ZKILLER

This may seem hard to believe at times, but I try to go into every review hoping for the best. Even when the developer's track record is dubious or the trailer makes it look like an unfinished mess, I still assume it's going to be fun until it demonstrates that it's not. In the case of the new game ZKILLER, I knew right away that I was in for a bumpy ride. Everything from the outdated graphics to the simplistic gameplay to the tired use of zombies screamed dumpster fire, and that's putting it politely.

There is no story or setup in ZKILLER, just a game where you try to survive multiple waves of zombies before taking on a boss. That's it. You're tossed into a small, closed-in area and forced to kill the undead hordes in order to earn money and unlock new levels. You'll fight in the city streets, the underground subway, an army base and two more predictably generic stages and then quit because you're bored.

The idea is to take two guns and a melee weapon into battle and kill a few dozen zombies before they eat you. We start out with a large ax, a handgun and a shotgun, but you'll eventually be able to spend your money on new weapons. But no matter what guns you equip, you're still going to be scrounging around for bullets and reverting back to the melee weapon when things get tough. You'll also want to stick with the ax or sword if you're serious about earning points, since you'll earn significantly more XP from a melee kill than a shotgun death.

On its own, the point system is not a bad addition, but it ends up being the thing that frustrated me the most about ZKILLER. This is one of those games where you won't be able to move on to new area until you've gotten to a certain experience level. The first two stages are open from the start, with the third requiring us to hit experience level 20 to unlock. No big deal, I thought to myself. But I was wrong, because it takes a substantial amount of grinding in order to see new stages. I had to play through levels one and two a total of five times in order to open up the Army base. That's nearly three hours of fighting wave after wave after wave after wave (after wave ...) of the same zombies in the same two stages just to do the same thing in a new location.

If you've read some of my other reviews, then you'll already know that I hate this type of progression. As far as I'm concerned, if I'm good enough to beat a level, then I should be able to move on to the next one. ZKILLER is the most extreme example of this pet peeve, and it ended up shaping the way I felt about the game in a negative way. In fact, I got to the point where I had to choose between grinding for another two or three hours just to see the next stage or giving up all together. In this case, I gave up.

The truth is, spending all that time with the first two stages taught me a number of important lessons about ZKILLER. For starters, I realized early on that even if the progression was more to my liking, it still wouldn't be a good game. The actual combat is embarrassingly basic, to the point where you can't even jump or duck. The hit detection is also all over the map, especially when it comes to headshots. It doesn't seem like you kill the zombies any faster by aiming at their heads, so you might as well just pump seven bullets into their gut while slowly backing away.

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Speaking of which, the boss battles are somehow even worse. Not because they are too difficult, but rather because they aren't challenging enough. Every boss can be beaten the exact same way: Walk backwards and shoot them with a shotgun. That's all you have to do. They don't charge at you or throw projectiles; they simply keep pace while you fill them with bullets. Somehow it's even less fun than it sounds.

ZKILLER looks about as good as it plays. The levels are ugly and look like they were lifted from twenty year old games. There's no personality to the locations and most are constructed using little more than the same boring textures. They are also empty, even when there are 55 zombies supposedly after you. At most, you'll maybe see six or seven bad guys on the screen at once, and half the time it's only one or two. It's common to get into a situation where you'll waste several minutes just looking for somebody to kill. And when you do, it's always one of only a handful of lame characters. If you're going to make a zombie game in 2018, you have to try harder than this.

ZKILLER is a bad first-person shooter that is somehow made even worse thanks to its restrictive progression. It's one thing to lock away the best content, but this game forces you to spend hours grinding the same stages just to see one new location. Couple that with the terrible gameplay, outdated graphics, horrendous hit detection and complete lack of story, and you have a generic new zombie game that is worth going out of your way to avoid.