This review contains spoilers
I had this on my wishlist forever since finishing the Dead Island series, and picked it up on the really cheap anniversary sale. It's a big improvement in their zombie games and I'll be replaying this one a lot.
The gameplay is amazing. Zombies and human enemies are a bit diverse in their attacks and behaviours. The missions aren't repetative and there's a lot of replayable ones to pick up with and without other people online. The nightmare mode and New Game + modes really change the game and encourage replayability. I went from one-shotting groups of 8 zombies, to making it a strategic effort to even attempt a swing at a lone one, because of how the harder modes change the gameplay.
The story-line is decent despite being cliché at times, from [spoiler] the "love" story, rogue agent, recurring super villian and corrupt government stuff [/spoiler]. Customization is very limited (except they introduced 3 new bulky dudes to play as), but at least the world around you has interesting, funny and frustrating characters that make you really empathize or hate them.
After playing the end of game of this for hundreds of hours, one thing that does bug me is the sound design. There's a few ambient sounds that mimic local audio triggers, like a door breaking or an infested charging at you. While the end game on New Game + adds almost endless charging zombies, it's good to actually know when and where the attacks are coming from based on cues. This can be kind of confusing and frustrating.
The thing that really gets me excited is the parkour. It'll be impossible to go back to any kind of one-level map design where I can't even jump from rooftop to rooftop. The things that really make me anxious and frightened were the climbing missions, especially when the zombies are capable of escalating from mindless, wandering husks to intensely fast and climbing hunters. I find myself breaking sweats and needing to take breathers while climbing cranes to skyscrapers to antennas.
Get it, because this game is really great.
The gameplay is amazing. Zombies and human enemies are a bit diverse in their attacks and behaviours. The missions aren't repetative and there's a lot of replayable ones to pick up with and without other people online. The nightmare mode and New Game + modes really change the game and encourage replayability. I went from one-shotting groups of 8 zombies, to making it a strategic effort to even attempt a swing at a lone one, because of how the harder modes change the gameplay.
The story-line is decent despite being cliché at times, from [spoiler] the "love" story, rogue agent, recurring super villian and corrupt government stuff [/spoiler]. Customization is very limited (except they introduced 3 new bulky dudes to play as), but at least the world around you has interesting, funny and frustrating characters that make you really empathize or hate them.
After playing the end of game of this for hundreds of hours, one thing that does bug me is the sound design. There's a few ambient sounds that mimic local audio triggers, like a door breaking or an infested charging at you. While the end game on New Game + adds almost endless charging zombies, it's good to actually know when and where the attacks are coming from based on cues. This can be kind of confusing and frustrating.
The thing that really gets me excited is the parkour. It'll be impossible to go back to any kind of one-level map design where I can't even jump from rooftop to rooftop. The things that really make me anxious and frightened were the climbing missions, especially when the zombies are capable of escalating from mindless, wandering husks to intensely fast and climbing hunters. I find myself breaking sweats and needing to take breathers while climbing cranes to skyscrapers to antennas.
Get it, because this game is really great.