Zombie Army 4: Dead War

One of the best, most unhinged b-movie kind of games I've ever played: it's absolutely not a coinsidence that it is set mostly in Italy, the Italian cinematic exploitation masters would be so proud.

Game-wise It takes all the good shit from the Sniper Elite series (the dynamic marksmanship, the slo-mo kills, the WWII setting, the tactical set-ups for that good good murder), ditches all the boring stuff (samey levels, way too much time spent solving stealth situations), and just all-around ramps up the fun factor. Similairly to Sniper Elite it's a bit too long and repetetive, but unlike Sniper Elite there's a clear sense of constant escalation of both difficulty and just the sheer scale and ridicilousness of everything that is going on.

Aesthetics-wise you get all of the nazi- and zombiesploitation goodies you can ask for. Wanna shoot a zombie SS commander in the gonads in goregous slo-mo? You got it. Wanna lure a crowd of zombies into zombie shark's mouth? Fucking go for it. Zombie tanks? Yeah, we got those. Demon Hitler riding a giant zombie tank fortress? Yep, that too. The design on all of the zombies is top-notch, there are neat easter eggs for various horror classics strewn about, and in general it feels like the game has been made with a big love for classic exploitation cinema in mind. Which alone would be enough to sell this game to me, but it also doesn't hurt that it's just a big cheesy hunk of ridiclous trashy fun.

Zombie Army 4 is a whole lot of fun. I did not know what to expect from this game as I've never played any game in the franchise (including Sniper Elite), and at first it did feel pretty generic but as the game advanced I really got into it and killing hordes and hordes of zombies really got addicting.

The story is nothing to write home about, Hitler has gone into necromancy and turns everything into zombies and you as super army person need to stop his madness. This means killing a whole lot of zombies, and all kinds of zombies. Like I was not expecting sniper zombies that jump from building to building like ninjas, but hey this game brings that. The enemy variety is quite nice, there is the typical dumb zombies that walk slowly and grab you, but there's also many annoying ones from crawling creepers, suicide bombers and commanders that re-spawn even more zombies. Your primary weapon is a sniper rifle but you will usually juggle between it and your secondary weapon (I chose a shotgun) and your pistol. As you advance in the game you gain experience for perks and weapon upgrades, making you able to take on even more zombies.

The campaign mode is pretty long, there's a total of 9 chapters and 32 missions, and those missions usally range from 15-25 minutes with lots to do. The game isn't revolutionary in the actions you have to do, a lot of times is activating a device and defending it for the necessary time. Or just running around hitting switches or placing explosives to progress further. While these activities are pretty standard, it's a whole lot of fun and challenging while being attacked by zombies left and right. Over the course of the campaign many of those repeat, but I was never bored with them as the game really ups the challenge from area to area. It's really satisfying completing a hard mission and that's what's so fun about it.

A pretty nice feature about the progression is that you keep it in the co-op multiplayer Horde mode, so all the perks and upgrades you've unlocked make you stronger to survive more waves in that mode. And it's definitely not easy there either, I haven't played as much in Horde but the there is definitely challenge in there.

All in all I've quite enjoyed Zombie Army 4. I would definitely understand if someone feels the game is too generic and repetitive (these are valid criticisms) but I felt that everything was done well. The graphics are impeccable, the game really controls well and it's really a blast to play. Really fun shooter, worth giving a shot I'd say.