie Army 4 is set one year after Hitler defeat. The Undead are still roaming the cities as the "Dead War" continues. But evil is stirring, one that the Allies can't afford to ignore.
You'd be right in thinking that Zombie Army 4 is a schlock-filled B-Movie fest in video game form. The whole campaign is full of enjoyable popcorn-munching scenes of pure carnage. From fighting through desolate train stations to the canals of Venice and even a Zoo, nothing escapes from the aptly named Dead War. Fans of low-budget sci-fi will feel right at home with the story. It's full of cheese, bro-Vado (when playing in 4-player multiplayer) and a tonne of macho-badass feeling moments. I did feel at times that this overshadowed what is an interesting story. I would have liked a little more narrative moments rather than full-on action rammed in my face. But it's still an absolute blast!
Gameplay
Zombie Army 4 uses the same tried and tested mechanics of the Sniper Elite series. Your chosen operative can equip a sniper rifle, secondary weapons - such as SMG's, shotgun or even a crossbow, as well as a pistol and various equipment.
Each campaign is filled with safe-rooms which act not only as a checkpoint but also a place to restock and rearm. In these rooms, we can change our player as well as assign skills and upgrade or change our load-outs.
There's a tonne of variations of load-outs, and each of us will have one different to each other.
When out on the battlefield we're tasked with performing various objectives as we move to the next safe room. It's not uncommon to be powering up generators or defending checkpoints as these feature heavily throughout the full campaign. Surprisingly, these repeated objectives don't feel tiresome, which is probably mainly due to the sandbox nature of how we play.
Levels are incredibly linear, but there's plenty of vantage points and spots that teams and solo players can use to their advantage. Utilising these can not only get you out of a pinch, but they can also set up some incredible kills.
With Zombie Army 4 being an off-shoot of Sniper Elite naturally, sniper rifles feature heavily. We have a variety of rifles at our disposal, each has its strengths and weaknesses but with a bit of learning, you can easily pick up and use any of them. On occasion killing an enemy with a rife will lead to a short sequence where the camera follows the fired bullet to its destination. Whether it be - skull, ribs, eye socket or undead testicles. It's a nice addition and offers a lot of "holy sh#$" moments.
Controls
Controls feels pretty tight and refined most of the time, but can be a little janky here and there. The overall control scheme is the same as both Sniper Elite and the Zombie Army Trilogy so returning players will have some familiarity at least. Everything is mapped well to the Xbox controller and nothing feels to awkward to accomplish.
Enemies
The B-Movie schlock also applies to the games wealth of enemies. The most common of these is the humble Zombie but there's a few "exotic" ones as well as various boss characters too. My personal favourite was the Zombie shark in the Zoo and Venice areas. It's quite frankly ridiculous but fits into the setting incredibly well. Another mention goes out to an undead Tank that you literally have to shoot in the heart to kill. Again it's bonkers but fits the shooter incredibly well.
Other enemies range from suicide zombies, armoured flame thrower zombies, snipers and crows and rats.
Enemies can also be dispatched in a number of ways too, and each area is littered with various environmental traps. My personal favorite is again - the giant shark, which when activates thrashes from side to side and devours anything in its way. There's also various exploding barrels, generators and other traps to take advantage of. It’s over the top but extremely fun as well. Theres also various character abilities such as a super powered melee and the ability to slow down time for more head-popping carnage.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer can be played in teams of up to 4-players. You get the choice of either playing the traditional campaign or a horde mode. There isn't an adverse mode per-say as Zombie Army 4 is built for co-op. Players looking to challenge themselves against each other will have to look towards the game's scoring. Each action in the Zombie Army tallies up to an overall score. Every kill and how you do it builds this multiplier up. However, miss a shot or stray from the action for too long and the multiplier resets. This all accumulates to an overall score which then gets added to a leader board at the end. It's a great way of seeing who's carrying the team, and who the weak link is.
Replayability
Zombie Army 4 has an extreme amount of content to play through. The base game features 9-missions that are divided into three sections. Each section takes about 30-minutes to 1-hour to compete when playing on easy. These missions can be bolstered further with the games Season 1 and Season 2 passes, which add further missions, characters and weapons to the base game.
It's an incredible amount of content when considering it all. When you add in the additional collectable items, character upgrades, weapon upgrades and even an enemy sticker book, then Zombie Army 4 will keep you busy for quite some time.
Summary
Zombie Army 4 is quite a fun game whilst it's not perfect its a vast improvement of what came before. It's full of crazy moments and tight gunplay. With 4-players it's an absolute joy to play, and offers the same talking points as Valve's Left4Dead. Solo players will still have fun, but this is one meant for teams. Zombie Army 4 also feels more in-line with Sniper Elite 3 than its predecessor - Zombie Army Trilogy. It feels that Rebellion have learned from their mistakes of ZAT and have vastly improved Zombie Army 4 in every way.
With a very generous season pass and an already wealth of content included. Zombie Army 4 is a schlock-filled B-Movie Horror fest that should be experienced.
Rating - 8/10
A review code was kindly supplied for the purposes of this review. Zombie Army 4 was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.
Zombie Army 4 is also available on: PlayStation 4 and PC. You can purchase Zombie Army 4 via the Xbox Store by clicking here.
Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter @GeekCultureRev
Absolutely Astounding
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