ZombiU Review

                                           
                                    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.

This nimble boss zombie is quick on her feet, but her tactics are lacking.
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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.


A zombie tackle means instant death, unless you have some Virucide.
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.


Bright lights expose your characters' extremely dirty vision.
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.


source:gamespo