ZOMBIE ARMY 4: DEAD WAR Review: A Party With the Undead
Rebellion has been pretty famous for a long time as the makers of the Sniper Elite series. With their mastery of shooting, why not put all those guns, exploding heads and body parts with slow-mo kills to some other good use? Ergo, a zombie killing game. Zombie Army 4: Dead War is the latest installment of this franchise, and it is a surprising amount of fun content with some minor setbacks.
First and foremost, let’s talk about the horde. The zombies look great, and the gross noises, the splatters of blood, and the menacing/endless approach of them give players a great sense of urgency and terror. From the first set of enemies in the campaign to the wildly deadly and heart-attack inducing enemies at the end of horde modes, I was impressed with the game’s balance of making zombies feel dreadful while staying reasonable to handle. The design of the more intense and powerful enemies was really surprising. Hellish zombies popping up from the ground out of pentagrams, massive juggernauts that wield saw-blades, and Nazi necromancers all add to the dead army and are great to fight.
This brings us to the guns. Shooting and killing feel crisp and powerful. Even when I have to pump a few clips into a larger enemy, my shots never felt unproductive, it just made the enemy that much more intimidating. I was surprised by the lack of variety of guns at first, especially in a game about arcade killing. But after a few waves of my first horde mode, I began to collect various deadly upgrades and modifications to weapons like scopes, electrifying bullets, and much more. These mods are a great way to expand, add variety, and personally customize a player’s weaponry without just having a pile of random guns. I only wish there was more access to these upgrades and alterations earlier in the horde modes. The campaign does a good job at introducing and allowing players to keep progress and customization through the levels.
The campaign isn’t super long, as expected, and didn’t feel honestly that necessary considering the type of game this is, but it is appreciated, and I had fun killing zombies in a variety of places with specific scenarios, I just didn’t care about the story itself much. Multiplayer modes, now that is where this game shines, obviously. The twelve round horde mode gets more fun the more people join in. I was also very pleased with the game’s ability to adapt difficulty when player count would change. I was playing with a friend in an open lobby game, and then on wave three, two more people joined in along with a lot more enemies. It was great to feel the same level of difficulty without skipping a beat from beginning to end.
Overall, this game has a lot to offer: a quick and entertaining campaign, lots of multiplayer modes along with weekly challenges, and more. Pump those game modes full of great weapons, traps, a plethora of enemies, a kill count with progressive rewards the better you are, good level design, and we have a great game. Yes, a faster progression system, more crazy modes, and a more refined menu system all would be appreciated, but they aren’t major complaints, just a wishlist. Want to kill zombies? This is one of the best ways to do so today in a neat little package.
