Rebellion knows how to make a great shooter. They also know how to make a great war game. While Zombie Army was a lot of fun, its transition to VR is lacklustre to say the least. I was pretty excited to see what the developers did with the subject material in virtual reality. Who doesn’t love a good zombie game? VR has been a great platform to test out the genre. Arizona Sunshine and its sequel are proof that it can be done well, and fighting off hordes of the undead at the tail-end of World War 2 should be a perfect setting.
In terms of story, it’s about as generic as you’d expect. Zombie Hitler is dead, but in his wake are the zombies left behind. You play as a Deadhunter tasked with wiping them from existence. When a story is just a backdrop for something more, you’d expect the gameplay to be good. It isn’t terrible by any stretch. It’s just kind of dull. There are different kinds of zombies to take out, from those that shamble towards you to ones that shoot at you or throw grenades from a distance. Some run, some a huge, and then there’s the occasional boss fight.
The worst part of the shooting is the aiming. Rebellion’s Sniper Elite VR title had great accuracy and impact. Unfortunately, staring down the sights of your weapon doesn’t always guarantee contact. It became so frustrating that I had to adapt the way I fired to work around the weak aiming. Reloading if authentic, though. Grabbing your ammo from your belt is also responsive, but firing your actual weapon was often irritating, especially when you’re in one of those moments when zombies quickly surround you.
The World War 2 setting is pretty good, although its visuals are nowhere near as good as others in VR. It just feels like more time could have been spent on it to make sure the overall experience was better. For a game with no real story, average gameplay, and generic visuals and level design, it feels like so many opportunities have been missed. Especially as other titles have done a much better job. If you want to just obliterate zombies over and over again, maybe you’ll find something to like about Zombie Army VR. I’ve just done it all before.
Zombie Army VR allows you to upgrade weapons and find collectables. There are also specific challenges that give you something else to focus on. For players who want to get the highest medal on each level, there’s enough to strive towards with how you approach levels to get that all-important top score. One feature that Rebellion are know for is the X-Ray Kill Cam. Yes, it is present here, but due to the lack of polish on the visuals, it never quite feels as good or as accurate as we’ve seen before from the developers.
If you want something to play that sees you shooting the holy hell out of zombies, this is for you. Zombie Army VR features plenty of collectables and challenges to keep die-hard fans of the genre playing, but it just lacks that next level. It’s all been seen before. Gameplay is pretty standard. Other games have done it better, and when they exist on the market it’s hard to recommend this over them. Still, fans of Zombie Army will most likely find something to enjoy from this one. It’s just a shame the gameplay lets it down somewhat.
