When you aren't facing game-breaking glitches, ZombiU is a thrilling, genuinely scary ride.
With an uninteresting world and dull combat, the survival horror game ZombiU is a weak link in the Wii U's launch lineup.
The survival horror genre is a balancing act. The player needs to feel fear and helplessness, but also needs satisfying ways to take action and combat those feelings. This harmony is something even the genre greats struggle with, but that hasn't stopped the first-person survival horror game ZombiU, the latest to throw its hat in the ring--and on a new console no less. However, its vision of a zombie-infested London not only fails to create an engaging horror experience, but also falls short of being a good game.
Combat is how you spend most of your time in ZombiU. Many environments are claustrophobic, your ability to run is limited, and the zombies can easily keep pace with your character at walking speed. Attempting to charge past the horde can lead to receiving some painful glancing hits or getting surrounded by the undead. The best course of action is to play it safe and dispatch all the zombies you encounter.
This means luring enemies away one by one and clobbering them with the cricket bat. This melee method can take a long time, since the number of hits needed to fell a foe changes randomly. And no one zombie, even the faster ones or the armored ones, poses an engaging threat individually. You just stand there, hitting and waiting. Tools such as flares and land mines break up the monotony, but their contribution is fleeting.
Firearms are faster and deadlier, but are not as readily available as the cricket bat. A shortage of weapons is not uncommon for the survival horror genre, but ZombiU’s emphasis on fighting makes this scarcity sting. New weapons and ammo are uncommon, and can be lost if your character dies and you cannot recover his or her backpack after respawning. A more cautious strategy is to hoard weapons away and circumvent this risk, relying solely on the cricket bat and pistol that new characters always start with.
Whether you choose to conserve your bullets or you use them as soon as you pick them up, most of your time spent fighting will be with the laborious cricket bat. Dispatching enemies this way is as repetitive as it is dull, and does not change throughout the entire campaign.
What does change are the protagonists. ZombiU takes an interesting approach by casting you as a new character every time you die, but struggles to stay consistent. In the beginning, your hero is taken in by the Prepper, a military man well versed in zombie survival (and conspiracy theories). But when that first character dies, the game's logic dies with him. It is not uncommon for the Prepper to yell at newcomers about issues they know nothing about.
Shouts of "I thought we were partners!" or "Why are you betraying me?" have zero context to a new arrival. Within the game's narrative, this person just got here. And since your hero is mute and disposable, all characters you encounter communicate at you, rather than with you (and they do not talk with each other). Everyone you meet is basically shouting at a very confused brick wall. This is not ideal for maintaining the unease and mystery of a horror story.
The Wii U gamepad functionality doesn't contribute much to the game. The pad’s functions include displaying the map and your inventory, and being the place where you tap to interact with things such as wooden barricades or manhole covers. When tapping on an object, you are treated to a reverse shot showing what’s going on behind your character. Every so often a zombie will shamble into frame, creating slight panic as you tap away.
Maxwell McGee earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Arkansas, and has contributed to The Escapist, GamePro, PC Gamer, and more. His introduction to video games was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis, and he has never looked back. He welcomes your feedback through the site, or Twitter.
I don't know what game this reviewer's played, but it certainly doesn't sound like the game I've just completed that's for sure! It's certainly not a perfect game, we know that, but I've played video-games starting with the Atari2600 through the Amstrad CPC to the gamecube, xboxes, playstations, handhelds and currently the Wii U and it was a fun game for me!
I can only guess the reviewer has no taste in games. ;)
Maxwell McGee's review in this game is a bunch of senseless shit. This game deserves at least 7. Please, ignore all the babbling from this kid and go buy this game if you like this genre. It's a solid game and I can assure you that you don't gonna be disappointed.
I don't know man, I've had an amazing time playing this game. It's not perfect but I'd personally score it a 7 at least.
1 Like Since the late 19th century, the standard way of reviewing a piece of work has been to judge it by WHAT IT ATTEMPTS TO ACHIEVE.
Maxwell McGee = complete $#&*ing fool.
I've have only ZombiU for a few days, and am completely enraptured with the tension, atmosphere and dread that comes over me when playing this game. The challenge is addicting, and grows more so as you get more comfortable with the game's mechanics. It comes down to your willingness to give yourself over to the experience and engage it on its terms, not yours.
To put it another way, if your favorite movie is Top Gun, you just might think that Stanley Kubrick's movies are "slow." :P
1 Like Okay I'm in the twilight zone because this game is amazing. I mean it's an incredible game. I mean there is no way in hell character models a little rough around the edges and a cricket bat make one of the most detailed, engaging, intense and solid games in years a 4.5. ZombiU is one of the best horror/zombie games I've ever played.
Dead Island is a much better game in my opinion, combat in this game just feels wonky and the "ghosts" are boring
Hear the cries of the people?
This is what happens when reviewers like you fail to be smart!!
My friend had me over his place to play this game and i fell asleep when i pass the control.....I didnt really feel the whole dark experience of ZombiU when i play it.... Even my brothers think its retarded to buy it . Im still a fan of Nintendo, but i won't favor this game .
once again Gamespot attacks Nintendo, why i am not surprised?? Is this an opinion?? or a review??
People just think they are cool hating Nintendo, if they only knew how stupid that sounds... Who reinvented gaming?
Last I checked, not CoD, not Halo.
Mario and the NES did.
My guess, these people are stuck up jerkstores who are determined to make Nintendo look bad
@Dragonfang8712 @rattamierda While there is some truth to that, we can't treat Nintendo as holy and untouchable for what they did decades back. If Nintendo can't keep up with the state of the contemporary industry then that's too bad for them.
That said, the massive difference between this review and every other review I've seen for this game so far leads me to believe there is also truth to what you say.
@Shanks_D_Chop @Dragonfang8712 @rattamierda
Replace 'Nintendo' with "any existing corporation" and that statement holds true. Nintendo is very aggressively holding the largest piece of the gaming market captive and out of reach from its competitors (kids, adults, casuals, nostalgics, party gamers, social gamers, handhelds, motion gaming). They are the only contemporary gaming company existing as of now.
5 Like oh well a Wii U exclusive getting a bad score from Microspot sorry Gamespot what a surprise ever since they merged all the gamespot sites together the site has become ver xbox centric but then again they are now all run from america so what do you expect
about the game this is one of the most fun zombie games i have played in a while and when he said "The Wii U gamepad functionality doesn't contribute much to the game" what was he smoking? the fact you have to use the gamepad to access your inventory or pick locks while the game still plays is a great thing because if it happened in real life i'm sure the zombies wouldn't wait while you look through your bag
sorry GS you guys have really gone downhill and i don't just mean on this review i mean on everything that isn't xbox (playstation or nintendo) get your c*** out of microsofts a** and try being a bit more impartial like you should be
rant over
Graphically inferior, that is true. Sony and MS consoles were graphically superior and more powerful than N's Wii.
Gimmicky? I recall that the 'gimmicky' controller had both MS and Sony jumping around to create their Kinnect and Move features for their consoles to compete with N's 'gimmicky controller' the following year. They began a big push to try and attract the family, casual gaming, the exercising and dancing/singing community as well. That does not sound gimmicky to me. That is MS and Sony seeing N doing something that they took granted and they had to catch up. The impact of the controller and gameplay highly motivated the other two console makers. Stop minimizing history. N did something right with that graphically primitive game console
As for the Wii U, what it is capable of will depend on what the 3rd party developers decide to do with that new gamepad controller. It will either flop because developers do not see it worth the investment, or it will take off and we will see MS and Sony scrambling again to develop soemthing that is similar to what N is doing. Either way, competition and variety wise, I would like to see N's console succeed because it will push the other two makers to come out with a great product. Waving the 'Next Gen' graphics and 'Next Gen' online gameplay alone cards will not do it.
2 Like I'm sick of the fact that Gamespot doesn't appreciate good games anymore. Seriously they troll about Kid icarus and the like.
1 Like Needs online multiplayer. If it gets it then Im buying the game. Im tired of buying games that dont have online capabilities.
3 Like You're an idiot. Other consoles will NEVER get great games like Super Smash Bros or Pikman 3. All you have is some shitty FPS games like CoD and Halo. So HA HA, and go fuck yourself.
3 Like Ok, just spent a good chunk of time with this game. I generally don't like second guessing the gamespot reviews because even when they're stingy (skyward sword) you can at least see their point even if you don't agree with it. For this game they really dropped the ball and I hope this guy's reviews get scrutinised by the senior staff in the future.
It's damaging to give a game this kind of score but you kind of feel like in this case it was casually assigned because the guy was in a bad mood or something. They way he talks about it is more consistent with a 6, which isn't a million miles from the mean score. A 4.5 is off putting and almost made me not buy the game. Lucky I looked at other reviews too.
My feelings is that it's by no means a perfect game and there are issues to iron out but the atmosphere it manages to create makes it a real joy to play and the fact that it doesn't feel like the same old FPS re-hash says a lot. A solid 7.5, maybe 8
@ac1907 I've not played this game and I doubt I'll get a Wii U but when the Metacritic score is 77 and most reviews for this game that I've seen rate it between 6 - 8 then, yeah, you do start to wonder about the validity of this review.
I wasn't gonna get this game based on the reviews but it's becoming more and more common the reviewers opinion is not in line with even the slightest minority of people that have played the game(s). From checking Miiverse, a few different review sites and now here, anyone that has played the game seems to love it. Will be picking this one up very soon. I always enjoy a good scare, even though the whole Zombie outbreak format is growing tiresome.
What the... good thing I decided to buy this game despite the crummy reviews on both Gamespot and IGN. A 10 yr old can probably give a more accurate review for this game. I played RE 1,2,3,4,5 and I think this game is comparable to the newer REs.
Heh, this guy is completely out to lunch on this one. This reminds me of the skewed review Radiant Dawn got a few years back. Not saying its a 10/10 by any means but its not 4.5.
@eXeYutari Haha, I remember that review. It read like they had someone who had NEVER been anywhere near a Fire Emblem title to review it. It was a very bad joke since their biggest gripe was "it's hard". Boo-hoo...
I'd sooner trust the peoples word over someone paid to review games,
This review seems heavily single-sided
1 Like Ah, I love a good Gamer Riot.
This is why you don't A. do Favoritism. B. Don't be a Jerkstore while reviewing a game. and C. PLAY THE GAME!!!!!!
3 Like Honestly, this reviewer is a complete moron. Did you even play this game, or just pull this review out of your ass? Proof that you didn't play: "The gamepad adds little" umm.... every other reviewer has said this game makes better use of it than any other wii u game released.... And everything else you wrote is just stupid and doesn't even match whats in the game. If Gamespot keeps hiring dumbasses like this guy to write reviews, no one will come to this site anymore. I've talked to many people who are sick of this website and their reviews that make no sense and don't match what other critics say.
2 Like @devondaleo You should write reviews. Rambling stream of conscious disasters are very informative.
2 Like It's reviews like this I don't understand... I get that people have different opinions and tastes, but mthis case for example, the GS reviewer gives it a crappy 4.5 while the average from 65 (no less ) other reviewers and a decent amount os users rate it much much higher! Either don't put ppl to,review game genres they don't like, or make sure the reviewer has a clue...
11 Like Seriously Gamespot. I just got this and after 2 hours I've deduced that your score simply has to be trolling, a review influenced/financed by a competitor, or your reviewers are completely incompetent.
Like others have said, it's not a 10/10, but damned if you can say this is 4.5 with a straight face.
Lost respect, Gamespot. Do you even HAVE editors there, supervising these ill informed reviewers?
@sdoc96 Metacritic is more reliable than one website, although it's flawed. Gamespot.com's reviews are not consistent. It's just one person's opinion, and there is no second reviewer so we just have to stop paying attention to Gamespot.com reviews, and look more at the reviewer himself. That's what I've been doing for a great many years for a variety of games and other mediums.
I actually do own a Wii U and I did play this game. It wasn't for me, but I would look at metacritic and from there pick and choose the websites/authors you do trust.
@sdoc96 so I guess Capcom is the one finances this review. Pity it was Ubisoft who financed RE6's review as well! LOL
1 Like @sdoc96 I a agree, there should be some sort of "controling/supervising" of reviewers...
anyone (who's frustrated or whatever) can make or pick out "negativ" arguments and put a game (any game, even Skyrim or Zelda) in a bad light to justify a low score... gamespot should double check any review that has such a frustrated/negativ tone... (like RE6..., even if RE6 has faults....)
This game could have been good if they had took some lessons from Dead Island. Now that is an enjoyable zombie game, they should have multiple weapons such as katanas, steel bats, throwing weapons, etc. Have the weapons be able to break and then you would have to repair it and could also modify it to make it stronger. Just like dead island they could have had scarce guns and ammo but also have RPG elements for the characters. I do like the permanent death thing since its somewhat unique but this game could have been so much better and yet it failed to live up to expectations. Hopefully Ubisoft learns their lesson and fixes all the mistakes and improve the gam itself in the sequel just like red steel.
@Drilbit777 Dead Island is a pile of crap imo - I own that game and it disappointed on so many levels... not played ZombiU yet...
2 Like @Drilbit777 This game is better than Dead Island in my opinion. Dead Island wasn't really a survival horror game. It was a tongue-in-cheek action RPG with zombies.
Zombiu is a tense, old-school, challenging survival horror experience and by far my favourite survival horror game of the past few years. Zombiu 2 wouldn't be improved by aping Dead Island.
There are RPG elements in Zombiu (improving skills if you survive long enough) but they don't go overboard with it to make you so powerful that you can breeze through zombie hordes will ease (there's a time and place for that and silly upgrading weapons - I enjoy the Dead Rising games but this is a different breed of zombie game where your vulnerability is what makes the game work).
I don't think it's fair to say this game failed to live up to expectations based on this 4.5 review score. If you check out Metacritic, it's currently sitting at 76% with 40 positive reviews from critics and only one negative review (this one). All you can draw from that is that this one reviewer didn't enjoy the game.
My guess would be that you've hardly played Zombiu or haven't actually played it at all. I'm far from a Nintendo fan boy (bought a WiiU but also own a PS3 and a Vita - if anything I've leaned more towards Sony and Microsoft in the past) but it's a good launch game, generally the launch lineup is pretty strong and Zombiu is an important game in that launch lineup. Of all the launch titles, it's the one that most embraces Nintendo wanting to push the console more towards a hardcore, older demographic than the Wii was aimed at.
4 Like no, no, no....
you either didn't play ZU or you didn't understand Z (think you didn't play it, I'll say why later)
you don't need more (powerfull) meele weapons, because you need a "weak" meele weapon, that can't slash through hordes of zombies.., every figth with a meele has to be a strugle/dangerous and as soon as two or more zombies show up, it has to feel like "panik".. => we don't need more powerfull meele weapons, it's not a mistake and I hope Ubisoft will not "learn their lesson"...
... (the reason I think you didn't play ZU and just making asumptions) you can modify and upgrade balistic weapons (power, ammo, ect...), but still there is so little ammo, that it still gives a senstion of "weakness"..
there are some "RPG" Elements, the more you use a weapon, the better the character can handle the weapon, but I don't think those are needed, the character should stay "weak and vunrable"... , and since you ofen die, you often lose those "RPG" level-ups, (thankfully) they dont matter much..
only when trying the "Survivl/1-life" mode, those RPGs elements should make a diffrence .., suriving without diying once is tough and incredibly intense
you do lik the the "perma death thing"!? (you didn't even play it, did you??..), that perma death thing" + the realistic amtmosphere + easy deaths + other well done elments, makes ZU the most intense game of the year (if not the most intense game ever..., well of course when playing alone and possible at night),
no combos, no flashy powerups, no big/long level ups are needed nor wanted..., for a sequel Ubisoft should only take away the radar (or make it weaker) and make the game bigger and maybe let the characte be able to "duck" (like stealth) to move more agile...., and maybe add an "L4D" coop mode (that should be insanely difficult)
@ninboxstation @Drilbit777 exactly. It's like criticizing Resident Evil titles for having the tactical knife as the only Melee. Some people just don't know how to appreciate the survival horror genre.
