The game does add a substantial number of layers onto this foundation, however. By adding story progression, RPG elements and objective-based missions it moves away from being a score-based arena shooter to become an action RPG featuring some adventure elements. On paper, this new direction sounds promising and fresh.
 |
| If I had to make a comparison, AZMD is like a mash-up of Smash TV and Dead Rising |
Sadly, the execution and the variety on offer simply aren’t where they need to be for the game to become the next downloadable classic.
The story takes place in the town of Deadhill, USA where, of course, the zombie apocalypse has taken hold. You start out as the spiky-haired Jack though you’ll eventually meet and recruit his irritable ex-girlfriend Rachel, a scientist with a murky past named Brian and the Rastafarian alien called Luxo. The overall plot is pretty thin being more or less just a pre-tense for you to kill a whole bunch of zombies and to crack some meta video game related jokes.
The core combat is as standard as it comes for a twin stick shooter however most of the weapons feel somewhat underpowered due to scattershot accuracy. Melee weapons like the cricket bat are especially weak and can’t help to keep back the undead hordes. With the exception of the shotgun, most of the firearms don’t even feel that satisfying to use. The game does reward you for stringing together large numbers of kills which is nice, furnishing you with a screen-clearing smart bomb attack, a powerful rage mode and the occasional airstrike.
The RPG elements are again straightforward but are necessary to providing a sense of progression and some sort of reason to keep playing. Every time you level up you’ll earn a certain amount of points to go towards improving your character’s attack, defense, health and speed. The game also sports a crafting system similar to the one in Dead Rising that allows you to experiment with combining different weapons and items.
 |
| As with most games with co-op capability playing with friends is a better way to experience it |
Though the game play and character elements are a little underwhelming it’s the structure that really drags the experience down. The game relies on objective-based quests which all rely on you killing the shambling undead or hunting out items. Over the span of many hours this soon becomes dull, especially when you consider all the backtracking through Deadhill’s meagre seven areas that the game requires you to do.
Particularly egregious are the sentient gates that block each area. These will almost always demand that you complete a bog standard quest in your current zone before allowing you to move on to the next. I can understand the idea behind this when you want to enter a region for the first time but when you’re in the latter half of the game on a simple fetch quest to the other side of the town and back these gates just feel like a cynical amount of padding.
Though you have side quests and crafting available to you you’ll probably want to stick to the main objectives. While new weapons and equipment can be found or constructed through them they add zero variety to the proceedings as they also rely purely on the killing zombies and item collection.
The whole experience can be played co-operatively with up to three others, which can help to keep things fresh for a little longer. Other players fill in as Rachel, Brian, Luxo or generic solider guys, though the latter group has no bearing on the story and quests. However, without online support this is another aspect of AZMD that feels like it's fallen far short of its full potential.
 |
| Kill zombies. Collect things. Kill zombies. Collect things. Rinse, repeat, etc |
Attempting to broaden the twin stick shooter genre was an admirable goal but ultimately DoubleSix falls wide of its target this time. You can understand what it was going for, trying to stretch out the simple experience of shooting and collecting over many hours with the aid of an RPG system and an open world. You can forgive Doublesix for that, what with it being a small studio without the massive resources and budgets of many of its development peers.
But what is unforgivable is that All Zombies Must Die! commits the ultimate video game sin by becoming boring. Much like the classic example of Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, (that’s right, I went there) quantity must not come at the expense of quality or even a basic level of enjoyment. It’s a real shame because with more variety and less padding AZMD could’ve been so much more.
The first couple of hours are definitely the game’s peak time before all the repetition sets in.
Platform Played:
ALL ZOMBIES MUST DIE! VERDICT
PlayStation 3
TOP GAME MOMENT
The first couple of hours are definitely the game’s peak time before all the repetition sets in.
