wfmag.cc \ 57ReviewRated
ReviewRated
This works well alongside the game’s deep
RPG levelling feature which constantly refines
your character as you play. Through pretty
standard upgrade trees and skill systems, there’s
a huge diversity of builds that can be configured
to fine-tune a character to your personal
play style. Perhaps you’re the brute, getting up
close and personal with the zombies, soaking up
all the aggression; or maybe you’re the group’s
marksman, staying back in safety and picking off
key targets through a scope; or you could be the
bait, constantly attracting the attention of the
shuffling hordes and featuring as a stumbling
buffoon of a main course.
On purpose, obviously. Ahem.
This element shines
brightest in Zombie Army
4 ’s horde mode, in which
players face increasingly
difficult enemies in a tough, claustrophobic
environment. When it’s all about survival, and
you’re not focused on a specific objective
or getting from A to B, the diversity in team
ability comes to the forefront, and you really
learn how well you all work together – or how
styles can clash. Horde mode offers something
completely different from the campaign and is,
really, much better for players who want a truer
co-operative experience.
While it has been designed as a multiplayer
game in the most part – it’s a multiplayer spin-
off of what was originally a single-player only
series in Sniper Elite, after all – Zombie Army 4 is
completely playable alone. Here it becomes a
more frantic affair, as with no one to watch your
back you’re far more careful about defending
certain areas, or hesitant to advance through
levels too quickly. Rebellion accounts for this
shift by adding an option to scale the number
of enemies depending on how many human
players are present, so difficulty never spikes
drastically higher or lower if your friends can’t
join you in a session. It also means smaller
teams can bring in more zombies than they may
be comfortable with for an additional challenge,
so it works both ways nicely enough.
This flexibility for those playing alone ends up
being more of a good thing because of one of
Zombie Army 4’s main flaws: lag. No matter how
stable the connection, every hit on an enemy
takes a fraction of a second longer to register
than it does when playing solo. It’s ultimately
inconsequential, especially if you don’t even
bother playing offline, but it is noticeable enough
to become a downer on the full experience.
But that in no way should be read as saying
Zombie Army 4 is anything other than a very
good game. The intensity of its battles – even
with those slow-footed, shambling corpses – is
seriously impressive at times,
and each encounter with
a new horde can leave you
gasping for breath. It’s one of
Rebellion’s best shooters to
date; a natural evolution from
the studio’s ever-improving Sniper Elite series
and – as with the last few Zombie Army spin-offs- a theme that fits like a glove.
It’s easy to say zombies are overdone – the
past 15 years has made this incontrovertible in
all facets of entertainment – but that’s not to
say something can’t ever come along and
remind us of how to do it properly. Robust
shooting mechanics coupled with fine
presentation sees Zombie Army 4 raise the bar
for horror-shooters, with its undead Nazi hordes
proving, once again, a fine match-up for the
Second World War theme. It’s imperfect, but one
of Rebellion’s best.
“Zombie Army 4
is rife with quippy
one-liners” Your kills build up a combo
meter that rewards you with
more experience points. The ridiculous weapons, such as the
blunderbuss, make for some truly
incredible action sequences. No developer does sniping
quite like Rebellion.VERDICT
By leaning into its
schlockier influences,
Zombie Army 4 comes
out stronger than ever.78 %