Zombie Army 4: Dead War Review – Is it worth an hour?

In this episode of Worth An Hour we’re taking a look at Zombie Army 4: Dead War!

Hitler’s hordes are back for more in this spine-chilling shooter from the makers of Sniper Elite 4! Abominable occult enemies, epic weapons and a harrowing new campaign for 1-4 players await in 1940s Europe, as you fight to save humankind from undead Armageddon!

Graphics

First up is the graphics:

This game looks FANTASTIC, the graphics are crisp, beautiful and gritty. The levels look very realistic and really bring a sense of Zombie devastation to life. You can really imagine what it must smell like.

Which brings me on to the blood in this game. There’s lots of it. This game is not for the faint hearted, your innocent grandma or kids. Bodies explode, heads disintegrate and limbs get torn to smithereens.

It’s gorey, sticky and absolutely amazing. Just what you want from a Zombie game.

Sounds Design

The sound design is brilliantly done, each of the guns sound brutal, especially the chain gun, a lot of fun to use mowing down hordes of zombies with that!

Plus the special moves sound even better, such as the slowing down of time to get juuuust the right shot on, really makes you feel as if time is slowing down.

Zombies sound just how you’d expect them too, with an added umph, just to make you feel a little bit uneasy. This is especially true in level 2 with the sacrifice it just sounds scary, makes you feel very uneasy!

The X-Ray sounds are just as gruesome, you hear every flesh wound, every organ squish and every skull crack. You seriously see yourself sitting there going – cooooor in that type of amazement where you don’t wanna watch but you can’t take your eyes off of it.

The character quips in the game are also there, as with many Rebellion games, the voice acting is incredible and there funny one liners are there too! Stand still for too long and the characters will give you a funny quip to get a move on!

Gameplay

Last up is gameplay

Zombie Army 4: Dead War is split up into 3 different modes, campaign, weekly events and horde.

Horde

Horde is very very fun, you take on a horde of zombies in waves, and as with many Rebellion games, the level gets bigger as you progress further into the waves, and as you do so, so do the difficulty and the amount of zombies increases.

But what I especially liked is the fact that you have to conserve ammo! There’s ammo crates that you always have to run back to when you run out of ammo, this makes it a little bit more realistic and that much more challenging!

I got to try it in single player mode and multiplayer mode, unfortunately i didn’t get to play it with a full squad as I was playing a review copy of the game but I image how much fun this game will be with 4 people as I really enjoyed it with just 2!

Upgrades

You can upgrade your guns to make taking down the enemies that much easier and there’s special moves which will help you out of a hole if you need it. Such as the brain buster for the pistol. Slow down time, pick your targets and then take them out. These can be upgraded as you progress through the game to kill more enemies.

Or slow down time with a rifle and pick your perfect spot!

Epic Melee’s are LOTS of fun too! These can also be changed, I got to have a go of the machete and electric fist.

Or get Get 10 melee kills and you get something called an epic take down. These are short cut scenes which show BRUTAL takedowns which change depending on what you have in your hand. Stomp on some heads, execute some zombie ass and that’s just two choices!

Comedy

The game is also very quirky throughout the different levels there’s different little things you can interact with that can make you laugh. Such as using a typewriter, washing your hands, use a vending machine or even play draughts!

X-Ray kills are also back! These kills are epic, if you time things just right, the game will go into a cut scene and follow the bullet into the enemy…..showing you everything! However I managed to shoot someone in the d**k. Twice.

However, on the third attempt I got a head shot!

The Zombies

The zombie’s themselves aren’t no pushover….in a crowd of them anyway….you’ll soon find yourself getting surrounded and eventually dying, so make your shots in a tactical manner! You can run away from them but they’ll always find a way to find you!

The bosses even more so, they just won’t leave you alone! There’s always a specific way to kill a zombie boss, the two I’ve tried, I had to shoot something on their back, and they have heavy guns too. Defeat them. You get the gun. Just got to defeat them first.

Throughout the levels there’s various different tasks you got to complete too, it’s not as simple as going from A to B. Which I love! I had to get fuel for a boat, cogs for a bridge mechanism all the while avoiding getting eaten by Zombies. Did I mention you only get to use your handgun whilst carrying things? – Yeah, that makes it 10 times as harder. Good luck.

Stomping on Zombie corpses allows you to get various different pick ups such as ammo or health, which is vital in this game! Always carry a medi pack!

Upgrades

You get various different perks in the game such as the offensive which allow you to (review footage here) and the defensive which one of them allows you a second chance at life. Get ‘killed’ and then you stay on the ground for a while, shoot and kill a zombie and you get a second chance at life. You got lucky….only once though. Die again and that’s it you’re done. Sorry.

Finally you get ranked throughout the game, that’s throughout horde, campaign and weekly events. Increase your rank, increase your upgrade points to upgrade your guns, unlock various perks and then upgrade the perks as you rank up too!

Campaign

The two campaign levels I played were very very good. The first level was ok, I see that more of a introductory level to how the game is and the game mechanics, as boy oh boy did things go up a notch in level 2. I was dying so much. My health was depleted and I had no midi-kits rookie mistake. So ended up just running away from them for the most part and then turning back to shoot the horde of Zombies chasing me.

The 2nd level had this crazy zombie shark too which was something to behold, although I didn’t want to wait around too long to see if it would come back and bite my ass.

The story is great and the characters keep you entertained and interested in where things are going throughout, definitely worth having a play through, especially with some friends!

Weekly Events

These are a beautiful twist on the Zombie Army 4: Dead War campaign. The weekly event that I played had various different tasks to complete. One of them was complete the first campaign level only using a rifle and a pistol. This made things very difficult! But I loved the twist on it and it brought an extra layer of replay-ability to it.

Just another way to keep things fresh and I loved it!

I’m really looking forward to the different weekly events that Rebellion are going to put on, I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on them as it keeps things fresh and alive – unlike most things in Zombie Army 4: Dead War.

Overall thoughts

In conclusion this game is TONS of fun, I mean I only played it briefly with 4 people and that was very enjoyable. Get 3 other friends involved and you got a party on your hands.

Zombie Army 4:Dead War is without doubt one of THE BEST zombie games I have played in YEARS! Hats off to rebellion for creating a stellar multiplayer game that doesn’t get stale or boring or repetitive. There’s a reason why Rebellion are renowned for creating great shooting games and great zombie games at that.

I really really enjoyed it and cannot wait to see how much I can upgrade my character and their weapons.

Gonna have to pick up a squad now and go kick some zombie ass!

Pick it up and play it for many many hour, you won’t regret it!

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