Zombie Army 4: Dead War
| Zombie Army 4: Dead War | |||
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| Part of the series: Zombie Army | |||
| Original title | Zombie Army 4: Dead War | ||
| Studio |
 rebellion
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| Publisher |
rebellion |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Xbox One , PS4 , Windows February 4th, 2020 Nintendo Switch March 31st, 2020 Google Stadia May 1st, 2020 |
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| platform | PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , Microsoft Windows , Nintendo Switch , Google Stadia | ||
| genre | Survival horror , third-person shooter | ||
| Subject | World War 2 , occultism | ||
| Game mode | Single and multiplayer | ||
| control | Gamepad , Nintendo Switch Pro controller , mouse and keyboard | ||
| medium | Blu-ray disc , module , digital download | ||
| language | English, German and others | ||
| Age rating |
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Zombie Army 4: Dead War is the fourth part of the Zombie Army computer game series . The third-person shooter was developed by the British studio Rebellion Developments and released on February 4, 2020 for PlayStation 4 , Xbox One and Microsoft Windows ; on March 31 of the same year it was also released for the Nintendo Switch , a version for Google Stadia was released on May 1st.
Like its predecessors, Zombie Army 4 is a spin-off of the Sniper Elite series, also managed by Rebellion Developments .
style
The third-person shooter takes place in a fictional , alternate reality in 1946, in which the Second World War has not yet ended; however, soldiers from rival nations are no longer fighting each other. Rather, the rest of the global resistance is facing an almost overpowering army of undead of the German Reich , which was initially commanded by Adolf Hitler , and is fighting for survival and above all against the end of the world.
Both the weapons and the building architecture, the vehicles and the technical status are based on the reality of the real 1940s . Beyond that, Rebellion made use of a variety of supernatural elements. Dead German soldiers were able to resurrect and now walk the earth as zombies. Despite being undead, they are able to move upright, use human senses such as sight or hearing, and in some cases even use weapons. In the penultimate chapter of the game you end up in hell .
Zombie Army 4 has many elements of the survival horror sub-genre . So the character always faces larger groups of opponents, can only collect ammunition for their weapons in certain places in the game world and has to cope with relatively poor health. In addition to the standard opponents, simple zombies, the player also repeatedly encounters stronger opponents who can take more damage, so-called bosses or underbosses.
The game has a gloomy atmosphere, but the action is loosened up in places by macabre black humor or "Oneliner" borrowed from action films . The protagonists are exaggerated, comic-like stereotypes and can be described as antiheroes due to their characteristic features . Ironically, the soundtrack is based on the synthwave music of the 1980s . However, this illustrates the homage to the large number of (Italian) zombie films from this era, which is also underlined by the chapter thumbnails, which are based on film posters from this time.
action
The action takes place a year after the events of the third part , at the end of which Hitler was killed. The venue here is no longer the Germany of the National Socialists , but mainly another state of the Axis powers , Italy . While the penultimate chapter takes place in hell, the third one is in a Croatian zoo.
The global resistance, to which the chosen character belongs, is still trying to defeat the seemingly endless hordes of the undead and save the world from destruction. A cult operating in secret tries to complete the work of Hitler and to send more and more of the bloodthirsty creatures to earth to absorb them. In nine chapters you find yourself in Milan , in the canals of Venice , in Sardinia , in a zoo in Croatia, on the coast of Genoa , in Naples , in Rome and in Hell. In the course of the plot, the German scientist Dr. Efram Schweiger as an ally as well as the main antagonist Zombie Hitler .
The first DLC Blood Count provided the venue for an expansion of the campaign in Transylvania . Here the rebel group meets occult SS members.
Gameplay
The player steers his character through the game world on foot, only in two chapters does it travel briefly on a boat. At the beginning of the game, the player can choose from four main characters: Karl Fairburne , a former American OOS officer and sniper who grew up in Berlin ; Boris Medvedev , a veteran of the Red Army ; Shola , daughter of a wealthy Nigerian lawyer, who went to school in England and worked in an ammunition factory during the World War; Jun , former attachée of a Chinese diplomat ; as DLC are still Hector , a shot down over the Alps and who returned as an intelligent zombie, British bomber pilot, and Josiah , an American Marine , who during the war in the Mediterranean had been struggling available. With the first DLC Blood Count , the figure field was expanded to include Werner, a Wehrmacht sniper, and Marie, a French resistance fighter.
At the beginning of each sub-chapter, three main weapons as well as a melee attack and, as the player level increases, up to five different perks can be selected: a sniper rifle like the Gewehr 43 , a secondary weapon like the MP44 or the trenchgun and a pistol like the M1911 . The first DLC Blood Count added a mortar shotgun that fires explosive ammunition to the weapon selection. The chapters are separated by staying in shelters, where the player can heal the character, adjust his equipment, pick up various grenades and mines or improve the weapon attributes with the help of level kits found previously. Within the respective levels, it is possible to recover special attachments for the main weapons from ammunition boxes, with the help of which, for example, a small number of shots from the sniper rifle can also simultaneously distribute electrical damage. Defeated underbosses drop a flamethrower, machine gun or circular saw, depending on the class; Machine guns, the Panzerschreck or a double-barreled shotgun, the Preacher , are distributed in various places in the game world.
In addition to the standard opponents, there are also a variety of special opponents that appear at various points in the game, including: Grenadiers who hide behind metal shields and throw grenades; Spitter , water bodies that throw balls with poison; Suicider , armless, bomb-belted zombies running towards the player; Screamer , blind but powerful zombies with increased melee values; Necromancer , former officers who can summon an infinite number of comrades; Zombie Tank , a symbiosis of meat and steel that hunts the player with its gun.
The campaign as well as the horde mode , a turn-based arena battle, can be played alone or with up to three other players. With the help of the experience points earned per sub-level or horde level, the player increases in the level, which unlocks new improvements. The experience points earned depend on the number of points achieved (by killing the opponent), which can be increased by combos, collecting items such as comics or documents or by completing challenges.
reception
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The PS4 version of the game received a rating of 72/100 points (6.4 / 10 points) from the editors (and users) of the Metacritic platform .
Kyle Hilliard from the IGN portal praised the varied campaign and the horde mode, but criticized the monotonous story as well as the unimaginative weapon improvements and the lack of replayability.
Andreas Müller from heise online called the game a "splatter madness with swastikas". The "undemanding co-op shooter, in which the joke is drowned by tons of blood", would have been staged as a "serious action horror shooter in C-movie style". He criticized the (optional) microtransactions and named the Wolfenstein series as a reference for "interesting characters" , which, however, follows a completely different game principle.
Trivia
Zombie Army 4 was released in Germany without any censorship and, in addition to the drastic depiction of violence, also contains any NS symbolism used by the developers.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Zombie Army 4 campaign mission 'Blood Count' launches today , zombiearmy.com, accessed on June 2, 2020 (English)
- ↑ a b Test: Zombie Army 4: Dead War , 4players.de, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ Conclusion: Zombie Army Trilogy (PS4) , computerbild.de, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ a b Rating: Zombie Army 4 in the test - co-op party with a foul aftertaste , gamepro.de, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ Rating: Zombie Army 4: Dead War im Test - Pay barrier of death , gamestar.de, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ a b c Zombie Army 4: Dead War in the test - dull splatter or funny B-movie nonsense? - Now with test video! , pcgames.de, accessed on April 6, 2020
- ↑ a b Zombie Army 4: Dead War for PlayStation 4 , metacritic.com, accessed on April 6, 2020 (English)
- ↑ Zombie Army 4: Dead War for PC , metacritic.com, accessed April 6, 2020
- ↑ Zombie Army 4: Dead War for Xbox One , metacritic.com, accessed April 6, 2020
- ↑ Zombie Army 4: Dead War Review , ign.com, accessed April 5, 2020
- ↑ Zombie Army 4 alluded to: Splatter madness with swastikas , heise.de, accessed on April 5, 2020
- ↑ Zombie Army 4 - Dead War was released uncensored , schnittberichte.com, accessed on April 5, 2020
Web links
- Official website (German)