ZombiU

Blog Post: ZombiU Review - Survival of the Fittest

Craigaleg — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:43:00 GMT

Score: 7.75 / 10
     ZombiU
     Wii-U
     Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
     Publisher: Ubisoft
     Release Date: November 18th, 2012

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZPxu2mNunY]

Pros:

Revives the hesitance and caution that a survival horror game should possess
Gamepad works well in inventory management and map navigation
Healthy variety of guns and upgrades to adapt to your playstyle

Cons:

Controls can be difficult to adapt to in the more hectic situations
Melee weaponry is limited to a single weapon
Repeating environments make the city feel a bit bland
Multiplayer limited to two players

ZombiU, ironically enough, revives a lot of what makes a survival horror game great. It brings the key element that makes the genre so enjoyable; hesitance. A single bite can kill you, and with zombies lurking in dark corners or roaming in packs through the streets, it becomes a game of caution as every enemy is a huge threat. Do you risk using bullets and creating noise or opt for a slower, quieter path? Do you engage the threat directly or sneak around? Do you stock up on barricades for a reinforced escape route or load up on health items? Though slumping on execution, ZombiU succeeds in creating a survival horror game filled with tension and trepidation.

Where is the nearest Home Depot?

You begin as any good apocalyptic based situation should; running for your life as zombies close in on your position, armed with nothing more than a good set of sprinting legs. Guided by an ambiguous voice known as "The Prepper" over a speaker system, your randomly chosen citizen makes it to a safehouse where you are tasked with finding a way out of the city. The overarching dilemma of escape soon becomes complicated as you cross paths with a doctor trying to cure the virus and a secret society dubbed "The Ravens of Dee". You begin to question your once solid commitment to your primary liberator, and your resulting loyalty will determine one of three possible endings. The choices feel less like actual decisions to make for completionists, but the questionable circumstance adds an indecisive trust. It's not very complex, but compelling enough, considering you embody a random character with no real backstory or speech.

The random identity you assume adds a sense of attachment. Once your character is bitten, you are down where you stand and are thrown into another distinct identity. Not only are you teleported back to the safehouse, you must also hunt your previous role down and kill yourself. It is an interesting mechanic that leaves you with an uneasy feeling as you bash your previous body's head in to retrieve your gear. Keeping your identity is not the only incentive in staying alive, as your character's once highly leveled marksmanship with weaponry will be lost upon death. Your corpse also has the possibility to appear in another players games, giving the subtle connection with the community in addition to spray painted warnings you can place on the wall.

Assuming the role of errand boy for The Prepper sets you out into different areas of the city, gathering items and slinking your way through droves of undead. Resources are precious, and simply blasting a path to your goal results in empty clips and panic. A single target on the map will indicate your goal, but the promise of stumbling upon a new weapon or finding a jackpot of medical items will have you combing through apartment buildings and suitcases to find every resource possible. Using a sewer system to fast travel between areas will have you returning to previously inaccessible territory as you gather new gear and upgrades. Objectives are pretty straight forward, and usually result in retrievals gone awry with alarms signaling undead or other events to heighten the already tense environment.

You couldn't have just used chalk?

The game works surprisingly well with the Wii-U Gamepad. Your map and inventory management is all handled on the seperate screen, using the touch screen to move items in your inventory or navigate the map to see what is ahead. A motion tracker sends out a blip on the map to detect enemies and points of interest, giving you a moment to enter a zone and plan ahead. The Gamepad is also used to scan your surroundings. Holding the controller up and looking around the room gives you the ability to scan enemies, items, and intel that can be marked on the map. Its blacklight will also show certain hidden messages that can lead to possible upgrades. With CCTV cameras opening up the map for each zone and the promise of finding loot, you find yourself using the feature quite often.

When the swarm of undead finally notice your presence, the game can get a bit hectic. While you begin fighting simple undead, eventually armored zombies or shrieking monstrosities will attract more enemies that can begin a panic. Luckily, there is a vast array of upgradeable weaponry for your preferred arsenal. Shotguns, machine guns, and the usual norm will be picked up for those who wish to be loud and sniper rifles and crossbows are available for those who prefer the long distance method. There is only a single cricket bat for melee situations, and killing one zombie takes an unsatisfying amount of time. The undead become predictable, but when a large group attacks, the click of an empty clip will make things frantic. The gamepad works well in inventory management, but during combat it can become difficult to switch weapons on the fly.

Out of bullets!...umm...guess I'll use the stuffed animal

A multiplayer mode is also included, but is limited to two players LAN. It's humans vs zombies in a capture point based game, with four scattered points on a map. One player acts as the zombie king, using the Gamepad to disperse forces against the human, upgrading to more formidable zombies as the game progresses. The human player has a set loadout of weaponry and must stave off the waves of undead while defending and capturing points, picking up powerups to stem the tide. It's a hectic situation for the human, and a manically enjoyable one for the zombie king as his zombies overwhelm the human's hold on a beacon. Though fun, the promise of adding a few more players to the fray would have extended the life of the experience.

ZombiU has its faults, but the overall survival horror experience was reminiscent of what the genre used to be. Limited resources, the reluctance of entering dark rooms, and the hectic fear that every zombie is as dangerous as the last keeps the game interesting. It makes great use of the gamepad in exploration and inventory management. The difficulties and issues with the controls and other faults may hold the game back from greatness, but as it stands, this ended up being my favorite launch title for the Wii-U.

Screenshots courtesy of ZombiU official site

For more gameplay, here is my Let's Play

Blog Post: Dead Potential

DesertOcelot — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:48:00 GMT

I never thought much about ZombiU prior to the launch of the Wii U. It just seemed like another generic Zombie "survival/horror" FPS except with fancy Wii U controls. In fact, I hadn't even bothered to play the game until a month after launch. At first I thought it was due to me being preoccupied with other Wii U games like New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land. Looking back now, what kept me hesitant was that I saw a lot of Red Steel, Ubisoft's launch title for the Wii, in the release of ZombiU.

When the Wii launched in 2006, Ubisoft's Red Steel released alongside it with a promise to display how motion controls could be properly used for the budding system. Instead we were shown a mediocre game that emphasized the problems that would overshadow the path of motion controls for the rest of the generation. Now, with the newest generation beginning, I saw a repeat of Ubisoft's promise with the release of ZombiU, except this time I am surprised to say I am wrong . . . for the most part.

ZombiU does two things right; it showcases how the Wii U gamepad can be used in a creative and efficient manner, and how a survival/horror is meant to played. When Nintendo first showcased the gamepad, an entire world of possibilities opened up about how it could be used to enhance the gaming experience. This idea ran wild in fans' minds up until the first batch of titles released and it became instantly obvious that developers had no intention of expanding creativity in the industry with the gamepad; rather they opted instead to use the controller as handheld map an options scroller.

Then comes ZombiU; Ubisoft's vow to Nintendo that they can show the consumers how the gamepad can be used properly with ingenuity. ZombiU succeeds in giving the player a multitude of ways to use the gamepad in order to survive the hoards of zombies waiting around every corner. If the player wants to check the inventory to equip a weapon or item, the player must turn their focus away from the action on the big screen and onto the gamepad leaving the survivor vulnerable to a zombie attack. If a player finds a locked door, the player must perform certain actions on the gamepad that, once again, deter the player's view away from the screen. The use of the gamepad emphasizes patience, strategy, and discretion instead of a guns-blazing, leave-no-prisons mindset that so many modern "survival/horror" games rely upon for some reason.

With how well Ubisoft implented the gamepad controls and created a survival/horror game worthy of the genre's name, it's a shame that the overall game is quite mediocre. Underneath all these creative mechanics, a very plain and run-of-the-mill zombie game lies. The story is predictable and almost transparent, while the missions follow the same formula of "get from point A to point B and back to point A" throughout the entire game. If it wasn't for the constant fear of death lingering around every corner and the necessity of using strategic gameplay, ZombiU would have absolutely nothing else going for it.

ZombiU only works because it is a Wii U game but unfortunately the mechanics can only take the game so far. The core of the game feels so bland and rushed to the point where it becomes a glaring flaw in an otherwise potential and smart title. If you have a Wii U this is a definite must-have title in the midst of a drought of content especially for someone craving a challenge. If you are wondering whether or not to buy a Wii U to play ZombiU; ZombiU is not a game that can carry the console until the next batch of titles hits the console. So basically, ZombiU is a must buy merely on the fact that the Wii U has very few first party titles that use the gamepad to a certain extent and when more promising looking titles hit the market ZombiU will be set aside and forgotten.

-------------------------------

Statistics

Gameplay:
8/10
The clever use of the Wii U gamepad offers the player strategy, depth and immersion lost in many modern survival/horror games. With this said, the fact that underneath the mechanics lies a soulless zombie cash-in cannot be ignored.

Playability:
10/10
Switching weapons with the touch of a finger feels smooth while controlling the survivors is as responsive as any other FPS on the market.

Camera:
10/10
There are a ton of clever uses of the camera; using the gyroscope and the screen to look for hidden objects, its position on the survivor character while you search through your backpack to give you a view of any creeping zombies coming to ambush you.

Fun:
6/10
The Wii U gamepad mechanics are what give the player the motivation to continue with the game. The elements of difficulty and survival add to the appeal but the variety of game-breaking bugs and unnecessary loading doors drop the fun factor sharply. In my playthrough I ran into about five glitches that made me reload a save file and, on one occasion, even create a new save file altogether.

Lasting Appeal:
4/10
The game is short and after that there isn't much to do afterwards except try your hand at Survival Mode which has the player go through the game with one survivor and if that survivor dies, the player must restart the game from the beginning.

Graphics:
3/10:
This is not a pretty game. With abysmally bland textures and mediocre character models, this game negates Nintendo's initial claim that the Wii U is graphically more powerful than current-gen systems with visuals that seem to come straight out of 2007.

Difficulty:
10/10
It's a breath of fresh air to see a game dedicate itself to being a true survivor/horror game. During your missions, you'll find that ammo is scarce, your health runs out fast, and you will find yourself trapped at any moment. On death, the new survivor must go out and kill the previous survivor's zombie self and retrieve all of their precious weapons and recovery items. Be aware if you die without retrieving these items, they will be lost forever. ZombiU urges the player to consider their options and plan ahead and even goes as far as to suggest retreating as an appropriate option if the going gets tough.

Sound:
5/10:
The piano based score is forgettable as is the voice acting. It's the little sound effects such as footsteps, a gun blast, rain drops, and zombie moans that take the player for a ride.

Flow
5/10:
While a neat concept, dying and having to start back at the hideout as a new character halts the flow of the game as you backtrack all the way back to where you last died, retrieve your items and finally continue on with the mission. Sometimes dying during a mission will end it, leaving the next survivor character to reap the rewards and continue on.

RANK: C

Blog Post: ZombiU Is Survival Horror, Not a Shooter.

Jack Treese — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:46:00 GMT

My biggest critique of Wii U exclusive ZombiU has nothing to do with the game necessarily. My biggest critique is the current game industry environment. In an industry where great horror franchises dissolve into generic third-person shooters such as Resident Evil 6, it's too easy for critics and gamers to dismiss a game like ZombiU as another zombie shooter.

That assertion is far from the truth; ZombiU is a brilliant, unique survival horror game that truly feels like a survival horror game. The game starts with the player as a survivor needing to escape from a group of zombies. Upon escape, it is your mission to simply outlast the zombies and complete objectives for the "Prepper," a man who saw the zombie apocalypse coming and made sure he prepared for it.

Unlike today's cut-and-paste survival games, you don't respawn as your current character when you've been killed. Instead, you respawn as an entirely different character... and when you resume as another, you must seek out the zombified version of the now ex-survivor, kill him/her and take your inventory back. The premise seems simple enough--no confusing story lines or threads to jump in and out of, just straight-forward survival. However, the execution of this premise is where I believe a lot of critics have this game misunderstood.

See, when you start playing your character only has a cricket bat. Eventually you find more weapons, survival tools such as planks and flares, and ammo. However, the difficulty rises when you gotta seek out your previous character. Only having a cricket bat can be frustrating because you can't simply bash a zombie and keep going, no. In order to be sure, you gotta give it a good four or five whacks. That's fine if you're only taking on one zombie, but try this with a group of 'em and you're done for.

The game's saving grace are the over-abundance of Wii U GamePad features and the visuals. First, let me discuss the visuals. When the game was first released, a lot of critics called the visuals ugly and unappealing. Now that I have the game I can call these claims unfounded. First and foremost, a survival horror game typically isn't a "field of roses" kind of experience. The game looks gritty, bloody, jarring and, well, ugly. But not a bad ugly, just the right kind of ugly that puts you on the edge.

The GamePad features deserve a lot of praise. While it does put you at risk for being attacked, there's nothing quite like being able to manage your inventory and scan for things to loot on the run. ZombiU takes this idea and expands it, giving the player a full map, radar and the ability to create markers for item locations. Though it takes your eyes off the TV for a second, it's never too obtrusive as long as you avoid containers that are empty.

The campaign is good fun, but if you've got friends over the multiplayer is extremely impressive. In King of the Zombies mode, whomever uses the GamePad is charged with placing zombies on the map in strategic areas to assault any survivors, whom are controlled by players that use the Pro Controller or Wii Remote/Nunchuck combination (by the way, I strongly recommend the former in this case). My friends and I spent a good couple of hours in this mode alone, it's that fun to pass the GamePad around while the others are surviving!

It is in my opinion that out of the five Wii U titles I currently own, ZombiU is the one game experience that most boldly shows off what the GamePad can do. This game has all sorts of mixed opinions in both the critic and user review circles, but I personally feel like the uniqueness of this title significantly outweighs the campaign issues.

ZombiU is a terrific game, but only if you know to expect a survival horror game rather than a shooter.

Blog Post: Zombiu - I hope you enjoy swinging a cricket bat

Nathan Powers — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:23:00 GMT

I went in to buy my WiiU on launch day knowing that I was getting Mario U. That was obvious. My second game was ZombiU because I wanted games exclusive to the WiiU, not ports. Before getting the game I read reviews and at that time it seemed the game was doing poorly. I talked about it with my wife and she told me to get the game because I had been anticipating it for awhile, and wanted Wii U exclusives for my first outing with the console. I'm glad she talked me into it, even though the game has it's flaws.

One of the main draws of the game is supposed to be the survivor aspect. You play as a survivor who is introduced to the Prepper, a man who will be barking at you through your Gamepad. Your survivor will have his/her own version of this called the Prepper pad. The Prepper guides you to a Safehouse that will be your home base. He helps you prepare by introducing you to the CCTV network, which allows you to scan junction boxes which provides you with maps and other goodies, as well as starts your journey. Eventually this leads you to meeting a doctor trying to find a cure, and the Ravens of Dee, who are fanatics of John, a famous philosopher. This leads to doing more things instead of just surviving, like helping out the doc gather materials and letters. Really it's just more reasons to explore more areas and smash more zombie skulls.

You have a health bar, but you can be turned into a zombie with a full health bar if one gets close enough. This pissed me off a couple times because I felt like it was a premature death. Then you start a new survivor, who spawns at the safe house, and you go hunt down your dead self to get your gear back. If you don't, or if you don't loot the corpe and it disappears, everything is gone, including all weapons, except for a pistol cause you always start with that. The guns to respawn over time though.

Most of the game is played looking at a small circle of lit up area in front of you provided by a flash light. While annoying at first you get used to it and almost appreciate it because if you look into bright light, whether light bulbs or the sky, there's this grainy filter over the screen. This too is annoying but I found it easy to ignore and just grew used to it. Whatever you do as you're wondering around London, don't look too close at any textures. The game is ugly. Textures are blurry and undetailed. Corners are sharp points, and be prepared to see some of the same areas over and over. Not because you'll visit them, but because several of the underground rooms are used repeatedly through the game. This better not be an indication of the power of the WiiU or a sign that it's hard to develop for.

Melee combat is clunky, but it works. You have to hold down a trigger to raise your bat to swing. Otherwise you just shove zombies away. You can usually easily down two zombies at a time with your bat, but it takes too many hits. When fighting one zombie it turns into a bore because each zombie reacts the same: swing and hit, zombie steps back, growls, comes at you again. Once you find the rhythm it's easy and repetive. Though I stuck with this a lot to conserve ammo. Gunplay was a lot better which a decent assortment of weapons including pistols, shotguns, and assualt rifles.

The game does a good job of providing a scary atmosphere, considering all of the darkness. Though honestly while it provides a bit of suspense, it does not really provide too many scares. I think the thing that scared me the most is when I was walking through some catacombs and my dog barked. Scared the hell out of me, so I guess it does a good job of pulling you into the game.

The gamepad is used for inventory management, and personally I had no problems dragging the icons around. The top left and right corners had three spots for weapons or health that you could use anytime. The gamepad is also your map and has a ping that searches for living(?) creatures. It shows locations of zombies, but also animals and it doesn't differentiate. This thing is a life saver and almost takes away the horror aspect because you usually know what's around you. The gamepad is also a scanner. By holding down L the screen shows what is on the TV and lets you scan your surroundings for items and dead things. I didn't mind doing this as long as I used the right stick to look around. I'm not the kind to move around in circles IRL to do it in game.

It's really hard to suggest this to others. It's slow, repetitive, and ugly. Also being that it's a horror game, that limits the audience. However, if you're looking for something unique and a game that shows off what the WiiU can do with the gamepad and you enjoy a decent amount of suspense this is definately something worth looking into to. Just don't expect the blockbuster that the hype made it out to be.

I give this game 7.5 zombies out of 10. Just keep in mind that half a zombie can still bite.

Blog Post: under rated

francesco — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 01:15:00 GMT

i dont know why gameinformer always under rates nintendo. This game is actually realy good,and a real survivor game. When you die or get bitten you have start back in the safe house and find your zombie, kill it then get your stuff back. Anyway its really good, and a good start for nintendo. rent it try for yourself. Dont let gameinformer's review hinder yoi from playing it

Blog Post: The Good vs Bad when it comes down to ZombiU

that_sterlin_kid — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:54:00 GMT

I remember watching the very first trailer for this game during the E3 2012 Ubisoft conference with my jaw hung-low and fingers already itching to play it. Even though the trailer only consisted of emotional 3D stills and “God Save the Queen” playing in the background, it looked like a new zombie experience and I was already beyond excited! But then the name appeared, followed by the mention that this game was to be a Wii U exclusive. Before seeing that trailer, I wasn’t at all interested in the Wii U for anything besides Rayman Legends and the next Smash Bros. game, but now it’s mine! Was the purchase worth it? Find out by reading on in my Good vs Bad review!

As for the good things about ZombiU: From the very moment you start playing, you're thrown into a scenario that makes (or at least should make) you realize what you're getting into. You don’t play as some power house with weapons that can take you through hordes of zombies with nothing more than a scratch; you’re a regular human being. ZombiU is definitely a survival game, and it's not going to let you get through it without a fight. Zombies are just about everywhere, and the tools that you have to defend yourself are scarce. I mean sure, there will be plenty of items hidden in closets, drawers, lockers, the pockets of corpses, etcetera... But if you want the good stuff (and trust me, you do), then you're going to have to do a bit of exploring and think smart while doing so.

While on the topic of exploring, this game is a lot more than just survival at its finest, but horror in a zombie game that I haven't been able to experience for a long time. From the very beginning, I was hesitant when it came down to turning corners or even entering new rooms due to how eerie and quiet the game was. The locations that you'll be exploring are actually all relatively dark, but detailed and varied so there isn't a sense of déjà vu when you enter new areas. Just be careful when you’re exploring for materials because one wrong turn can lead to your death, especially if you don’t have your GPS sync’d with the area.

Players can leave small messages around the game for others to see which can either help, or fool them (much like Dark Souls). The ability to leave these messages just about anywhere is a wonderful idea, though the execution can be slightly confusing once you start. First of all, the only way you can even leave a message in the first place is by finding a can of spray-paint, which is actually pretty cool and realistic given the situation. However, instead of spraying words, you get to choose from a vast amount (36) of symbols instead. When looking at these symbols in a dark world where the undead can attack at any moment, these can be pretty difficult to translate... But if you manage to find spray-paint and take some time to study the selection, things will be much clearer as you play through.

Dying in ZombiU is by far the most unique (and awesome) of all death experiences that I've witnessed so far in gaming. Once you go down, the character that you were just playing as becomes infected and you're forced to start from the Safe House as another character. From there, what happens varies. There were some times when I had to fight a horde of zombies to clear out the safe house, and others when I simply had to continue the mission that my last character was doing. In addition to that, if you want your stuff back you're going to have to find your previous character, kill them, and hope that they're still carrying what you left them with. In the event that you don't find your previous character near the spot they died, there's a good chance that it invaded someone else’s game. You’ll also be able to see other people’s infected characters invade your world, which can be noticed by the names about their heads and the score that player had before they died. If you wish to check on your own previous characters and what their infected selves are up to, you can press the logo that looks like a signal tower on your game-pad, and swipe your finger to the left. There you will be able to see how many players they have encountered, how many they have infected, if they have been killed, and by whom.

Though dying is pretty cool in ZombiU, it's best to stay alive with one character for as long as you can. The longer you play as a character, the better their skills will be with the weapons that you use. Every time you use a weapon, experience is gained to help each type level up. As they level, weapon stats such as firepower, accuracy, ammo capacity, and speed will increase. Unfortunately, if you die your stats will be reset. Staying alive longer and racking up more kills on individual characters also puts you higher on the leaderboards, giving you some bragging rights in terms of who’s the better zombie apocalypse survivor among your friends.

ZombiU’s multiplayer is actually more fun than expected and quite addicting as well, even though it can only be played locally. Two people can play, giving one the ability to spawn zombies with the gamepad while the other plays as a survivor with the Wii-mote+Nunchuck or pro controller. There are also two game modes unlocked right from the beginning: Assault, which plays much like a game of domination (keep control of more flags the longest) and Kill Box, which places the King of Zombies (GamePad user) against the survivor to see how many points they can get before dying. My personal favorite mode though, is Survival, which is unlocked via Uplay.

As for the bad things about ZombiU: The fact that there’s a somewhat decent variety in guns but no variety at all in melee weapons slightly bothers me. From start to finish, the only melee weapon that you’ll be able to use is a Cricket Bat. Though it’s quite humorous and stereotypical (mostly thanks to Shaun of the Dead), I just can’t seem to understand how a game like this doesn’t give you more options in that area of combat.

Waking up as another survivor when you die is fantastic, but some of the characters that you can end up being are pretty annoying. In a sense, this is actually a good thing for the fact that the characters are more diverse than just name and appearance. Unfortunately when you’re playing as a character who decides to scream every time they swing their cricket bat or breathe ridiculously heavy after sprinting, it makes you wish that this game didn’t give you such a harsh set of consequences for dying.

Overall, ZombiU is a fantastic Wii U experience and an even better survival horror experience that I’ve been anticipating for a very long time. If you don’t own a Wii U, I certainly wouldn’t recommend picking one up just for this game. However, if you do own a Wii U and have an interest in real survival horror, this is definitely a must own. ZombiU gets an 8 out of 10.

Blog Post: Dead Wrong...See What I Did There?

Durge — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:18:00 GMT

I'm really enjoying this game. Even more than the other launch title I purchased, New Super Mario Bros. U. The reason, it's innovative. Every new gameplay mechanic might not have been executed particularly well but the game is by no means broken. Tim Turi gave the game a 5. I will counter most of his negatives.

The scanning environment mechanic does not need to be implemented in every room. You can certainly scavenge items and proceed through most of the game without scanning anything. The scanning mechanic is required for hacking CCTV terminals (even this is technically optional) and some doors that require hacking. I found that scanning the environment increased the submersion in the game. The Wii U controller became a window into this world. Often I would find myself doing full 360 rotations in my living room, scanning the environment. When has a game ever provided that experience?
Managing your inventory on the touchscreen works exactly as it should. While you're looking down moving items you have to glance up to see if anything is creeping up on you. The tension created through this is palpable and satisfying. Not getting eaten while looting becomes it's own mini victory.
I will concede to the point Tim makes about melee combat being boring. It would be nice to have had a stealth kill implemented or some sort of one shot kills. How every zombies head splits open the exact same way is a bit disappointing.
I do not have an issue with the controls. I wish there was a button for opening and closing the inventory rather than swiping the touch screen.
Visually the game looks fine. If the game is too dark you can brighten it up through the games options. I do have a complaint about dark areas having a noticeable transition to black. I'm not sure if that's from the game or my television.
One thing left out of the review is the Demon/Dark Souls like online features. You can leave messages to help or hinder other players. If (when) you die, your zombie can be spawned into other players games as an NPC. You don't "invade" other players games, that would be a nice option for a sequel.

I've enjoyed my time with ZombiU and look forward to the next installment. This is far from "A Bad Start..." and I would recommend this game to fans of the survival horror genre.

Blog Post: Combat hiccups mar an otherwise creepy experience

Jake Jehlicka — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:25:00 GMT

Right off the bat I'm going to say that I am a fan of this game; it is flawed, but I love it. The combat system is weak and fairly unappealing but that is not what made me enjoy the game. The game created a scary atmosphere and creepy

Gameplay (minus Combat) (8.5/10)

The game handles well. I thought that the controls were a little clunky before I discovered the 180 degree turn around command. After this I was able to navigate the environment and avoid being attacked (very important by the way). I really enjoyed the ways that ZombiU implemented the Gamepad. This is especially true with the item management in your backpack. I love the idea of looking away form the TV screen for a few tense seconds while I find a Medkit to use or equip a Molotov Cocktail. The scanning feature was fairly dull, but useful. Many will find these things gimmicky, but I thought that they were a unique and enjoyable way to demonstrate what the Wii U can do. One of the most unique parts of the game comes in the form of characters. Once you die, that character is dead. The end. You have to kill the zombified character you worked so hard to level up and survive with in order to reclaim your lost supplies and weapons. I thought this was a very neat addition that goes against the usual "die and start a few minutes before your death" approach that infests nearly every game on the market today. It is a bit frustrating that if you die while trying to kill your undead former self, those items are apparently gone for good, but that is just more incentive to not die a second time.

Combat (5.5/10)

The melee combat is in need of tweaks, It makes fighting every zombie feel like a desperate struggIe. I enjoyed this initially but it just could not hold up against the larger hordes of zombies that will attack you. It would have been able to keep up had they included more melee weapons besides the cricket bat, or even a way to upgrade the default weapon (particularly speed!) The gunplay added a necessary portion to the combat when things become a little too crowded. I try to only use guns when when I get overwhelmed, so the ammo complaint did not apply to my playthrough as much. I thought that the lack of ammo in the environment brought back one of the principles that recent survival horror games have all but forgotten: starve the player for resources. Anyone who is a fan the original Resident Evil will enjoy this. The only problem with the starvation is that the melee combat is just too underpowered and a bit clumsy. The developers should seriously consider tuning this in a future patch after receiving the fan input.

Story N/A

I don't really have a rating for the story in this game, as there really isn't much of one. You just have to realize that a story isn't the purpose of this game, it is to survive. I personally don't think that games need a captivating stories to be a good horror game (like Slender Man). It is all about atmosphere and survival

Graphics/Sound (9/10)

Contrary to the GI reviewer, I actually enjoyed the dirty camera effects and a weak flashlight. I felt that these added to the overall mood of the game and added a sense of grittiness that would have been otherwise missing. The atmosphere was very tense, hearing the occasional moan or screech off in the distance was truly unsettling, especially when you check your radar and search around only to find nothing. The zombies show an appropriate level of detail, nothing terrible, but nothing stands out either. the rain effects and the lighting I thought were amazing, but many will not like having their vision obscured. I am one that believes this is what survival horror is mean to be

Conclusion

This game is not for everyone; there are some balancing issues, especially in the melee combat. Many will find this to be frustrating, but I just work through it to enjoy the game for what it's supposed to be: survival horror. This game does not put you in the shoes of an "everyman that can mow down waves of the undead without any challenge. You ARE an everyman, so generic that the game will sweep your character under the rug without batting an eye and unless you are very good at the game immediately, you will die. I recommend this game to people who are seeking a unique survival horror challenge, and I very much hope to seethe ideas that this game presented refined and put into a sequel

Any questions about the gameor portions I may have missed, add to the comments below and I wil update the review, as this is my first game review.

Blog Post: It stumbles, but it entertains

Chaotic Ignorance — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT

ZombiU is a tough game to recommend. Not because it's horrible and certainly not because it's GotY worthy. When I tell someone they should play ZombiU I first need to find out what kind of games they've enjoyed in the past. If you're the type that plays every shooter that releases in a year, then perhaps you would find the combat a bit clunky. While if you're the type that only buys the occasional shooter, like Half Life 2 and Dishonored, then you might be able to look past the controls and enjoy the game for everything else it gets right.

Every new feature that ZombiU has is almost guaranteed to be showing off a GamePad concept. Some of these could be hit and miss; scanning for clues can be as tedious as Metroid Prime after the first couple of hours. However others, like inventory management or using your scanner to locate zombies, can be a lot of fun throughout. The scanner in particular adds an element of fear without relying on jump scares like so many other survival horror games. Seeing 3-4 red dots pop up just around the next corner is enough to make any man stiffen up, but when you cautiously turn off your flashlight and tiptoe around to take a peak, only to find a pack of rats, you can't help but be on edge for the next batch of scans you perform. Just don't ever let your guard down because you think a small clump of red has to be a rat pack.

Other elements, like looting corpses and containers in real time, are well implemented to add another layer of fear. Some may think it gets repetitive when you have to organize your inventory while being chased by hungry monsters, however I felt it was worth the minor frustrations of potential death.

Overall I think ZombiU is a fantastic showing of what the Wii U is capable of doing in the future. A few minor problems aside with the slow-to-kill combat not withstanding and I'd say this is close to a must buy during launch. Even more so when it lowers in price. The one thing we're almost guaranteed to have is a sequel at some point, so perhaps Ubisoft can fix some of the issues that people are finding cumbersome, while keeping the same tense and exciting gameplay for others that enjoyed it this time around.

Blog Post: Really upsetting

RetroGraphics — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:21:00 GMT

I was really upset to see the review score for this game to be low. I saw many videos of this game and I was so anxious to just play it. This was going to be the main reason why I was going to get the WiiU but after seeing this makes me realize that I should wait longer...much longer to get the WiiU.

Blog Post: A Bad Start For New Wii U IP

Tim Turi — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:36:00 GMT

When the Wii released back in 2006, Ubisoft delivered a new IP called Red Steel on launch day. The game aimed to highlight the console’s motion controls with first-person shooting and gunplay. Unfortunately, the sloppy aiming and slashing instead foreshadowed how much the FPS genre would struggle on the console. Ubisoft is back again with a new game that shoehorns in all the bells and whistles of Nintendo’s latest console. Instead of an exciting showcase of the Wii U’s interesting new technology, ZombiU demonstrates just how bad survival horror can get.[Excerpt]

The goal of the game is to navigate London’s underground subway system to access various parts of the city, forage for supplies, and survive the walking dead. You scan the environment for ammo, health, and other goodies by holding the GamePad in front of the screen and moving it around. This gimmick is cute for the first hour or so, but holding up your arms after entering every new room quickly becomes a nuisance. You manage your inventory using the GamePad’s touchscreen in real time. The idea of forcing players to quickly juggle supplies while zombies close in is novel, but the increased tension only highlights the clunkiness involved with sliding around tiny icons.

Because ZombiU takes place in the U.K. and Shaun of the Dead exists, your fallback melee weapon is a cricket bat. Where other first-person zombie games like Dead Island and Left 4 Dead 2 have proven that weighty, satisfying close-quarters combat is possible, ZombiU is the exception. Ammo is scarce, so I hope you like the idea of batting idiot zombies in the head almost a dozen times before they drop. Combat requires players to ready their weapon by holding one shoulder button then pressing the other. This makes sense for shouldering firearms, but the agonizingly slow bat swings give combat an awkward, unsatisfying rhythm. I know conserving ammo is important during a zombie apocalypse, but after hours of mind-numbing melee combat I was burning through precious rounds just to avoid using my bat.

Zombies don’t care if you’re struggling with awful controls, so expect to get eaten many times early on. The penalty for death is to spawn as a new survivor in your safe house and track down your previous, freshly zombified character to reclaim your gear. The concept is interesting, but results in a lack of commitment to any single character and an abundance of tedious backtracking.

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Retreading familiar territory wouldn’t be so painful if ZombiU’s presentation wasn’t such an assault on the senses. You spend most of your time squinting through the darkness with a glorified penlight, a problem exacerbated by a lackluster lighting system that makes everything look blurry. A dirty camera lens effect makes your TV screen appear filthy and frequently obscures your view. The repetitive sewer environments make it too easy to get lost. The useless quest tracker and confusing map system make navigating the boring environments even worse. All these things culminate to make one of the worst-looking launch games for the Wii U.

ZombiU doesn’t feature online multiplayer, but two players can engage in competitive local play. The asymmetrical gameplay involves one player, the King of Zombies, placing undead around a map with the GamePad while another battles them using a Pro Controller or Wii remote/nunchuck combo. Dropping zombies into the map using the GamePad’s touchscreen is easy, and watching your horde swarm your enemy is sadistically satisfying. Being on the receiving end of a zombie barrage is unbearable with the Wii remote/nunchuck, so only bother if you’re picking up a Pro Controller.

Gamers eager for a new experience tailored to the Wii U likely have their eyes on ZombiU. It shows off nearly every feature of Nintendo’s new hardware, but the sum of these parts is a horrifying Frankenstein’s Monster. Good zombie games are a dime a dozen these days, and I can’t recommend ZombiU above them despite being the only undead shooter on the Wii U.

For more Wii U reviews and information, visit our Wii U hub.

File: ZombiU