Most of the time it’s a great piece of fun, but it can also be very frustrating.
Game play—The game plays perfect, there is no frame rate problems which is always important for moments off extreme fighting or running away, which is always a problem with games that appear on other formats. The loading times are quite frequent but thankfully are short and don’t prove to be any problem with the flow of the game. It plays in a similar style to the Resident Evil 4 game. When firing with a gun, the camera moves behind the player showing a small target which is where the player is aiming at. The zombies move in the same way as the Resident Evil games and don’t really prove to be much of a problem if you keep a good distance away from them. Something that has never been done in a survival horror game before is to make the main character a journalist. But don’t worry, he isn’t a skinny weedy looking person who takes pictures and wrights notes down in a small book, he is a zombie killing machine using anything that he can find to redecorate the place in zombie brains. The aim of this game is to find out what is going on, which always seems to be what every survival horror game is about, and save as many survivors as possible by finding them and bringing them back to the safe point, which is a security room that can only be accessed through the roof as the main doors have been welded shut to stop any zombies getting in.
There are many different ways the game can be completed, the main quest is to find out who or what is behind all this and get as much photo evidence as possible to prove your case, or if your not very adventuress then stay on the helipad for 3 days and finish the game that way.
Of course the most important aspect of this game is all the different shops in and round the shopping centre. Some of the shops have been placed for changing the appearances of the main character, these range from different types of shoes, hats and clothes. There is a huge selection of each off these to be found but it does depend on the shop that the clothes come from, for example, if the clothes come from a kids themed shop then the clothes will be too small and have childish theme, if the clothes come from a woman’s garment shop theme he will were a women’s dress! Crazy but it does keep the humour up for a game that has a dark serious story line. There is also some strange pieces of clothing like a giant Lego style head that can be worn over the top of your normal head, it doesn’t offer any protection from zombies but does give the player the ability to almost customise the main character to look any way they want.
Apart from clothing shops, there are many that hold all sorts of weapons for close combat or projectiles, they also depend on what shop is entered. Sport shops tend to supply bowling bowls, footballs and skateboards whereas DIY shops supply chainsaws and sledgehammers. All of the weapons have there strong and weak points, for example footballs can be kicked and knock over a number of zombies but does very little damage unlike the chainsaw which it perfect for close combat but when it is thrown, it does very little damage. Golf clubs can be used to whack golf balls at unsuspecting zombies which most of the time does kill them in one hit, and then there are weapons that can be travailed on or moved around like skateboards, shopping trolleys and of course the most violent weapon of them all which is a lawnmower which can chew up about 100 zombies before it finally breaks. Some weapons do next to no damage and last for a couple of hits such as fish that can be found in pound.
Sadly the game does have some problems and although there aren’t many, they really do let the game down. The first major problem that anyone will notice is that there are at times just too many zombies in areas that have very little weaponry, a good example of this is when rescuing a female survivor who is hiding behind a jewellery counter. The zombies instantly surround the counter but as luck would have it there is no weapon at hand which means having to take on up to 30 zombies using your bare hands.
Later on in the game, sees the early release of some very violent inmates, who have somehow, got a jeep into the park area of the shopping centre, which is located in the centre. This isn’t much off a problem, but if you can image that the shopping centre is a ring shape and the violent criminals are located in the centre of the ring then it becomes a problem. Trying to get to the other side of the centre, means having to trek across the park in which the jeep which is also equipped with a machine gun starts to hunt who down. This does become a pain and a nuisance when taking survivors to the safe point.
Saving is also a factor in this game, there are just too few save points and too much of a distance to get to the next one, which can sometimes result in death as it is just too far to keep treading back and forth to the nearest save point.
Weapons can only be used for a short time, which is all ways a pain. Chainsaw and sledgehammers seem to last for no more then 30 zombies and guns are hard to find as the only shop that has them is at the northern most part of the centre.
Graphics—Most gamers today think that graphics are more important then anything else in the game, the good thing is that this game doesn’t disappoint. The graphics are unquestionably next gen. the detail on all the human characters is almost life like, boasting realistic hair movement, body movement and even the lips move in a believable fashion. Older humans have detailed wrinkles and some even have red veins that can be seen in the backs of there eyes.
The zombies are equally as detailed as the human characters, each has it differences like parts of the face missing such as checks so the teeth are on display to bits of the scalp so the brain is showing. This gory detail is amazing and does go underappreciated and unnoticed. There are about 15 or so different styles of zombie and all act a little bit different to each other. At night the eyes light up red and which helps to locate them in the dark.
Lighting effects are very well produced and help to give an eerie feel to the locations which is better seen at night when the outside lights shine through the windows and cast shadows on the floor.
But of course the best graphics are the locations them selves. All a perfected in detail, and is different for each shop, so even when playing for the tenth time, there will still be things that were overlooked last time.
The team behind this game have also used to Xbox 360’s ability to blur objects that are moving fast or that are at a distance and it looks fantastic. Overall they are some of the best graphics seen on the 360 to date.
Sound—the sound is always a hard point to review, there is only music when something dangerous is after you like psychopaths, and the rest of the time the game is silent apart from the sound effects.
The moans and groans of the zombies are very unsettling and really makes up for the lack of music. But the human moans and groans are the complete opposite of this, they can become very frustrating as all they seem to do is cry and scream.
Voice acting is quite good and believable but like most games there is a long pause between each characters speaking. If you are using a surround sound system, the game sound is perfect but sadly sound poor on a normal stereo sound system.
Achievement points—Medium to hard, some are very easy to unlock such as fall from a height of six feet, and nock 30 zombies over with a parasol, whereas others are much harder like getting 50 survivors out of the shopping centre. So if your looking for an easy 1000 points, then try some were else.
Value—The price tag is still very high at £50, but the game does have a lot of hidden secrets and an infinite replay ability. But remember that this is not Resident Evil and is a little bit more light hearted. Great fun but can be frustrating.
Review by Reilly86
15 Sept 06