Kill efficiently to fill your AZMD! Combo meter, and then go on a rampage.When you live in a town called Deadhill, you shouldn’t be surprised when the zombie apocalypse hits your doorstep. And the residents of this dual-stick shooter do seem remarkably prepared.
Whether you’re in the town square, a shopping mall, or the fresh ruins of suburban sprawl, you’ll have little trouble finding an assault rifle, shotgun, cricket bat, or other weapon to press into violent (if not terribly gory) service. Which of Zombies’ four playable characters you pick actually makes a difference, too: each has a unique secondary attack, ranging from Jack’s fire-spreading torch to alien Luxo’s jury-rigged cattle prod.
Whomever you control, Zombies is at its best when two or more players work together. (Which makes it all the more baffling that co-op is local-only.) By yourself, you’ll come to loathe the swarming crowds that inevitably box you in, and you’ll grow tired of the exceedingly long parade of lengthy fetch quests. But playing with a buddy keeps your mind off the monotony, letting you focus on the game’s cartoonish mayhem. Set a single goon on fire, for instance, and he’ll share his affliction with any nearby creeps, until a full-scale flaming riot is charging around.
Simple RPG-style leveling lets you customize your characters a bit, but the crafting system that augments weapons is more fun. Don’t expect much experimentation: If mixing an assault rifle with a megaphone adds sonic damage, you can be sure that mouthpiece does the same for every other weapon as well. Still, there’s much to be said for electrified pistols and radioactive swords, even if the slaughter gets repetitive well before the final battle.
PUBLISHER: Square Enix • DEVELOPER: doublesix • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 4 in local co-op only • ACHIEVEMENTS: Slow • COST: 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
+ Fast-paced co-op; simple but useful character-upgrades and weapon-customization.
+ Amusing self-referential tone; mutating monsters and elemental damage effects.
– Endless fetch quests; sheer blast-a-thon starts feeling repetitive; poorly tuned solo difficulty.
? Why is there no online co-op?
