ZombiU (WiiU) review

[BIG EDD]

I actually had the same problem as Joe (even met him a few times and killed him ), but as BIG EDD said follow the marker to where the original survivor died, pick up the panacea and your good to go. Finished the game, but how do I know what ending I got?

I know I achieved ending "c" which was the crappest

[djtickle]

I died on the way to the tower of london :/ Great game, although I did have the same problem as the others trying to get back into the palace! Wish they would let you play the bit after the credits again, not sure I want to play it all through again to risk poping my clogs in that same section again!

[Adam Stone]

Just a very quick post to share this game is flipping amazing. So bloody tense - One of my favourite games this year without a doubt. Now back to it!

[Mr_Skinny]

I finished this last night, but

->Open Spoiler<-

got nommed by a zombie on my way to the tower

Great game, and much better than I was expecting! Exhausting to play at times from the constant fear of death, and I went through 20 'survivors' by the end!

Survivor mode next, but I'm not expecting to get very far!

[Adam Stone]

Okay this game is seriously good. Also really quite beautiful in areas, the use of lighting in particular is very well done. It is a shame the environments arent dynamic, but the attention to detail is staggering. Reminds me somewhat of Resident Evil 4.

But it''s that atmosphere that steals the show, it is so incredibly painful at times... and the longer you manage to surive with one character the more suffocating the tension becomes.

My first 2 hours I died an embarassing 9 times - So i deleted my save file and started again.

Now familar with the controls I managed to survive for 4 hours and, my god, when he died I couldnt help but release a little scream of pain!
My second character quickly killed my previous dude to get all my hard-earned loot and she managed to survive for another 3 and a half hours. Her death was due to my stupidity. A door burst open beside me and rather than keeping cool, calm, calculated - i panicked like a little girl and put my back to the bastards.
My new dude is a black polish man. I have a good feeling about him - so far he has managed to escape death for 2 and a half hours... Wish me luck!

[originalbadboy]

Great game ... Really , however I am going to have to give it a 5 simply because I cannot complete the game. When you invested a lot of time into a game and get to the end only to find you can't complete it because of a stupid bug, its bloody annoying! Seems like I am not the only one with this problem, so at least I am not alone in ...

Will start it again from scratch at some point in the future, but I am not going back to it for now as I am bloody annoyed that one of the better games from last year can have such glaring bugs to the point where it becomes impossible to complete. I could understand with a complex game like Skyrim for example, but there is no excuse for this.

It would have got a 9 otherwise ... Damn shame .. Great game though, right up until the point it all falls apart at the seams.

[DJ Sack]

Im about 5 minutes away from the end credits and its a really great game to play through. Its not a fun game, at least at the start as its so tense ALL the time. I think in a way they've done zombies right as a single zombie is a cause for alarm. In games like Left for Dead or Dead Rising they are just an annoyance and its only when they all rush you that you have a problem but they are never scary. I managed to stock pile quite a bit of ammo so went on a bit of a spree at one point and it totally reduced the tension to zero, it was fun and exciting to be empowered for a short time but a full game like that wouldn't have really worked.

I remember i was scared of going into the first room outside the safe house because it had two blips going off. Turns out they were rats but thats how bad it was. By the end of the game im running around and a single zombie is of little threat although i've noticed they've upped the volume and sound effects to try and induce more fear.

I think by the end of the game it does lose some of its fear and tension, only as you figure your way around, know where the zombies are etc. It does have a few issues, it can be horribly dark in places despite bright lights everywhere. The cricket bat could easily be replaced with a nerf bat the amount of damage it can do and early on at least the game can spawn zombies in behind you ruining things.

In fact the biggest hump is getting over the death system as it goes so against traditional game design it feels unnatural for quite a while but is a nice idea.

Graphically it can look great and poor both at the same time. Theres a lot of repeated areas and whilst its London themed its disappointing to me its not realistically like london. I'd have loved it to be based on real london and hope a sequel is a bit more open world but a bit like PGR where its a photo realistic london.

Whilst i very nearly traded the game in a few hours in because its not a fun game to play and a few buggy deaths annoyed me i kept going and it really is great. The atmosphere is wonderful and horrible at the same time, you just know in real life you wouldn't leave the safe house because of how bad it is out side. Everyone should play this at least once, but if you hated Silent Hill or early Resident Evils you won't like this, its much more tense and emotionally draining.

[rmoxon]

Not a fun game to play?

Youre crazy. It's one of the most fun games made in years.

Also the game does not spawn zombies randomly behind you at any point, so what you said there is simply untrue. Zombies are spawned when you enter an area, they don't pop up out of nowhere while you are walking about.

The death system is also not that unconventional. It's been done similar in games before like Dark Souls and some MMO games do similar things.

Also if you thought the game lost tension towards the end, play in Survivor mode. The closer you get to the end, the scarier it becomes.

[Adam Stone]

I can kind of appreciate where DJ is coming from - though i suppose it really depends on how we define 'fun'. I personally would say ZombiU is an incredibly fun game to play - yet thats a very different type of fun that i have with, say, NintendoLand where im laughing or smiling 99% of the time.

Where i play ZombiU i'm usually terrfied, or screaming, or in a state of panic, or my heart is pounding... But i am loving the experience and do find that experience 'fun' - similar to watching a horror movie, or going on a scary theme park ride etc.

:-)

Edit:

Additionally I would love to see a Sanbox style mode for this, perhaps for Zombiu2. I would like to imagine a survivor mode more like Fallout 3, where you are literally left to explore the unknown in a free-roaming fashion... That would be nice :-)

[DJ Sack]

Not a fun game to play?

Youre crazy. It's one of the most fun games made in years.

Also the game does not spawn zombies randomly behind you at any point, so what you said there is simply untrue. Zombies are spawned when you enter an area, they don't pop up out of nowhere while you are walking about.

The death system is also not that unconventional. It's been done similar in games before like Dark Souls and some MMO games do similar things.

Also if you thought the game lost tension towards the end, play in Survivor mode. The closer you get to the end, the scarier it becomes.

Well it isn't a fun game to play. Its bleek, its tense, its scary. Its not full of sunshine and flowers. Everyone i know whos played it has played for an hour at a time and then left it for days before going back. By fun i mean it isn't a game you can put on, have an enjoyable 30 minutes of happyness and then get on with your day. Its mentally draining because the tense factor is up to 11. That doesn't mean its a bad game or isn't enjoyable. It is enjoyable and a good game, but its not 'fun'. To me its actually the most realistic zombie game ever made if such a thing were to happen. Other zombie games make Zombies seem like a bit of fun but this has a real danger to it at all times.

I noticed in early sections zombies can appear from areas you can't reach or see. They often climb over walls or are hidden under the waters surface (which you can't see). One time it really bothered me was near the start with the crates and all the rain. The area was empty of zombies because i'd killed them. I ran around the area and checked every nook and cranny. There was one inside a crate, i went inside to kill him and 4 more had appeared behind me. On going back to the area to kill my old survivor i noticed they were spawning in from areas i couldn't get to or see. You also notice this afterwards when you go through a door, shut it and all of a sudden theres banging on the door, despite the area being fully cleared of zombies. Its a scare tactic, it works, it felt a bit cheap early on though.

Yes the death system has been done in a handful of other games but 99% of games death is never the end. Its a minor annoyance at best. Its the same here expect because you lose equipment (potentially forever) its quite jarring compared to most other games. The fact you lose all your abilities and items makes the death so much worse than just replaying a bit of a level. Im not saying its a bad thing, just its quite different to most games and takes time getting used to. You're not meant to die in games but here, such as at the safe house assault i think they want you to die to show you what happens.

The game losing tension near the end is mainly because the zombies stay at the same level of threat as at the start of the game (which is a good thing). They don't get stronger or more powerful and by the end you have more weapons and ammo. I've actually always thought its quite strange that most games start you out as incredibly weak and make you stronger by the end when really it'd make some sense for it to be the other way around.

Don't take anything what i've said to be negative towards the game, it isn't as its a very unique game.

I completed it last night and got the good ending. I actually took it slow, killing everything along the way whilst i'd seen most people recommend running through it. But i think most of those people eventually get caught out somewhere and killed. The ending was a bit unsatisfactory but leaves it wide open for a sequel.

[Adam Stone]

I deleted my second save file and am determined to make this one - my third - count.

First save file I died 9 times within first 2 hours. Very embarassing... so i started a second playthrough.

On my second save file my first survivor lasted about 4hours. This weekend i was on a total of 17hours, with my third survivor - who lasted 9 of those hours. The annoying thing is he died for me being a bit drunk and causing him to fall of a plank of wood. SO ANNOYED!

- So! I deleted that save file... and i've started again. This time i'm not going to die. Also, im going to take on all of the crowds of zombies that spawn during those horrible scripted moments to boost my score. So far so good - literally killed everything that's been thrown at me. As Prepper says, its simply all about being prepared. Taking it slow... Not rushing.

I love this game

[Brad]

Played this round a mate's last night. Found it very enjoyable!
It looked, graphically, a bit weak* if I'm honest but I loved the gamepad integration and how that was used. I died before climbing the first ladder because the letters on the buttons are all in different places but once I got into my stride I was doing fine. Not enough on its own to make me buy a WiiU but it puts the case for WiiU forward quite well.

*My mate's TV was set for full-range HDMI, to match his PS3 set up. Changing that helped a bit but I think he still had his brightness too high maybe. Didn't have time to tinker.

[Adam]

Finished this, thought it was a decent game. Certainly a unique experience, would recommend it to anyone who wants something different and isn't affraid of the "hard" or "dark" game experience.

I died about 6 times total, 5 of those were when they introduced a new zombie type or surpise! sections heh. Bastards, felt kind of cheated out of all my skill gains but whatever. I think for those reasons I really enjoyed the later parts of the game, I was comfertable with upgraging weapons, knew how to deal with most zombies etc, I was a hardened survivor. The areas seemed to open up and go outside a bit more torward the end, there was a bit where I went down a dark path, unlocked a door with the lockpick and found a way onto a roof overlooking a massive street littered with zombies, and I just so happened to be packing the sniper rifle aswell. Awesome stuff. Looking up and down to the TV/Pad was a bit disjointing but got used to it. Inventory management was bad. The online stuff like messeges and named zombies was a let down. Didn't find any messeges that helpful and rarely found another players zombie other than right outside the safehouse, and those were a pushover which often gave me loads of loots.

Did you read about Zombi U2? click

[SuperBeatBoy]

Oh nooooooooes. Just died twice by accident, another zombie i'm guessing from somebody elses game killed me. It was in a tricky spot which made it difficult for me to get my stuff back.

[BIG EDD]

I'll have to back through this one and try to achieve the best ending after my farce of falling off the tower wall in panic trying to get to the helicopter