World War Z (2019)

Dipped my toes into the blood bath that is World War Z and I'm pleasantly surprised. I was expecting nothing more than a cheap, shallow, zombie horde thrill ride and whilst the game so far isn't very revolutionary, it's certainly kept me busy the past few hours.

The sheer volume of zombies and how they climb walls and tumble over barriers is perhaps the games most technical feat, but for me the standout feature is the games balancing and pacing. Not once did I feel underpowered or disadvantaged, nor did I ever feel left behind by my random team mates.

Some may prefer more of a challenge and I think that can be found in the harder difficulties, but I was just happy to be able to survive a whole level without going down in 2 hits. I've got too much PTSD from call of duty zombies. Every gun felt lethal and effective and I was never left empty handed when it came to finding guns and ammo. This is without even diving into all the customisation and perks.

With the pacing, the level design seems to be done in a way where you're lead through a level consisting over 3 or 4 main horde events and it's the short time between each that ensures you're more likely to stick with your team and not lose eachother. So simple but I really appreciate it.

I didn’t read much about it before deciding to try it out on Game Pass, so I may be out of the loop when it comes to its initial shortcomings, but in its current state I had pretty much zero issues with World War Z. Yes, it can get repetitive, but the fact that this isn’t a long game - something I’ve seen it criticised over - works to its advantage here. WWZ isn’t a groundbreaking game by any metric, but in my opinion, it does most of what it tries to do effectively. The game is able to create a successful zombie horde dynamic, which at harder difficulties can get quite challenging. There’s nothing complex or too original to do throughout the missions, and the mini-stories on each chapter are essentially self-contained. But even though this may feel disjointed for some, for the most part I don’t think there’s anyone out there deciding to try this game for its narrative. You have a group of survivors who need to escape from whatever situation they find themselves in before all hell breaks loose, things go sideways, and they eventually overcome their challenges. That’s pretty much it, but even within that very basic, linear structure I still felt that WWZ is capable of offering some decent variety in settings and gameplay options. The game looks great and plays great, and I don’t remember any moment of frustration due to any mechanics or clunkiness. Most weapons feel good to use, and that experience of going Rambo on waves upon waves of flesh-eating maniacs is highly enjoyable. I even ended up appreciating some of the banter between characters (the fact that you can choose who to control is also a plus).

I didn’t try multiplayer, so my experience is purely based on the single player content without any DLC. If you do get a chance, especially if you’re on Game Pass, I think World War Z definitely deserves a go. It won’t rock your world but it will provide about 5 to 6 hours of relentless zombie mowing that feels punchy and entertaining until the end. Solid 7/10 for me.

Intro

It's Left 4 Dead. You know, an episodic four-player co-op zombie shooter.

Pro

• It's fun.
• There's a neat mechanic that makes more zombies show up if you are too loud in "quiet" sections (kinda like how you have to be quiet around the Witch in L4D).
• The swarm sections are fun because...
• You get to blow up hordes of zombies with rocket/grenade launchers, mortars and (auto-)turrets. Gun goes brrrrt!
• The various classes are somewhat amusing. Instead of an engineer with a turret you have a dronemaster with -you guessed it- drones.
• Pretty decent skill system.
• The overall presentation is really solid - sound, visuals, level design.
• There's a chainsaw.

Con

• The 'special' zombies aren't as memorable as in L4D, they look way too normal.
• Instead of modular weapon upgrades you can choose between one of two pre-built versions.
• Weapon upgrades require in-game credits to unlock and won't keep getting XP unless you buy the highest level upgrade available.
• Skills also require in-game points to unlock.
• Winning a game gives you 250 points, a skill upgrade or basic weapon upgrade costs 150 points. Level 4 weapon upgrades cost 750 points.
• Only 14 levels. Seriously.
• Maybe 6-8 hours of original content.
• If you die in single-player you're game over. I wanted to actually watch the story sequences without bothering other people but they basically punish you for trying that.
• The chainsaw doesn't work like in Doom, you just swing it around. Pffft.

Conclusion

The core gameplay is fun but the lack of content and pointless grinding really detract from the enjoyment. And they want €37 for this?! WTF?!

Fun for a while, but after completing main missions we see a very low replayability. The days of left for dead 2 are over and games need to be updated with content and events or at least be packed with a lot of content from the same. World War Z does not have either of these.

Updates were scarse and very shy with their content, some already existing mission extensions, a game mode, a new mission... No so much for the triple A price the game was asking at his start.

But it gets better, after a bit more than one year exploitation, the game became free, offered on epic game store. In the same lengh they released a new pretty big piece of content. The right thing to do would have been to give something to the users who played the full price something but... No. Take your 50€ and shove them where you can because nothing was made to differenciate paying vs free users.

So back when the game was issued, you paid for an empty game with lacking content just to see it being offered to everyone a year or so later. And if this wasn't enough the developpers ask you to buy the goty edition to unlock the rest of the content. It is indeed one of the worst industry pratice I ever saw. They don't even present this as a DLC, they present this as a game "reedition" where in reality no upgrade besides fucking SKINS is made, and a new map, for 15€ if you already own the game (upgrade to GOTY).

If you got the game for free when it was avalaible, it can be a go. Still fun to shoot zombies. But shooting sensations are lame, explosions are SO lame (like throwing fireworks). Upgrade trees are dumb and don't really influence the way you play. Horde mode is so slow with annoying unskipable prep time between each wave (we are talking more than a minute of nothing happening). Missions are okay but nothing really new here if you played lfd2.