Before you read my review, take a second and think about all of the licensed games you’ve played and actually enjoyed over the years. You probably have three, maybe four fingers held up right about now (Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy only counts as one). Historically, most of the licensed games are complete trash for one reason or another; maybe the developers took liberties that were well beyond the suspension of disbelief, or maybe the mechanics or graphics were not up to par. So, now that we’ve touched on that, how is World War Z? Well, you just might want to add another digit to that count you just started.

Despite taking its namesake from a summer blockbuster from a few years back and a book long before that, this has little to do with the mediocre zombie movie. You won’t find Brad Pitt making poor decisions and looking dramatically at the camera, but you will find hordes of zombies that will literally climb on each other to reach even the highest structures in a way that you have to see to believe. Take almost any other game in which zombies are the primary antagonist – they really are not that scary, nor do they pose a huge threat on a standard difficulty setting. Simply find high ground, pick them off, and move on about your way. In the world of WWZ, this simply isn’t an option, as the undead will find you and swarm on you like some angry hornets on meth, all while typically keeping up with a decent framerate.

The game is broken down into two main components, the PvE and PvP/PvE modes. The PVE modes work as a co-operative campaign that feels like a perfect mix of Left 4 Dead and Zombie Army. There is a loose story to this mode that basically centers on a group of survivors either trying to evade or stop the zombie outbreak which is split across four teams/areas/campaigns. Akin to L4D, each story is broken up in two or three scenes, each with their own token objectives which normally require you to flip buttons, hold down areas, collect items, or escort someone/something while being constantly attacked by the undead. The objectives themselves are uninspired, but the combat and focus on teamwork more than makes up for it.

Regardless of the mode you play, the gunplay is extremely satisfying and the available arsenal is gigantic. The standard assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, and heavy weaponry that shooters are known for are all present and accounted for, each offering up their own pros and cons that leave you feeling like you’re actually in the thick of the zombie apocalypse. The only area that feels a bit lackluster is the explosives which often feel inconsistent, sometimes coming across as a fart in the wind, and other times sending bodies and gore flying in a spray of red, chunky mist.

Much like L4D, you’ll need to stick together or face the wrath of one of the more powerful members of the zombie legion, with variations of the tank, smoker, and leaping zombies in place, including a somewhat original screaming zombie that will attract more biters to your location if awoken (kind of like the witch, but not nearly as PMS-y). Keeping in line with the whole teamwork thing, you’ll need to alert your teammates of supply caches and the like, because being a dick and taking all of the health kits is a fast track to failure. Much like the placement of the zombies, the supplies found in these caches are random and often hold legitimate upgrades that will make your journey from point A to point B much more doable. That, or they’ll give you a few pistols and you hope you had better luck on the last one. The class based system locks you into set starting weapons depending on your upgrade path, so these stashes are uber important and can set the tone for the rest of your mission.

Thankfully, the classes are not based on what character you choose, as they simply work as avatars and can be used in addition to any class option available from the main menu. Each class has their own starting weaponry as well as additional equipment and has the option to pick up (or in some cases start with) a third heavy weapon option, as well as being able to hold additional grenades, or coming equipped with breaching charges from the onset of the match. The only downfall to this is that once you select a class, you’re committed for the match as an option to change within the match is missing. While each class can pick up any weapon found within the game at any time without penalty, the only option to edit the loadout requires you to use one of your skill points on the associated perk, potentially missing out on one of the better upgrades.

Completing missions will net you XP towards your selected class as well as the standard weaponry that you used on the run, in addition to earning cash to purchase any unlocked upgrades or better versions of the available weapons. While the Class XP economy feels fair, the weapon XP and cash output is extremely grindy, often only netting a handful of points towards a specific weapon and often forgetting you used an acquired weapon all together. Additionally, the requirement to use the cash for purchasing the Class based upgrades as well as the upgrade weapons feels like the game’s systems are double dipping instead of promoting experimentation. As far as the money situation goes, you only earn a fair amount in the event you complete the mission based upon the difficulty selected, with no bonus for extra kills, time, etc. This almost requires you to play PvP in order to gain a decent cash flow in a quicker amount of time, as each story mission can take upwards of 45 minutes to an hour, when each MP match takes around ten minutes and nets the same amount of cash for a win. If you take into account any funds or XP lost in the event due to an untimely disconnect thanks to the somewhat unstable servers, this can become even more frustrating.

Matchmaking works as it should, although a number of the PvP options as well as some of the campaign missions seem to be experiencing connectivity issues. Regardless of the time of day, I have yet to be able to successfully complete two of the campaign missions with other players and the same holds true in the majority of the PvP options. As far as PvE goes, you can play the missions with bots which are great in terms of defense or helping you up in the event you’re taken down by the hoard, but fail as far as assisting in any of the actual objectives, making some of the more involved tasks take that much longer due to having to slog through the same steps repeatedly. While these issues are mild and haven’t prevented me from enjoying the game, my biggest problem is the complete lack of private games. You are given the option from the main menu to party up, but if you’re short a few people, you’ll have to allow strangers to join and leave yourself at the mercy of the general population of the internet, often finding team killing scumbags or hoarders that take up all the most valued resources for themselves.

As far as PvP goes, there are a few of the standard objective based options available, but I have yet to complete a match in any of them due to the previously mentioned issues. The mode I have played a fair bit of, Swarm Deathmatch, pits teams of four against one another all the while being attacked by waves of zombies. The team reaching a score of 50 first walks away the victor. The only major differences in gameplay (outside of the obvious) is that the classes are completely different options than their PvE counterparts, requiring an additional grind while using the same economy, your health will slowly regenerate, and you can’t pick up any weaponry from fallen enemies/allies. Again, the ability to change your class mid-battle is not an option, making some matches more taxing than others.

Regardless of the mode of the play, the game looks great with a surprising amount of detail throughout. There are the occasional hiccups when the action gets the heaviest, but despite hundreds of unique zombies flooding the screen at times (often rivaling Dead Rising 3), the title performs extremely well when it counts. While I did experience some clipping and random ragdoll animations that looked out of place, they rarely broke immersion. Throughout my time with the title, I felt as if I was graced with the ability to play Left 4 Dead 3 (when we all know that’ll never be a thing), even though this title’s version of “the director” never reached the perfect balance, it’s a high bar to reach and WWZ falls just under it.

Now, if you’re still on the fence whether you really want to raise that digit I mentioned in the opening, I would strongly recommend at least renting this. As a longtime fan of L4D, World War Z has its teeth sunk into me and won’t be letting up anytime soon. Even with its minor shortcomings, I will be patiently sitting here waiting for some DLC or quality of life improvements that would elevate this beyond just being good into something great.

8 out of 10

Pros

• Great Successor to the L4D Franchise
• Zombie Swarms
• Impressive Visuals
• Huge Arsenal

Cons

• Inability to Change Classes Mid-Game
• Some Connectivity Issues
• No Private Matches
• Economic Issues

World War Z was developed by Saber Interactive and published by MadDog Games and Focus Home Interactive. It launched on PC, PS4 and X1 on April 16th, 2019, for $39.99. The game was provided to us for review on X1 by Saber Interactive. If you’d like to see more of World War Z, 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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