Running around taking down the undead, racing through the streets, and mowing down creatures is honestly all you could ask.
Zombies have always been gross to me. I understand the love and fascination with the undead but it remains a side of pop culture that’s evaded me. I have and always will love cars; my passion for car culture and knows no bounds. So when you put these two together you get something that I never would have expected to get my hands on. ‘Zombie Driver: Immortal Edition’ is a game that made me so confused when I heard the title, but by god, I’m down for anything.
You start in a post-apocalyptic ‘world’ where the local area has been affected by a major nuclear explosion or possible government project. Meaning your happy, wonderful world gets fully flipped into chaos. Your goal is to help eliminate zombies and creatures through automotive combat. Its kind of like ‘Death Race’ meets ‘The Walking Dead’.
To help save what’s left of the world, players must go out and defeat mutated zombies, save civilians, and survive waves of charging undead. The missions aren’t too bad as most objectives are quite straightforward, using a timer to reward bonuses. Traveling the map is a fun, chaotic process as most of the map is destructible except for major buildings. Blazing through the streets, blowing up cars, and mowing down corpses is a blast. While the world is decently detailed, it’s not the most breathtaking setting to look at.
The top-down driving made me super hesitant at times. It reminded me of the horrors from an old arcade game at a local diner in my hometown. The amount of deaths I earned by just clipping a corner of a building… Top-down made the experience better. It felt much smoother to play looking down upon the world and the city streets covered in blood and dismembered body parts. Vehicle handling was similarly smooth: all just giant blobs with the cornering capabilities of my mom’s old Ford Windstar van (that thing was basically an ocean liner).
It’s a bummer to go from a basic taxi to a sports car and still slam into a wall even when the game says one will perform better.. Blowing through the hordes of the undead level after level and causing major destruction is enjoyable.. Going to locations and destinations can be slightly confusing as there are no direct waypoints to keep you from being lost or knowing where to go next.
Overall though, tearing up through the world and taking down any undead souls is a pretty good time. Additionally, there are two other modes of the story. Blood Race, which is either a single or tournament-style racing series in which you and fellow racers blaze around the city with the goal of winning at all costs. AI opponents here are mean and dirty racers that will straight up kill you. Then there is Slaughter, where you essentially survive waves of zombies. While challenging at times, the waves felt simple and never too overbearing as time passed.
Zombie Driver: Immortal Edition was an odd game for me personally. Overall, the game feels very arcadey and over-the-top in some ways. The narrative is very shallow and you aren’t given that much depth into the world. The top-down driving is a classic for every race fan or just as a throwback to your favorite arcade games. Running around taking down the undead, racing through the streets, and mowing down creatures is honestly all you could ask.
