Imagine playing Call of Duty Nazi Zombies and having your teammates completely lose it and attack you on a whim, picking you off from across the map while you are evading the undead. Sounds like an adrenaline rush and a welcome change from the formula that Call of Duty has done again and again, right? That is the premise that Dead Alliance offers, with mixed results.

This title features no story content or narrative, or even a slight reason as to why the opposing military forces are fighting, so if a story is what you’re after, you will be disappointed. This is a primarily multiplayer experience; there is also single player content, but we’ll touch on that later. At launch, there are a total of 6 maps; while not awe inspiring visually, they are well designed for intense firefights. Most of the maps consist of close quarter indoor locales, but there is some variety with the outdoor battlegrounds. While they do lack the nooks and crannies that Call of Duty and other FPS games offer, the levels are easy to navigate. I feel like this may have been a design choice to encourage constant movement, because you will find this is the only way to stay alive. The only real issue I have with the level design is the spawn points, as there simply aren’t enough of them and you will always spawn within a few feet of an opponent.

You’ll find all of the token FPS game modes in the multiplayer suite, with Team Deathmatch and Free-For-All being the most populated playlists. I found FFA to be my go to, as there is currently an issue balancing teams. On multiple occasions, I found myself going solo against a full team. To add insult to injury, if you do happen to have a friend whom you surely talked into buying this game after reading my shining review, there is no guarantee that you will be placed on the same team. In addition to the balancing issue, there are issues with unstable connections, rubber banding from one end of the map to the other, intermittent lag, and a massive host advantage. During most occasions that I could confirm I was the host, it would take a swarm of zombies as well as 3 opponents in a group to kill me. While I enjoyed this, my opponents were likely ready to rage quit.

The single player content is only available via add on from the Multiplayer Edition ($24.99), or included in the complete edition ($39.99). I would avoid the single player, as it only includes the option of playing the online mode against bots, or a basic survival mode where you battle or evade waves of zombies. While I found playing against the bots to be a smoother, if not more enjoyable experience than the multiplayer, the survival mode is a nightmare. You’ll be given a single pistol and set loose on a map that is covered in a green fog that will kill you if you stay in it too long. You’ll find random points that are designated as safe zones, in which you will simply stand there, typically in the open, and shoot zombies that barely move, let alone attack you. The fog is more of a threat than most of the zombies in this mode, or the remainder of the game.

Completing objectives and racking up player kills will net you experience and money to upgrade your character and his arsenal. Sadly, the arsenal only includes a few classes, which are each available with 2 -3 weapon options and a handful of unlockable perks and killstreaks. You’ll need to reach the proper level and acquire enough funds to purchase the items you wish to use. Most of these are not available until your rank is in the double digits. On average, I gained approximately $1000 and a1 level every 2 to 3 games, so some grinding will be involved if you wish to unlock the better equipment. You’ll also have access to grenades and other abilities that allow you to send the meandering corpses into a frenzy, attacking your enemies. While it is not the most effective way to win, it does lead to some nice postmortem kills.

The presentation is a mixed bag of mediocrity. I found my teammates and opponents to be on par with what I found on Counter Strike: GO, which was released on last gen hardware a number of years ago, with the zombies simply appearing to be unfinished and bland. You’ll find less than 10 skins of the same lumbering zombies, with little variation between them, and animations so bad you’ll swear you’re playing a bootleg of an unfinished game from last generation hardware. There are missing frames, horrible animations, and lackluster execution scenes. The announcer, similar to the one featured in Call of Duty, sounds bored and as if he is about to fall asleep.

The biggest issue with the game is by far the controls. While they are setup in an intuitive fashion, simply cloning the standard FPS scheme, the aiming and melee attacks are awful. The right analog stick seems to drag beyond when you stop, as if your controller is drifting to a specific point, and your melee only responds approximately every 3 times you try to stab someone, almost as if it’s on a timer.

As far as bad games go, Dead Alliance is not as terrible as some others I have received for review, and it could be turned around into an enjoyable experience with a few patches and some server maintenance. In the current state, I would only recommend picking up the Multiplayer Edition when it goes on sale and avoiding the single player content all together. While Dead Alliance can be fun at times, it is best experienced with friends after a few beers and with extremely low expectations.

5 out of 10

Pros

• Well Designed Maps
• If Squinting, Looks Great
• Can be fun with friends…

Cons

• …if the server will let you play together.
• Lack of Content
• Poor Presentation
• Glitches and Online Issues Galore

Dead Alliance was developed by IllFonic/Psyop Games and published by Maximum Games. It was released on PC, PS4, and X1 August 29, 2017 for $24.99 (multiplayer only) and $39.99 (full game). The game was provided to us for review on Xbox One. If you’d like to see more of Dead Alliance, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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