World War Z Game Already Looks Better Than OVERKILL's The Walking Dead

[Nergal]

 

 

Originally announced during 2017's The Game Awards, the upcoming World War Z game is looking much better it its latest trailer than the disappointment that was Overkill's The Walking Dead. While Overkill's The Walking Dead had a couple of pretty trailers and not much else, with each press release World War Z seems more and more like it will be a video game tie-in worthy of bearing its franchise name. Since its announcement last year, World War Z has consistently promised to throw a lot - no, really, a lot - of zombies at players at once, and the game's latest trailer details how players will work together to survive the hordes.

World War Z utilizes what developer Saber Interactive has deemed its Swarm Engine, which Saber claims will allow the game to render hundreds of enemies on screen at once without any major performance hitches. Going solely on the massive numbers of zombies simultaneously being hurled at players in World War Z gameplay trailers, it's difficult to ascertain if this will be true, as it can't be ruled out that the promotional footage isn't pre-rendered or being run on a top-of-the-line gaming PC. However, Saber is the team responsible for the relatively successful NBA Playgrounds and the excellent remasters of Halo 1 and 2 found in the Master Chief Collection. If their track record is anything to go on, then World War Z may be shaping up to be one of the best co-op shooters to hit the market in a while.

World War Z is a 4-player co-op shooter with a third person camera based on the Max Brooks novel of the same name. In a new World War Z trailer it was revealed that the game will boast six distinct classes: Slasher, Hellraiser, Exterminator, Gunslinger, Medic, and Fixer. The Slasher's taser and extra melee damage-dealing machete allows for greater comfort in close-quarters situations, while the Hellraiser and Exterminator are more capable of dispatching large amounts of enemies at range - the former does so with a bombastic arsenal of explosives, the latter with proximity mines and sweet, cleansing fire. The Gunslinger and Medic classes are rather self-explanatory, with the Gunslinger being a traditional machine-gunner (but one with increased ammo and weapon damage) and the Medic wielding a life-saving Stim Pistol and gas grenades that allow them to cloak themselves while moving among the undead. Finally, there's the Fixer, who plays a vital support role by dishing out ammunition to the team, making sure to save his unique explosive ammo stash for himself.
 

 

World War Z will see players take on the zombie hordes worldwide, with three locations being revealed so far. From the frozen landscape of Moscow to the dense, demolished urban sprawl of New York City to the tainted holy land of Jerusalem, players will contend with their undead foes in a variety of locales. For now, it is unconfirmed if these locations will be the only ones on offer when the game ships or if more will be added later, and it's also unknown if there will be multiple playable areas within the three revealed locations. Despite its differences in player perspective and likely lack of asymmetrical multiplayer, World War Z's apparent level of polish and potential for co-op zombie mayhem is highly reminiscent of the Left 4 Dead franchise.

Just when it seemed the zombie craze of the past decade may be on its way out when watching the decline of the Dead Rising series, the painfully long development cycle of DayZ from mod to standalone, and the perceived abandonment of the Left 4 Dead franchise by Valve, outliers like The Last of Us, Dying Light, and now World War Z restore hope that the genre is far from undead. On that note, Left 4 Dead consistently comes up when World War Z is talked about, and that may seem limiting on its face. However, the most likely reason these games are mentally linked in the minds of many is not just the presence of rabid zombie hordes, but primarily because the absence of a third Left 4 Dead entry truly left a vacuum in the way of fast-paced 4-player co-op shooters. The hype surrounding World War Z makes it clear that people want more of what Left 4 Dead's gameplay offered - the fact that they both have zombies in them is trivial when compared to the fact that playing it with a group of friends looks fun.