If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. At least that’s the mantra when dealing with something successful, such as the original arcade game, Zombie Apocalypse. But this is Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone, a sequel to the wildly popular (yet incredibly redundant) Zombie Apocalypse, and the game creators hope for subsequent success. However, this time, a new developer was brought onboard… and it shows. Both in good and bad ways.
This time around, we’re introduced to a new group of fighters, including Father Bill (packing a shotgun), Jeremy (a machine gun), Alma (rifle) and Def Money (a pair of pistols) whose skills level up throughout. And if the original wasn’t enough of a dual-stick zombie shooter with a top-down perspective and only a hint of storyline, the sequel offers even less of a storyline! And cheesier one-liners! Many, many bad one-liners!
Backbone Entertainment was hired on for this zombie third-person shooter to make Never Die Alone bigger an better. While they did make some improvements (at some points the game becomes a sidescroller), they weren’t always for the best (multiple characters frequently speak lines of dialog simultaneously, making an unbearable soundtrack).
The majority of the game’s budget was most likely used in hiring Jeremy of Pure Pwnage, a psuedo-celebrity among the geek crowd. I had no idea who he was beforehand. I quickly realized this a game full of one-liners. And after the first 100 times of hearing them in a 10-minute span, they become intolerable and the mute option is your best friend.
While I don’t mind redundancy in gameplay, I can’t take dialog this bad… and frequent. Is there really a need to be Rated-M, just to drop many, many F-bombs? Lose the F-bombs, bring on more storyline in the next sequel, please! Available for XBOX 360, Playstation 3.
Strength: If you like Zombies, there’s many, many, many… to destroy.
Weakness: The voice-actors’ dialog is often mismatched with their subtitles.
WTF Moment: Dancing Zombies? Totally ’80s Style!
Notable Quotes:
– “You’re Def Money? Wow I hope your zombie shootin’ skillz are better than your crappy rappin’ skillz.”
– “Health feels pretty good.”
– “Teamwork is for noobs.”
– “It’s OK. Now, you’re dead.”
– “That’s how we blessed servants roll!”
– “Please, stay dead.”
– “They have numbers, but we have brains… and guns!”
– “Noobie McScrubsoft!”
– “Easy Mode: Enabled!”
– “Dead like dinner.”
– “If I build it, they will die.”
– “I can’t believe I used to work to get money.”
– “There’s nothing worse than a Zombie Noob.”
– “Thanks for helpin’ my score!”
– “Noob in life. Noob in undeath.”
– “This isn’t very original, really.”
– “You mad, bro?”
– “Lil teddy just wants to blow you up!”
– “I think you misplaced your head.”
– “Come, give Granny a hug.”
Review: 2.5/5