The story is simple and it's just a mean of moving through the levels, the levels themselves are interesting although sometimes they're just corridors and big areas (maybe it's just a Halo engine habit?) and the game is very unique given that you don't usually play as a zombie anti hero in any story, and it really does work but sometimes the zombie AI and the attacking mechanics really hold it back. The special abilities are cool and there's some really memorable moments so overall it's still a very interesting experience

I really wanted to like this game. The idea of controlling your own zombie army is great, the setting is fun... and that's it. The story is basically non-existent, which would be fine if it didn't keep giving you unskippable cutscenes and tutorials. The visuals are kind of nauseating with horrible "zombo-vision" film effects you can't turn off (at least you can turn off the green tint) and really look nothing like the screenshots in terms of quality. The sound has been broken for over fifteen years, resulting in no music and extremely poor sound effect mixing (which are all fairly basic as-is.) The maps are dull and empty with not much to see or do except walk up, zombify, and repeat.

Maybe a few hours in the game suddenly becomes great; I've seen bits that look very promising later on. I just have no interest in playing another minute of this game the way it is. Extremely disappointed.

That was a very fun experience as a first time player! I know I would have loved this game as a kid.

There is so much charm with this game and you can tell there was a lot of love put into it apart from some very annoying levels and somewhat repetitive gameplay as the game continued.

The playthrough was pretty flawless for the most part besides 1 hard crash that I had encountered.

As a short distraction to play through once in co-op, it's decently fun. Can't imagine it being as fun in solo play. Otherwise this is mainly noteworthy as a historical curiosity for using Halo's engine. The disc doesn't have the final updated version on here so I can only even boot it if I disconnect my Xbox from the internet, it refuses to boot because it looks for an update that doesn't exist, so it's gonna be one of those rare games that I remove from my collection. Ah well, could've been a decent Halloween season replay.

A pretty wacky and amusing game.
You're a zombie and you're goal is to cause as much chaos as possible in a city.
The entire story and setting is presented in a pretty comedic manner.
The Gameplay itself is fine. When you unlock abilities like controlling somebody with your hand or using your head as an explosive bowling ball, it further accentuates the comedic nature of this game.
I found the enemy design to be a bit lacking and some levels can get on your nerves, but it's still an overall enjoyable experience.
Game is pretty short and can be beaten in around 4-5 hours.

Fun Fact: This is one of two games that uses the Halo: Combat Evolved game engine.

A+ concept with a very nice ending. That's it. Maybe the single most boring game I've ever played. Definitely not but I haven't slogged my way through a game like this in what feels like a long while. Almost feels unfinished. A blueprint for a much better game with levels that aren't completely barren and uninspired (and in THIS kind of setting that's actually pretty hard to do) and gameplay that isn't wonky and annoying as all can be (and not just because you're playing as a zombie). Was making use of all the zombie moves available to get through it which is always nice to see. Doesn't excuse the complete lack of gameplay variety though (rhythm game, while not hard, annoyed me so much I almost put a hole in my wall) and it really would've made a gigantic difference if it was actually fun to fight/devour humans here. Was looking forward to this game for a long time but it legitimately feels like I'm being punk'd with all these positive reviews. Good for everyone who got a lot out of this but also WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU

Sometimes it's best to simply continue enjoying your good memories of games from your childhood. They can remain there in their idealized form, never tainted by being experienced by an adult with a (mostly) fully-functioning brain and sense of taste. This is why Goldeneye is so popular.

Stubbs the Zombie is a game with an interesting premise. You play as a zombie in a retro-futurist 1950s "City of Tomorrow", amassing a zombie army and trying to make your way to a lady with huge jugs that you saw on TV. I can relate to this. Unfortunately, that premise is under-utilized to an almost shocking degree.

The first project from Wideload Games, a studio made up of former Bungie developers (including Bungie's co-founder!), Stubbs was also made on the Halo engine. This was important enough to be noted on the game's cover, but in practice, it only serves to explain why there are huge, mostly empty levels, terrible vehicle segments, and an incredibly inconsistent checkpointing system.

From the concept, you would expect this to be like some sort of gorefest Pikmin, turning hapless citizens into zombies that do your bidding. There are attempts at that sort of thing, as you can whistle to your zombies to make them come to you, or shove them to make them move in a specific direction, but that's as far as it goes. Later on, they'll die before they can do any significant damage to enemies, and mostly act as distractions for you. Which is important, because your combat skills are severely lacking.

Before you can chomp down on some cerebral chili con carne, you have to stun the humans. Most of the time, you do this with a standard 3 hit combo. It feels like crap, and you can also get critical hits that knock their heads off, depriving you of a minion. If you hit them while they're stunned, they'll die and still turn into a zombie, but you won't get health back. Not that it matters, I guess, because you can still be shot while you're in the brain-eating animation.

You have other abilities. They're mostly useless. The one you want is the gut-grenade, especially because sometimes enemies will be in high places you can't reach, or flying around on jetpacks. If you don't have grenades saved up, haha, good luck. You also have an explosive gas that stuns enemies as long as they're within about 10 inches of you, a bowling ball head move that leaves your body vulnerable, and the ability to possess humans via your detached hand. This is occasionally useful, but again causes the problem of leaving a bunch of non-zombified corpses around.

Really, the biggest problem with the game is, perhaps ironically, how lifeless it all is. You get a few cutscenes that are... Attempting humor. That's about it. The interesting setting is almost entirely ignored, as you spend half of the game roaming around farms, laboratories, dams, etc. As mentioned earlier, these levels are often huge, sometimes maze-like, and always barren. Oh, and despite the incredible soundtrack featuring some of the most popular indie bands of the time doing kickass covers of old-timey classics, there's pretty much no music in the actual game. You hear about 30 seconds from a few of the songs during one boss battle, and that's it. Those songs never appear anywhere in the game. You're mostly listening to silence with the same few repeated voice lines and screams for the entire duration.

[Edit: This is partly a result of the current port being clumsily slapped together. There were a couple of instances in the original game where the music appeared during gameplay, but even then, it was very rare. It's not a licensing issue, because they're still present during that boss battle, it's a programming issue.]

After this game, Wideload would make Hail to the Chimp, a very poorly-timed presidential party game (it was released for the 2008 election...) And then they made some Disney shovelware before being unceremoniously shuttered.

It's odd that this came out the same year as Destroy All Humans, because they're almost companion pieces, both in subject matter and tone. DAH was undoubtedly more successful in every respect, despite spawning several low-quality sequels, and I would recommend checking out the Re-Probed remake. Do not bother with Stubbs. Let him rest in the ground where he belongs.

[Note: I gave this an extra half-star simply for causing the soundtrack to exist]

I was thoroughly charmed, and had a stupid grin on my face the entire time.

P.S. This game's OST is actually really fucking good, like way better than this game actually deserves. It features a lot of notable alternative artists from the early-to-mid 2000s (Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, Rouge Wave, Flaming Lips etc) doing modern takes on songs from the 1950s and 60s and it slaps hard. I hate saying that I listen to game OSTs because I have sex and a normal social life (trust me, these facets of character surprise me just as much as they do you), but I relistened to this OST more times than I have seen my own brother.