Review for World War Z. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 16/04/2019
One of the most treated topics in the videogame field certainly includes the much loved / hated "undead", better known as zombies. If on the one hand the market is saturated with titles that deal with this topic, on the other we note how the players are actually more and more inclined to welcome these videogame proposals in a positive way. The title we will talk about today is World War Z, transposition of the film released in 2013 which, however, does not want to deal with the themes of the same and much less the homonymous book by Max Brooks.
Developed by Saber Interactive, World War Z presents itself to the public as a cooperative title, which already from the first minutes of the game reminds Left 4 Dead, both for the liveliness of the gameplay and for the style of the missions to be faced with friends.
The use of the flexible Swarm Engine has allowed Saber Interactive to create a decidedly different title from those already on the market, you will have to face hordes with hundreds of enemies on screen, which in some moments will remind you of the scenes from Marc Forster's film.
The only feature that distinguishes World War Z from other similar titles is precisely this, in fact, in the various missions that you will face you will often have to deal with these numerous hordes, which will force you to modulate traps, strategies and ammunition to be able to survive.
The main campaign, playable both online and offline, is divided into four episodes (New York, Moscow, Jerusalem and Tokyo), each of which divided into 3 chapters with a decidedly questionable duration. In each episode you will have to complete certain objectives ranging from the simple escape to the rescue of a key character, all without ever delving into any narrative strand but leaving the player with the only fun of killing zombies.
As in any self-respecting cooperative game, even in World War Z team management is essential, especially at high difficulties, which is why numerous classes have been introduced such as the gunslinger, the butcher or the doctor, each of which will have various skills that you can unlock by leveling up and then buy with the game coin. As you progress through the levels and play at increasingly higher difficulties you will be able also improve your weapons, which will level up based on the kills made with the same, the improvements will increase the classic parameters such as rate of fire, damage and accuracy.
The most interesting aspect of World War Z is certainly the gameplay, which in its simplicity manages to entertain, partly thanks to its third-person view and the ability to equip up to three weapons (one main, one secondary and one heavy). There are several approaches to each mission, which in some phases can be tackled in stealth mode, to more easily overcome some places without attracting numerous enemies. This approach is essential on higher difficulties where the most aggressive zombies can land us or one of our companions in a few seconds.
The most difficult enemy is certainly the "Bull", equipped with armor and the ability to charge and grab the player, which will subsequently be continuously knocked to the ground until it is freed by one of our allies. Other unusual zombies are the “Screamers” that emit powerful sounds capable of attracting numerous hordes of zombies, reason that forces us to kill them as soon as possible. During the various missions the same action pattern is almost always followed, so in the early stages we will have few zombies to kill and some limited horde to kill while in the final stages we will always find ourselves facing immense hordes that will require several minutes of combat to be completed. continued.
The approaches to zombies, as already anticipated, are varied, thanks to the silencers we can act in stealth mode, or we can opt for a more aggressive approach by using heavy rifles. The classic gunplay, very successful, is flanked by grenades and hand-to-hand combat, the former can be of various types and can be improved over time, while hand-to-hand combat, which can also be performed with heavy weapons such as the chainsaw, it allows us to kill enemies that are surrounding us or to get out of a situation of complete absence of ammunition. But in case we get blocked by a zombie, we will not have the possibility to free ourselves with the repeated pressing of a key (as happens for example in Overkill's The Walking Dead), but we will necessarily have to wait for the intervention of one of our companions, while our life slowly decreases.
When the time comes to face the much discussed hordes of zombies, the game will warn us by giving us a few seconds to get ready, then we will go to restock our weapons, grenades and medkits, and then open the crates containing traps to mount to facilitate the killing. mass of the undead. The traps range from simple barbed wire to automatic and manual turrets, up to mortars which will be placed in predefined points. Once our traps have been prepared we will begin to glimpse zombies in the distance that begin to pile up against gates and walls in an attempt to overcome obstacles and it will be at that moment that we should kill as many as possible, if instead they were able to overcome these defenses en masse it will definitely be complex to kill them all, especially in missions with limited movement space such as in Jerusalem.
After completing the hordes of enemies and completing the various objectives, the game will notify us of the completion of the mission, showing us a summary of our performance, classifying the operators by kills, headshots, reanimations, etc. We will also receive coins to use to upgrade classes and weapons and of course the experience points, which will level us up, unlocking new abilities for our characters. In general, we noticed that the length of the campaign is quite disappointing, despite the fact that there is a fair amount of replay value, which is valid only if played with friends, given that coordination in actions is essential at high difficulties.
World War Z, in addition to the campaign, also features a quite interesting multiplayer sector but not free from problems such as bugs, present in abnormal quantities even in the campaign. The multiplayer presents the classic modes of a shooter such as death match, king of the hill, domination and others, all however accompanied by the main feature of the game, or the hordes of zombies, which at regular intervals will come to make our life difficult , and at the same time making the gameplay more adrenaline. The version we tested ran on PlayStation 4 Pro and we didn't notice any serious drops in frame rates which, on the contrary, have proved to be quite stable, especially in the most chaotic situations. Note of merit also for the graphic sector, which although not excellent, succeeds in its intent, that is to manage hundreds of zombies at the same time, all with an audio sector that certainly does not shine as it should.
World War Z is a title that certainly offers a better gaming experience than the unsuccessful Overkill's The Walking Dead, thanks to a successful third-person gameplay and the implementation of numerous hordes of zombies, inspired by the film of the same name. The main campaign, very short, immerses you in four different scenarios from which you will have to survive by completing various objectives at times boring and trivial. The strength of the production is the customization of the classes, which offers many different skills, aimed at allowing adaptation to different styles of play ranging from the most cautious to the most aggressive. overall the game seemed interesting to us, even if we would have liked a single player campaign with a deepening on the plot, which obviously could not exist due to the cooperative nature of the title. Also interesting is the multiplayer mode, which net of bugs is fun and allows you to break the monotony of the campaign. The technical sector is also good, which comes with good graphics but not excellent and a decidedly improvable audio sector, both in terms of sounds and music.
► World War Z is a Shooter type game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Home Interactive for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 16/04/2019
