Now Playing: Zombi

Zombi is a first person survival horror title set in London during a zombie outbreak. It originally released on the Wii U in 2012 as ZombiU, but it’s now been ported to PC. I’ve not played the Wii U version, so I can’t really compare and comment on how the lack of the Wii U gamepad functionality changes things.

You play as a random survivor, guided to safety by the mysterious ‘Prepper’. Beginning in your safe house, you’ll venture out to various locations across London in order to complete objectives and piece together a possible cure for the zombie plague. In terms of its story and characters, Zombi isn’t particularly engaging. I thought the ‘Black Prophecy’ and ‘Ravens of Dee’ stuff was interesting, but none of it is fleshed out to a satisfying degree.

The player ‘respawn’ mechanic is also at odds with its story focus. Every time you die, you restart as a different survivor, but your ‘new’ survivor simply picks up where the last one left off with regards to mission progression. It doesn’t really make any sense, but you won’t really care. The story and characters of Zombi successfully prod you from one location to the next, but you never feel particularly involved or invested.

 

So let’s talk about gameplay. The world of Zombi is broken down into several locations split by load screens. It’s a world you’re free to explore, but you’ll be limited by the necessity of certain upgrades or equipment which must be obtained by following the story. The locations aren’t massive, so there’s not a great deal of exploration or alternate routes. Each location is pretty much just a linear path from A to B.

In terms of movement, you can either walk or run. There’s no ‘stealth’ system in Zombi, which I was actually a little disappointed by. Yes, you can distract zombies using flares, but it’s often easier (and safer) to just clear them out as you go rather than attempt to bypass them. Which leads us onto combat.

You have a varied selection of weapons, all of which you can upgrade to a degree, and each survivor will ‘level up’ with each weapon type the more they use them – aside from melee weapons, strangely. The upgrade and level system is pretty basic though and doesn’t really seem to make much of a difference. Given that these skills reset with each new survivor, that’s probably a good thing, especially if you die towards the end and no longer have the necessary levels to progress.

Although the game recommends avoiding using guns due to the sound attracting more zombies, it’s not something you ever really have to worry about. There are a lot of times you’ll be able to use guns quite freely, which is something I quite enjoyed. That said, ammo is ridiculously plentiful. It was only during the final stages that I began to run short. I also had far more flares, medkits, mines and food than I ever knew what to do with. As a survival horror, Zombi is excessively generous, and this has a detrimental effect on the overall experience.

 

The game has a ‘barricade’ mechanic, but you’ll never need to use it, which is lucky, because the required planks don’t stack and rapidly fill up your limited inventory. Set barricades also seem to de-spawn whenever you reload the game, making ‘securing’ areas utterly pointless. Also taking up space in your inventory is your default pistol and bat, which either due to a bug or terrible design choice, I was unable to drop or store even when I had acquired superior weapons.

You do acquire bag upgrades as you progress, allowing you to hold more stuff, but the inventory/storage system isn’t very good and is fiddly to manage. Your safe house chest rapidly fills up, and attempting to drop items outside of it only results in them de-spawning. If you think you’ll be able to hoard supplies – you know, like a survivor should – then you’ll be disappointed. What you can’t cram into your limited storage chest or bag will simply vanish from the game.

Zombi’s major flaw, unfortunately, is that it’s far too easy. I’ve played both the Standard and the ‘one life’ Survival mode and completed both without any real trouble. I began with the Standard mode and only died twice. The first time felt a little cheap (I turned a dark corner and hit a zombie with my bat, only for the bugger to explode) and the second was simply caused by careless impatience. But once I knew what to expect and when, playing Survival mode was a breeze from start to finish.

Zombies in Zombi are only really a threat in numbers, but you’ll rarely be dealing with more than 2 or 3 at a time. There are ‘special’ zombie types, but these feel odd and out of place within the context of the game and don’t really add any additional challenge aside from taking a few extra shots to kill. Provided you don’t rush into more than you’re equipped to handle, you’re pretty much always in control of your situation, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to what should be a tense, unsettling experience.

 

Where the game does excel is with its atmosphere, at least at certain points Though not reaching the heights of say, Alien: Isolation, Zombi can become quite tense during certain moments – moments when you’re exploring new locations, or are suddenly and unexpectedly swarmed. It’s in those moments when you don’t know what to expect, when you don’t feel in control that the game really comes to life. It’s a shame the majority of the game is so straightforward and easy, because it has the mechanics in place to maintain a high level of tension throughout, but ultimately Zombi only delivers it in short, sporadic bursts.

Zombi isn’t a very long game. My Standard run took 8 hours, my Survival only 6. And now there’s nothing really left to see. If I sound a little disappointed by Zombi, that’s because it’s a game I feel has far more potential. As a survival horror game, Zombi is enjoyably competent, but aside from one or two moments of brilliance, it never engages the player to any great degree. It’s a little rough (the port is very bare bones), not very fleshed out, and far, far too easy. But if you’re looking for a zombie survival experience, Zombi is still worth checking out.

It’s a shame we’ll probably never get a sequel to Zombi, which could build upon this solid, if unremarkable foundation. Because this is a game crying out for a sequel that could turn an ‘okay’ experience into a great one.

6/10