The cavalcades of playable characters are empty shells with no backstory beyond whatever the game briefly generates. I found myself relieved in one instance as I watched a favored character of mine die in an explosion rather than “becoming one of them.” It allows players to bond with their randomly-generated corpse before watching it succumb to the inevitable disease. Retrieving the supplies dropped by your previous character can prove an arduous task (and even somewhat melancholy). “How,” you might well ask, “does the new protagonist know what the old one was doing when he died?”īe content with the lack of any real answer to that logical question and the gameplay that you’ll enjoy as a result proves shockingly rewarding. In ZombiU, the player dies and leaves behind his or her inventory for the next survivor to discover, in the process perpetuating a foolhardy cycle of death and reincarnation that is somewhat goofy in presentation, one which also requires the player to suspend disbelief quite liberally.
Unsurprisingly, the two elements prove quite complementary to one another. Two types of tension reign in ZombiU, mixing the underlying Kubrickian unease of a slow-build zombie encounter with what can best be described as “ Dark Souls dread.” You’re on pins and needles during every moment you spend rounding each corner. Nonetheless, it does enough things well to at least move the ball forward a few extra yards after the catch. Backed by Ubisoft’s bulging coffers and headed our way as a throwback from the arm of a Joe Schmo rather than a Joe Montana, the title feels like it belongs in the genre’s middling days and not its prime. ZombiU, though, attempts to serve as a throwback to the days of old. For better or worse, we settle for the quirky and macabre clusterwhat, Deadly Premonition, or we latch onto the likes of genre hoppers such as the Left 4 Dead series. The dedicated enthusiasts who remain are left with the scraps that we’re occasionally fed by studios possessing lower budgets than the ones that once were afforded the games that birthed the genre. Flagship franchises have moved on from the fundamentals that once made the niche genre what it was during its heyday, or they have lingered around the perimeter without breaking new ground in the manner that might ensure longevity.
The survival horror genre is on its way off the field, and not as the victor. "Backed by Ubisoft’s bulging coffers and headed our way as a throwback from the arm of a Joe Schmo rather than a Joe Montana, the title feels like it belongs in the genre’s middling days and not its prime."
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