Zombie Army Trilogy on Xbox One – The DVDfever Review

Zombie Army Trilogy‘s premise sees a beleaguered Hitler facing defeat. The Furher’s fury has him releasing Project Z on the rest of Europe – including Germany as it happens. So it’s up to you and three like-minded souls, or just you if you prefer, to hog the glory in single-player to rid Europe of the plague.

The Zombie Army games started out as an expansion for the Sniper Elite franchise, but have since formed their own standalone series. The Zombie spin off brought one of the much-loved features from the Sniper series: the kill-cam. When you pull off the perfect head shot, or a shot to the heart, you are rewarded with the cinematic shot pulling out to show the bullet firing from your rifle in slo-mo, and the following of the trajectory of your shot as it enters the skull, switching to an x-ray view showing the skull fracture and then the brain exploding as the bullet continues on its path. I’ve yet to pull off a nut shot in the Xbox One version but it was there in the PC version, so hopefully it’s made the transition and yes, you did read right – that’s a nut shot and it’s as brutal as it sounds!

(DVDfever Ed adds: I managed it in Sniper Elite III and put it at the start of this video )

The console release sees remastered versions of Zombie Army 1 & 2, and adds a third to make up the trilogy.

I had played the first Zombie Army game on PC a while ago. Whilst initially intrigued, I quickly dismissed the game as I found it limited and quite difficult during solo play. There seemed to be a ridiculous amount of zombies coming at you and my Call of Duty run-and-gun style of play meant I couldn’t keep up with the ensuing hordes. I knew it would play better if there were more players, but finding three other people with gaming PCs, willing to play, never panned out.

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Let’s Play – Zombie Army Trilogy – LetsPlay

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So I wasn’t hoping for much when I fired up the Xbox One. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Zombie Army Trilogy campaign could be played online co-operatively with strangers. By creating a quick match, it finds other online players to play with. This one change since I last played the Zombie series transformed the game. The gameplay still felt somewhat stilted, but with 4 players it was fun and the game now serves up the other players to play with you.

This made facing the Nazi Zombie hordes a far more palatable experience. There are 15 chapters in total and you can start the game at any point in the series. The game keeps a track of scores on the top right of the screen like an ongoing leader board. This can make some players who join the fight more interested in grabbing their own glory rather than working co-operatively as team. Running headlong into the fight, trying to rack up more kills will often see you quickly overwhelmed and out for the count. If someone doesn’t revive you in time, you may well have to sit on the sidelines as a spectator or, more likely, quit and find another game to start again.

You will be facing a variety of zombies on your mission to end the zombie apocalypse, from your standard lurching foot soldier, skeletons with a glowing heart for a weak spot, running-suicide zombies with TNT held high, giant minigun-wielding zombies that will drain your ammo supply as you try to put them down, teleporting sniper zombies, and necromancer zombies who can raise a downed zombie allowing them to continue their attack on you.

You’ll also find safe rooms as you progress through a level and these act as check points. They allow you to top up your ammo or change your load out entirely. In between safe houses, you’ll stumble across ammo caches. When you do, it’s usually a hint you’re about to face an excessive horde of zombies. Other than that, you are best searching the downed zombies for ammo but you will need to be fast as the bodies melt away quickly. Hence, having expended a lot of ammo in shooting, say, 10 zombies, by the time you’ve dispatched the last one, that may well be the only body left to scavenge for ammo.

Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the game, plus conclusions.

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Zombmie Army Trilogy Episode 3: Beyond Berlin- NGTZombies

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If you insist on playing the campaign in single player you will have to take a more measured approach, such as laying trip or landmines to try and take a few zombies out at once and falling back to snipe them.

Playing the game solo does highlight the game’s limited nature. If you’ve played horde mode in Gears Of War or Call Of Duty, then you will be aware these are modes offered alongside the main games. This is a complete game based around horde mode and it doesn’t really expand upon being attacked by wave after wave of zombies. Yes, you may be sniped by zombie snipers with the ability to fly or teleport whatever it is those pesky bleeders do, but ultimately playing this game on your own becomes tedious quickly. It doesn’t have story-driven cut-scenes to make you care for the character you’re playing, and the gameplay becomes repetitive quickly.

The developers appear to be aware of this though – enter the menu and the default setting is multiplayer. You have to move further down the menu if you want to play solo.

Zombies can appear out of the ground, which can be infuriating when your staring down your sight and a zombies starts attacking because it appeared out of the ground beside you. This cheapens the experience, somewhat, and takes away from the atmosphere that was created by having zombies stumbling out of the mist, which was far more chilling way to introduce them. (Co-op play helps with this as someone can have your back when your sniping and blast the zombies as it emerges near a player)

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Zombie Army Trilogy: Gold Bar And Bottle Locations: Part 1 – Rooster Teeth

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The graphics won’t exactly blow you away. They aren’t terrible but they aren’t jaw dropping either. The buildings create a creepy atmosphere though, along with the fog which is included to add to the sense of dread rather than to cover any limitation of the game engine or hardware.

Talking of atmosphere the developers did a great job with the sound. The zombies wailing, moaning and hissing as they approach. The music deserves a mention too and sounds as if it was taken straight from an 80’s John Carpenter flick, synthesised keyboards and all.

Zombie Army Trilogy doesn’t have a triple-A price tag – it generally retails for £30 or cheaper, and that’s fair enough as it isn’t a triple-A game. What it is, is a fun game when played with other people. Matchmaking is incredibly simple and hassle-free (take note Halo MCC). The developers have ensured you will have other people to play with by finding other players for you, and it’s lucky they did as it makes a great difference to the longevity of this game. It has a pick-up-and-play charm to it. You can load the game up and within minutes be on a mass zombie-killing spree with three other like-minded people who you don’t know, rather than waiting for that mate who always says they will definitely be on tonight and never is…

Ultimately this is a co-op game first there’s a single player game in there but only if you must. There’s little-to-no effort made with a story or character development. I didn’t even notice any of the playable characters speaking in the few cut scenes there were. Most of the dialogue is given to Hitler or one of his Generals. What you do get though, is a game that’s easy to pick up, then put down again when you’ve had enough. It’s a simple game, but with simple matchmaking added it has ensured it delivers an enjoyable experience and, as such, deserves your consideration.

Thanks to those channels featured for the gaming footage.

Zombie Army Trilogy is out now on Xbox One and PS4.

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Zombie Army Trilogy Traier – Xbox

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Important info:

• Publisher: Sold Out
• Players: 1-4
• HDTV options: up to 1080p
• Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes

GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY POTENTIAL	6 8 7 8
OVERALL	7