Normally I wouldn't be reviewing a free-to-play game, but Alda Games kindly gave us a key to review the Nintendo Switch port of The Walking Zombie 2. Still, wouldn't normally be reviewing a free-to-play title like this, but this port isn't free-to-play. This version costs about twelve bucks. Will this version be a better and more rewarding experience? Or are you just best saving your money and go for the free version instead. Who knows?.. I do. I do indeed. Otherwise, what's the point of this bloody thing that I call a review? (Click on "Read More" to read the full article).
Story
On a quiet, dark, dank night, a pregnant woman who has been infected with a zombie bite gives birth to the hero of this story. Our hero is simple called, The Chosen One (no, his full name isn't Jeff Jarret) and he is just your stereotypical post-apocalyptic hero that wears leather.
The being born from a zombie part is very cool. Very Mercyful Fate... Minus the necrophilia and being a warrior of the devil (just look up the song, Evil by Mercyful Fate. It's awesome. Yes, they also do spell their name as Mercyful Fate instead of Merciful Fate). Other than that, story in this one is very standard for its genre. Survivors trying to survive in a world that doesn't want the survivors to survive. It's as tired as they come.
Don't expect much originality with the gameplay. It's a first-person shooter where you are travelling across different locations to either wipe out waves of zombies, looking for items, or going though big dark buildings. There is a lite-RPG twist to where you are given stats and perks that you can use to help beef up your character. These come in handy for when talking to other survivors, but in-game battle, you are best to just shoot things and don't get hit yourself.
The way the character moves, feels, and attacks is fine. It works and that's all that is needed for the combat. It's nothing special, but shooting and killing the baddies feels very satisfying. If you like your Boarderlands styled shooters where the baddies have health bars and bleed numbers, you'll feel at home here. Although, I wish that this game didn't use that style choice as it is an eyesore in this game. You can soften the effect by turning off the enemy health bars in the options, but that doesn't get rid of the number bleeding. Would've been nice to have a feature that turned those specific graphics off completely. Plus, I'm just sick of seeing that style of FPS combat in general. It's as old and tired as the zombie shooter genre itself.
Items are very important as you only have a limited amount of ammo to work with. Finding health, ammo, and powerful weapons can be tough to obtain unless you get really lucky. Thankfully, there's a salesman in town where you can sell him scrap and you can use the money to buy things from them.
The missions are incredibly repetitive to the point where you'll grow tired of having to do the same things over and over again. I got bored of this game once I got past the first boss. That wasn't very deep into the game either. Only a couple of hours in.
The wave based survival stages got dull, item finding got dull, and this game got dull. Although, there's a very clever mission about having to find a chicken a new husband. Random events can also happen when you travel between locations. They can be good or bad depending on what fate decides to throw at your way.
Gyro controls are included in this. It's a nice touch for if you want something a little more quick for when aiming at those pesky dead heads (the zombies. Not Grateful Dead fans like me). However, this will come at the cost of accuracy and is a little more trouble than what it's worth. It will also get in the way when you are playing this on handheld mode, but only a little bit.
The menu system can be confusing to navigate through. While items and stats are easy, finding the level-up bonus item screen and equipping your items can cause a mild headache. What I found disgusting is that this paid for version of the game still has microtransactions for buying in-game currency and items. This isn't the free-to-play version. This shouldn't be needed in this version of the game. Yeah, I know. A lot of paid for games do this and it's still just as disgusting.
If you like blocky characters reminiscent of Roblox or Minecraft, you're in luck. This game is full of them. I liked the designs of the main characters. They are inspired from post-apocalyptic and zombie films. There's a layer of charm that put a smile on my face.
I wish that I could have said the same about the zombies that you fight. You've got very generic looking zombified models of soldiers, townsfolk, waitresses, and schoolgirls that look like a house mum that thinks it's still cool to dress up as Brittany Spears from the One More Time music video. They are dull and you'll see them over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It ruins the atmosphere.
What is cool about these not so cool characters is that you can shoot bits of their heads off, exposing their soft, pink, delicious brains. This bit of gore was a very nice touch and will make you say, "Yeah. That's cool". Not much to say about the graphics after that. All of the locations are generic looking and the graphics are fairly clean.
It's just a generic action game. If you're expecting anything else other than guns popping, explosions booming, or zombies groaning, you'd be right. There is something more to the sound. You've got voice acting and it's terrible. The dialogue is okay, but the acting itself is slow and monotone. I guess you could get some enjoyment out of it ironically, but chances are that you'll just think that it's shit.
The Walking Zombie 2 isn't a bad game by any means. It's just very generic and uses every single modern FPS cliché found in the book. There are plenty of other games like this that you are better off playing. However, if you're going to play this, don't bother paying the full price for this port unless you really, really, really want something new to play on your Nintendo Switch. Stick to the free-to-play version and you'll have a good afternoon with it. 6/10
Screenshots sourced from the official Nintendo Store page: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/the-walking-zombie-2-switch/
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