Zombie Army VR is almost exactly what you think it is. It’s you, a gun-toting crazy person, taking on hordes of Nazi undead after the death of Zombie Hitler has driven them into a world-threatening frenzy. So yeah, you can guess the assignment here. Though to be clear, while Zombie Army VR is roundly predictably fare, it is also, in turn, a roundly satisfying arcade style affair which lets you shoot, stab, bludgeon, explode and melt Zombie Nazis until the undead cows come home. Sophisticated? No. Pushing genre boundaries? Not really. Fun as all blue heck? Absolutely yes.
Essentially a VR spin-off of the Zombie Army series that itself was/is a spin-off of the Sniper Elite series developed by UK studio Rebellion, Zombie Army VR immediately works because it does a more than decent job of transposing the ‘flat’ Zombie Army experience into full, tangible VR.
Zombie Army VR Review (PSVR 2)
A Solid Zombie VR Shooter With An Arcade Hook
Primarily anchored by its splattery story mode about stopping a rampaging army of the dead, which can be tackled either solo or in a co-op with another Deadhunter, Zombie Army VR has you picking from a handful of different player characters (the differences are cosmetic only) completing linear missions and making your way through the campaign.
Levels are relatively small and fairly boxy affairs whereupon after reaching certain checkpoints, entrances and exits will be barred by a mysterious magic that prevents you from escaping while enemies pour into the room in an arena type style and it’s really here that Zombie Army VR establishes its raison d’etre – murdering zombies in VR in various stylish and gruesome ways en masse.
Though the moment to moment zombie mashing gameplay doesn’t quite feel as satisfying as the undead murder you can partake in the excellent Arizona Sunshine 2, there is still sufficient satisfaction to be had in destroying the shambling ranks of the Nazi dead. While the various handguns, automatic weapons, shotguns and grenades all feel good to use and are palpably bombastic (especially when dual-wielded), the sniper rifle tends to be quite fiddly and awkward to aim, not least as it requires you to kind of stretch both your arms forward to hold it steady and in place which can prove troublesome at times.
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The X-Ray kill cam shots which have long been a staple flourish of the Sniper Elite games also make an appearance here whenever you go to town on the undead with your trusty sniper rifle. The thing is, their impact is somewhat dulled in comparison to the non-VR Sniper Elite games because not only is the level of detail (and thus anatomic detail) much lower, but because the perspective is awkwardly forced, you don’t really get the cinematic zooms and swoops you would normally get in Sniper Elite.
Should you find yourself in-between reloads, you can usually snatch up a melee weapon such as hammer or wrench to mash the limbs and skulls of your enemies, which feels very good to say the least – though a very finite level of durability for each weapon puts a definite cap on how long you can use them for. Elsewhere, the various red barrels scattered about each level do exactly what you think they would do and surprise, surprise, are useful for taking out groups of zombies with just a single, well-placed shot.
Further afield, though the maps are modestly sized and linear, there are a number collectible secret items that can be found hidden in the various books and crannies of each level, making them a bit more compelling to explore than they otherwise would be. And naturally, with the scoping up of the various doodads attached to trophies, going after them certainly helps to add some replay value to Zombie Army VR.
While the level design and surface mechanics feel perhaps a little too shopworn, there is a surprisingly effective and old-fashioned arcade style shooter that lurks at the heart of Zombie Army VR. Essentially, the core of Zombie Army VR‘s shooter gameplay is that it focuses on high scores and combo multipliers, with the latter being maintained for killing and skull-blasting a number of enemies consecutively, while the former converts your score into experience points that can result in higher ranks and upgrade boxes to bolster different aspects (range, damage and so on) of your favourite weapons.
Combo chasing, head-shots, high score chasing – these are all tenets of the gameplay of coin-popping halcyon days and they very much feel en vogue here, as the feeling of ‘one more go’ is keenly felt as you not only re-do past missions to get the best score possible, but complete optional sub-objectives (perform a number of headshots, kill a certain number of a specific enemy type etc.) to maximise your score to its fullest. It’s very easy to return to Zombie Army VR for a quick session of zombie blasting – that’s for sure.
Technically speaking, Zombie Army VR is fine enough. Though the character models and environments don’t boast an especially high level of detail or scope when compared to similar offerings, and could easily be pulled off on Sony’s last generation console, the number of zombie on screen at any one time can still be rather impressive and equally, there’s not much in the way of glitching or other such juddery jank that you might normally associate with VR shooter titles.
Zombie Army VR then isn’t going to set the VR landscape alight and neither is it going to bring untold masses into the sweet bosom of VR adoption. What it will do however is give you a nice, fetid and appropriately rotting slice of zombie meat cake to devour and you’ll do it with a grin on your face as you chase high score multipliers and all the unlocks in one of the more surprisingly effective arcade style VR blasters to come along in a good while.
Zombie Army VR is out now on PSVR 2.
Review code kindly provided by PR.