On a remote farm in the countryside, things are peaceful. Although not everything is what it seems. A stranger appears outside his house; Little do you know that he is one of the many undead. In a desperate fight for survival, you head to the only city still under the control of the living. The only thing standing between you and your goal are several thousand zombies and a very bad game brought to you by our friends at Grove Games. This review is based on the PC version of the game, although it is also available on the original Xbox.
Graphics: 6.5/10
The best way to describe the graphics in this game is “good”. Not great, but not terrible. The zombies are well animated and detailed and are missing large chunks of meat. The movements of the characters are fluid and smooth. However, the weapons are very smooth and simple and there are some animation glitches. For example: the shotgun. No matter how many rounds you have left, the animation stays the same. If you have 2 rounds of four left and then reload, show your character putting four projectiles into the gun.
Sound: 7.0/10
Ah, the sounds of zombies crawling…beautiful. Too bad all the other sound effects are low quality at best. The voice acting is horrible and sometimes even sounds like the actors are half asleep. The biggest disappointment is the sounds of weapons. Not all of them are terrible, but most are. The sound of a baseball bat connecting with a zombie skull is music to my ears and the other melee weapons sound just as joyous. However, the weapons in the game sound weak and pathetic.
Artificial Intelligence: 5.0/10
Zombies are dumb, that’s a fact of life, but this is sad. I’m standing on top of a car shooting at a zombie and it doesn’t even react. The zombies around him just stand there, even though I’m in a top view facing them. Only when I face zombies on the ground do they go into attack mode. Sometimes I’ll even stand on the ground right in front of a zombie and it won’t attack me until I shoot it once first.
Multiplayer: 7.0/10
It is difficult to connect to a server to play the land of the dead. It’s even harder to find decent people to play with, but once you do and download some “modded” content, the online play of this game really shines. There’s nothing like trying to kill someone while trying not to get eaten by zombies.
Overall Score: 6.5/10
The game isn’t horrible, but it suffers greatly from its many flaws. If you’re a die-hard zombie fan, grab a copy (good luck finding one). If not, don’t waste your time. There are some communities dedicated to “modifying” and improving the game with better weapons and maps online, which makes the game a lot more fun but not perfect.