“B" games are a lost art. Some of last generation’s most memorable experiences fell somewhere between the indie and AAA spaces – games that offered something unpolished yet still remarkable, or that were just plain fun from start to finish. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Zombie Army 4: Dead War harkens back to those꧅ games with the video 𝔍game equivalent of a hearty meal at Five Guys: solid ingredients assembled to make a particularly scrumptious bit of interactive comfort food.
The Only Good Nazi Is A Dead Nazi
The premise of Dead War is pretty simple. Hitler got sent to 🌟hell, but a legion of undead Nazi hordes continue his hateful, violent legacy. It’s up to a scrappy, diverse little group of freedom fighters to purge the undead bigots from Europe and erase the Fuhrer’s influence once and for all. But a group of crazed cultists have hatched a sinister plan that could not only undermine the resistance’s efforts, but plunge the world into a perpetual hell.
Nothing about Dead War’s narrative is particularly high art,🍌 but that’s totally fine – it doesn’t have to be. This is a game that does right what it says on the tin, in that it allows players to line up hundreds of undead Nazis and kill them in increasingly preposterous and always satisfying ways. It’s a playable grindhouse movie, essentially, and not in the contrived, forced kind of way those homages usually go.
That said, the narrative content plays right into expectations in frequently funny ways. When a game throws a zombie shark at you, populates its world with an army of sentient hands, or decides to plunge you into a battle against a literal army of Hitler clones, you can’t help but to be charmed. Rebellion delivers an experience that’s goofy in the most authentic ways possible, and in an industry that fetishizes either grimdark edginess or forced yelling humor, a playable Heavy Metal cover is something that’s sorely lacking in the m🍷꧑arketplace.
One Hundred (Thousand) Nazi Scalps
Dead War’s charm continues to its gameplay, which satisfies both throughout its lengthy campaign and assortment of horde maps. While I’d be remiss to say that the game is mechanically flawless by any reasonable definition, it’s a perfectly serviceable shooter with Sniper Elite’s sa💟tisfying sniping mechanics worked into the experience. Everything works as intended, outside o꧅f some questionable button prompt placements that led to one or two frustrating deaths during my playthrough.
The thing is, once you’re thrown into the thick of the game, you’re not thinking much about the mechanics. Dead War does such a good ꦕjob of throwing enough stuff to do at the player that you’ll likely never be obsessing over the finer points of controlling this thing. From an immensely satisfying combo system to a steady rhythm of weapon unlocks and enemy type reveals, this is an experience that always gives you something to do and gives yꦐou exactly what you need to do it on a mechanical level.
Nowhere does this ring more true than one of my favorite aspects of the game: the traps. Players have access to both consumable and environmental traps, and both lead to some of the best times you can have with this game. There’s something special about throwing bait in front of a giant propeller, electrocuting the crowd that gathers there, then sucking them all into the propeller and watching their limbs scatter to the wind. From trip mines to fire bombs, from jet engines to ravenous suspended sharks, there are countless gleefully stupid ways to kill zombies in Dead War, and the variety of traps at the player’s disposal doesn&rﷺsquo;t let up until the very end.
It’s Dangerous To Kill Nazis Alone
Where Dead War really shines, though, is in its stellar co-op. Supporting up to four players, the game feels practically tailor-made to play with partners. While it’s a fun enough solo experience, the map layouts and objective designs are crafted in such a way that it comes across as a deliberate pitch to an audience hungry for more Left 4 Dead.
Levels often have two or three turrets laying around centralized areas, or one turret backed up by a large sniper’s nest. There are numerous areas with staircases or hills that split off into four distinct directions, or objectives that call for at least two people to be doing💯 something at a time. The entire game is built around the idea of preparing for massive swarms of zombies with somebody, then frantically scrambling to cover each other while being surrounded on all sides by the undead hordes. There’s a certain magic to it that just doesn’t translate to playing alone, which is probably why a decent chunk of the game’s achievements are co-op focused.
My girlfriend and I play a decent amount of co-op games together, and honestly, Dead War is one of the ones that sunk its hooks into us the deepest. There’s enough forward momentum, variety, and teamwork opportunities that it’s a perfect game to play through with somebody and coordinate level strategies, weapo🌃n loadouts, and trap setups. So while there’s certainly fun to be had flying solo, this thing really comes roaring to life with other players involved.
The Art Of The “B Game”
Infamous game developer Randy Pitchford was once quoted as saying, “I guess sometimes we want greasy hamburgers instead of caviar.” Of course, he was saying this in defense of Duke Nukem Forever’s l🍨ackluster critical performance, but there’s a kernel of truth in that weak tea defense. Sometimes, we don’t want hig𒀰h art in video games. Sometimes, we want a silly premise carried out with the utmost sincerity and held together by solid mechanics that propel us forward with a steady momentum. Sometimes, we just want something fun and uncomplicated to blast through with friends.
Sometimes? We want zombie sharks and undead Nazis in robot armor, damm🎐it.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War totally gets this. It’s a rollicking and ridiculous game that's fun to play, offers loads of replay value, and is an enticing co-op proposition for anyone who likes fun. Rebellion is a developer who has always made games with a specific audience in mind, and as somebody who considers herself to very much be a part of that audience, this game is a total hit in my book.
So turn your brain off, grab some friends, and throw yourꦗself headfirst into this delightfully campy pi♌ece of comic book pulp come to gory life.
A PlayStation 4 copy of Zombie Army 4: Dead War was provided to TheGamer for this review. Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be available on Februar🐼y 4th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War
- Released
- February 4, 2020
