Zombie Army VR has the foundations for something more, though it’s held back by a repetitive campaign. Read on for our full review.
You probably can’t name a more frequent combination than zombie shooters and VR. From the earliest hits like Arizona Sunshine to more recent games such as Resident Evil 4 Remake, countless attempts have come and gone across the years. Following its work on Sniper Elite VR and Winter Warrior, Rebellion’s now brought its undead spin-off into the mix for another crack at this combo with the help of Xtended Realities, delivering mixed results.
The story splits into a seven mission campaign with a varying number of chapters, threaded together with a serviceable narrative set before Zombie Army 4. This means you can’t kill Zombie Hitler, something we’ve admittedly known since last year, but it’s a minor disappointment regardless. Still, all you need to know is that you’re a Deadhunter fighting the undead across the ruins of Nuremberg.
For the initial stages, my thoughts are largely in line with my preview last year. A comfortable opening encourages you to check the expansive comfort settings before leaving the tutorial. Upon starting a mission or within your explorable hub that’s effectively your start menu, you’re given a choice of which weapons to take and what aspects you’d like to upgrade.
There’s a nice selection of gradually unlockable weapons, and you always carry three. Rifles occupy one slot over your shoulder, SMGs or shotguns take another, while pistols are grabbed from the waist. Upgrades like extra ammo or even health and stamina regeneration are good but limited, since you can only do it once for each aspect per weapon. It would be great if you could enhance your weapons even further.
Weapons reloading has three different options including an automatic choice, and Rebellion’s pleasingly added a more realistic ‘Authentic’ setting alongside a less involved but still welcome ‘Manual’ option. Grab the ammo from your holstered pouch, load up your weapon and get ready to fire. Similar to Sniper Elite VR, Zombie Army also provides an appreciated aim smoothing setting, which is useful for those with less steady hands by reducing your in-game hand motion speed.
You’ve also got a satchel for holding three items at once like syringes or grenades, though this appears as a floating flat menu which kills the immersion somewhat. Unusually, I also encountered an issue on PlayStation VR2 where trying to add items using my right hand didn’t work, they’d drop to the floor instead. However, using my left hand was fine, and I’ve not been able to duplicate this issue yet on Quest 3.
Mechanically, Zombie Army VR works well and while I wouldn’t call it one of PlayStation VR2’s visual standouts, the presentation generally looks good. Hearing the foul screeches of an incoming zombie horde leaves me tense without this ever veering into horror, it’s more of an action game, and the performance ran smoothly throughout. Those signature x-ray kill cams are back too.
How does it play on Quest 3?
This review is based on the PlayStation VR2 version and though we didn’t receive access to the Steam version before launch, we’ve also spent an hour playing the Quest 3 version for comparison.
So far, Zombie Army VR on Quest 3 holds up pretty well with the expected trade-offs. I only noticed the framerate drop on two brief occasions during combat sequences, and the visual presentation looks great on standalone hardware. I can’t speak for Quest 2/Pro performance but for Meta’s latest family of headsets, it’s a good port so far.
However, and this is a big one, where Zombie Army VR goes wrong is in the missions themselves, which normally need around 20 minutes to complete. Every chapter ends up turning into little more than a shooting gallery, which quickly gets tedious and frustrates the pacing as fights can take a while to clear. A good variety of enemies – who range from your standard violent corpses, armored units, snipers, suicide runners, and more – do little to help this feeling.
Some stages require killing zombies within a set perimeter to extract their blood, one involves transporting objects that draw enemies to you, while other levels include areas sealed by a blood gate. No matter what happens, it’s ultimately the same deal almost every time. This ends up becoming incredibly repetitive in longer stints; playing with a friend in co-op only goes so far in masking that. Rebellion informed me there are currently no plans for cross-platform multiplayer, either.
Comfort
Zombie Army VR begins by selecting your dominant hand and whether you’re playing seated or standing, asking you to take off the headset when changing position. Smooth camera turning is supported alongside snap turning at 15, 30, and 45 degrees. Movement uses either artificial stick-based locomotion or teleportation.
Various HUD elements like subtitles, score indicator and the crouch indicator can be switched off. Screen vignettes can be applied, while you can adjust your belt’s offset, height, angle, and size. Cinematic cameras, camera shake and x-ray kills can also be disabled. Moving forward can be tracked by your head or hands, while tracking smoothing can steady your aim in exchange for less responsive hand movement.
Four characters are available at the start (two more will be added later), and three difficulty settings are available. Audio can be individually adjusted with sliders for the master volume, sound, voice, and voice chat. A colorblind mode is also supported. Brightness and contrast can also be altered, and haptic feedback can be switched off.
The only real changes are with a handful of bosses who you can only get to by… well, killing more enemies. Or destroying the floating skulls around them so they drop the protective barriers, all while attacking standard zombies so they don’t kill you first at the same time. It all feels rather unimaginative, and that’s especially disappointing as I hoped for more from these boss fights.
Completing this campaign took me roughly 7 hours, maybe slightly more, and Rebellion’s attempted to encourage replayability with the usual incentives. Collectible dolls and weapon skins are hidden across each mission, while scoring uses a medal system from Bronze to Gold. My previous concerns mean I don’t feel particularly compelled to replay low scoring missions, though earning enough XP to level up rewards you with more upgrade points for guns. That alone had me consider reattempting my less successful endeavors.
Zombie Army VR Review – Final Verdict
Zombie Army VR has a decent foundation with a tense atmosphere and enjoyable gunplay, but that’s let down by the main campaign offering little more than a repetitive shooting gallery. Playing with a friend can only do so much to hide core issues, which is unfortunate when the game mechanically feels good. What’s here is fine, Zombie Army VR has its moments, and it’ll serve if you’re after a new co-op campaign. Just don’t expect much else.
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