World War Z is a third-person shooter game that was released on 16th April 2019. The game is available to play on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. It was developed by Saber Interactive and published by both Focus Home Interactive and MadDog Games. World War Z is based on the film that was released in 2013. Saber Interactive strive to produce groundbreaking gaming experiences of the highest quality. Focus Home Interactive have brought us many titles over the years, such as Vampyr, The Technomancer and Bound by Flame.
Survive Together
World War Z is set after a zombie outbreak. The story mode can be played either solo or in co-op; I chose to play the majority of the story with others. World War Z takes players to different countries around the world. You get the opportunity to try out different characters going from A to B whilst fighting to survive. The only thing that stands in your way are hundreds and hundreds of zombies. You will also get to choose your character’s class and customise the skills within that class.
World War Z also offers players an online multiplayer mode. This mode is great after the story is finished. The multiplayer mode has different player v.s. player matches, i.e., capture the flag, king of the hill, deathmatch, etc. You can choose your character and your weapon set. The weapon set is not customisable, but it gives you a large variety of weapons you can select from. All of the different matches also include hordes of zombies that come in waves.
Zombie Pile Up
World War Z is extremely fun to play, especially with other players because you can all run away screaming together. One of the things I love about World War Z is the sheer number of zombies you have to contend with and the different ways that you can destroy them. The way that the zombies pile on top of each other to climb walls is awesome and crazy. The game is very chaotic and full of badass moments, and you feel completely unstoppable when you manage to stop a zombie horde. You have a very large number of weapons at your disposal, including a primary, secondary and heavy weapon, along with a grenade or supply pack and a health pack.
Another thing I really like about World War Z are the stories behind each character. When you complete a chapter as a character, you unlock a short video clip of their background. These are very dramatic, and they give you a bit of insight into that character’s. I thought this was a great little touch to add to the game. I also like the fact that you can customise your skills. Each class offers something completely different, and to take this to another level, the option to customise your class add more individuality to your personal character.
Short but Sweet
World War Z has been compared a lot to the Left 4 Dead games, and it is true that this game is extremely similar to that popular series and does feel like a bit of a copy, with one particular downfall being that you can’t play as the zombies in World War Z. When my character died for the first time in World War Z, I started turning into a zombie, and I was sure I’d be able to control my now zombified character, at least for a little while. I was quite disappointed when I didn’t get the opportunity to do this.
One of the main issues with World War Z is that the story mode is extremely short. There are only four cities featured in the game. Each city that you complete is split up into sections or levels. Three of the cities have four sections, and the last city has only two sections. Each section only takes around 30 minutes, provided that you have a strong team and don’t keep dying all the time. When your whole team dies, you start the section from the beginning.
Typical Zombie Game
World War Z has some of the same issues that we see with a lot of similar types of games. There is absolutely no end of glitching issues, with zombies appearing and disappearing out of thin air. You will be shooting a zombie, and it will suddenly jump next to where you were aiming or just disappear completely. The game also has the typical “special” zombies. In most zombie games, there are always zombies that are harder to kill. The issue is that there is nothing creative about these special zombies in World War Z. They are your typical special types, like the lurking zombies, the ones that will gas you and the tank zombies that rush you and are covered in armor. It would have been nice to see something a bit different.
Another issue is that the AI when playing solo is absolutely useless. This is strange because when you are playing online but don’t have enough people to fill the team, the empty slot(s) will be filled by AI characters, and they’re quite helpful. When playing solo, it’s a completely different story: The AI characters are unhelpful, don’t pick up any weapons or items and will get stuck in the environment. The best thing to do when an AI character is stuck is to let it die.
World War Z Overall
With everything being said, World War Z is a great game. I would definitely recommend it if you and your friends need a fun game to play together. Playing the game solo isn’t as much fun as playing with others. As I have mentioned, there are quite a few issues with the game in terms of it being a copy of other zombie games, as well as the glitching issues. This doesn’t mean the game is no good.
I have had a lot of fun playing World War Z, and I very much hope there will be more to come from the game with any DLC that is released. What I would really love to see is more cities to visit, as well as a horde mode. I would love to just work with a big group of people to survive wave after wave of zombies, and it would be great if the waves got harder as you survive. There are a lot of multiplayer matches that are great to play, but they are all player v.s. player, so it would be great to have some that are just player v.s. enemy.
Developer: Saber Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive & MadDog Games
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Release Date: 16th April 2019