Yes, here we are with another ‘the game of the film of the book’ and another zombie game to boot. This may just be one worthy of your attention, though.
I dreaded taking this one on and not because i fear zombies, but I feel as tired as the living dead with the amount of similar material churned out. It turns out that this is a lot like another, much older game; Left 4 Dead, but it also transpires that this is a very good thing.
World War Z takes the idea of Zombies and runs with it, piles it up high against a wall and then climbs over the wall. In fact, that’s pretty much what the zombies do and it’s a refreshing change. They may not be the most intelligent foes but what they lack in smarts they make up for in tenacity.
The game takes place around the world, which amounts to four different cities. It takes you from an overrun New York to Moscow and Jerusalem and finally a showdown in Tokyo. You’ll meet and play as a new team in each location, though mostly it’s the same skill sets with different faces, but it makes a nice change when you get to a new place. Each character, as you might have guessed, has a class and there’s a good upgrade systems to the classes that help you to make progress.
Zombies (or Zeds) follow the all-too familiar pattern that Left 4 Dead started many years ago; standard hordes, screaming zombies that attract crowds, ones that blow up to leave a toxic air around them and so on. It’s not really original but it is fun.  When they work together, though, and start piling up on top of each other it looks pretty impressive.
The game as a whole suffers from a few bugs and some odd design choices here and there. It’s by no means perfect, though it does lend itself to the B-movie genre in this way, mostly unintentionally.  It is entertaining, though, particularly with a party of four people (when you can get matchmaking working, that is). The only problem is that I’ve seen it all before.
World War Z
Pros
- Zombie hordes look great
- Nice range of places and characters
- Simple fun
Cons
- Buggy
- Feels like an unofficial Left 4 Dead clone
- Un-inspiring zombie types
