After Zombie Apocalypse and Burn Zombie Burn, I was beginning to grow tired of zombie games in the download space. Little else could pique my interest, but Dead Nation held a trump card; Housemarque. Super Stardust HD was arguably the first great title on Sony’s PlayStation Network. A twin stick shooter, the beautiful presentation coupled with the enormous amount of onscreen activity made for a wildly impressive spectacle, and throwing a deep scoring system and significant DLC on top made Stardust even better. Dead Nation, by default, demanded interest.
The fiction is familiar, but still interesting. Mysteriously immune to a zombie outbreak, two selectable characters must move from A to B while fighting off the zombie hoards. As Jack McRead or Scarlett Burke, or both if you’re playing co-op, the campaign pumps you through a post apocalyptic anywhere-USA.
Presentation is top down and occasionally veers into isometric territory. Dead Nation’s greatest asset, as far as I was concerned, was its magnificent production. Ruined Americana and zombie invasions have almost been done to death at this point, but Housemarque still managed to eke out a world packed with incredible detail and delightful minutia. Virtually everything on the ground had its own set of physics; garbage I walked over got kicked around, and explosions set off a chain reaction of junk scattering all over the screen. The fully polygonal structures and buildings rarely repeated asset, and, oddly enough, looked like a real time version of Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar. Dead Nation’s world was a sight to behold, downloadable status notwithstanding.
Controls are simple and familiar. Shoulder buttons are used for firing a weapon or using an item, while movement and aim are bound to the twin analog sticks. R3 is clicked to reload, while rush and melee attacks are bound to the other two shoulder buttons. D-pad is used to cycle through weapons and items, but the face buttons are blank by default. Generally speaking, Dead Nation keeps your thumbs glued to both of the sticks at all times.
Initially I wasn’t too impressed with the gameplay, but, as I’m writing this, alI I can think about is getting done so I can dive back in for more. The hooks took a while to find, but once they set in Dead Nation was incredibly fun. My first pass through a level was always slow and methodical, fearful of any trigger I would hit that would unleash a zombie hoard. Second trips through a level were reserved for racking up points. Kills get added to a multiplier, which boosts your score. Broken down mechanically, Dead Nation almost functions like Stardust minus the spherical planets. In fact, Dead Nation even featured the same “voice over lady” from Stardust. Definitely a nice touch for fans of that game.
Zombies not only grant points, but also money. Money is used at weapon shops to pick up and upgrade firearms. The default rifle (which has a sweet charge shot) is fairly easy to upgrade, but the SMG, Shotgun, Flamethrower, Blade Cannon, and Rocket Launcher often required more of my cash than I had to give. Every weapon can receive upgrades in rate of fire, power, total capacity, and ammo clip capacity. You can also buy ammo at these stations, which seemed incredibly necessary as, even on normal difficulty, ammo pickups were few and far between.
Firearms aren’t your only means of defense. Grenades, flares, mines, and Molotov cocktails can help buy a few seconds to breathe whenever you’re overwhelmed. There are also the prerequisite environmental explosions throughout the landscapes. Certain cars are susceptible to timed explosions, as are giant fuel tanks. Exploding things in Dead Nation are particularly impressive; the lighting models have to be seen to believe. It’s generally a dark game, and the brief light shower during the explosion usually reveals a sea of carnage. I could almost feel the heat radiating against my face.
In fact, glancing over my notes, I wrote “lighting is awesome” a half dozen times. You’re equipped with a flashlight at all times, and the ways in which it’s used to reveal or (or accidently conceal) the environments is striking. It’s also a source of potential terror; there’s nothing like backing away and unloading on a zombie hoard only to discover even more of them creeping out of the shadows from behind.
Your opposition contains a fair bit of variation as well. Character models repeat, of course (this is a game where you kill count might hit six digits), but different contexts always brought out different zombies. Policemen roamed the police station, zombie firemen were present wherever there was fire, and a truck load of zombie circus clowns, completely with goofy sound effects, appeared at a carnival. Many of the zombies were also carrying stuff, like a rifle or a briefcase, that they tried to use against me. There were also some Left 4 Dead style super zombies; I managed to see a clone of the Boomer, a squirrely, tall zombie, a giant with blades for arms, and a lurker who jumped right in for instant melee attacks. Managing their numbers can get out of hand quickly, even more so when you’re low on ammo and bound to your rifle.
Thankfully Dead Nation was fairly courteous with checkpoints and difficulty, No less than five difficulties were present, with normal being the second option. Each level also has a handful of checkpoints that always spawn you next to a weapon shop. Often all that was required for success was an ammo restock and some fiddling with the mix-and-match armor combinations. Some defeats set me back further than I would have liked, but I couldn’t complain. Games like this should be challenging.
Dead Nation’s level design was also worth noting. Too many games, especially in the downloadable space, are content to empty you into half inspired arenas. Dead Nation, while featuring a predetermined end point, was never short of alternate paths or places to explore. There are limits, be it piles of rubble or buildings, but it granted a good deal of freedom. Certain areas obscured from view, of which there were many, typically featured ammo or health, and sometimes an armor upgrade.
Above all else, the levels rarely let me breathe a sigh of relief. Zombies of different speed and type were constantly being thrown at me from every angle, and any attempt I made at falling back or funneling them through a choke point was often met with disastrous results. The boost move is nice, but it’ll only save your ass once every five seconds (an eternity). By the end of the fifth level I was switching guns every five seconds and never stopped moving. It’s like Housemarque felt that allowing the player to get comfortable would result in design failure, and maintained that mentality throughout making the game.
The sound department is also worth mentioning. The actual music takes its cues from 28 Days Later, but the sound effect were what truly impressed. Walking over a pile of slaughtered undead resulted in horrifying squishes and crunches, and kicking around junk all over the street was surprisingly realistic. Gunfire penetrating zombie flesh and routine explosions also hit their marks, but what surprised me was every single zombie seemed to make its own noise. Rather than cover their bases with a collective zombie moan, Housemarque went the extra mile. You’ll know you’re in trouble simply by the wall of sound slowly closing in.
While I only played the preview build by myself, co-op infrastructure (both online and local) was in place. Dead Nation not only boasts leader boards, but also a cool global leader board that track each countries’ specific stats, which was then ranked in accordance with the performance of its player base. How they’re calculating that remains a mystery, but it’s a very interesting concept, not to mention totally in line with global zombie apocalypse fiction.
Sony has yet to nail down a solid release date for Dead Nation, only the guarantee that it’ll make it out before the end of 2010. From the way it’s shaping up, it might be one of the most surprising games released this holiday season, regardless of its downloadable label. Check back with us soon for a full review!
