Title – World War Z
Platforms – PS4, Xbox One and PC
Release Date – April 16th, 2019
Developer – Saber Interactive
Publisher – Focus Home Interactive
MSRP – $59.99
ESRB – M for Mature
Disclaimer – This product is being reviewed on the PlayStation 4. A review copy was provided by Focus Home Interactive for the purpose of this review. This review may also contain spoilers for certain gameplay and story elements. Watch at your own risk, you have been warned. Gaming Instincts is an Amazon Affiliate and does gain financial benefits if you choose to purchase this product on this page.
World War Z – Introduction
World War Z is a brand new zombie co-op shooter that’s inspired and based on previous zombie games, such as the Left 4 Dead series, and co-op games like Warhammer: Vermintide 1 and 2. In 2013, a World War Z film was also released starring Brad Pitt as the main protagonist. That movie was based on a book, which is where World War Z came from originally. The video game has nothing to do with the movie or the book as far as the plot goes, it’s simply a game based on the same universe, timeline, and idea.
The Core Gameplay and Setting
Titles such as last year’s Warhammer: Vermintide II or the old-school Left 4 Dead series are kindred spirits to World War Z. The game is broken into episodes, with each episode having two to three levels. At launch, World War Z comes with four different episodes, including New York City, Jerusalem, Moscow, and Tokyo. Each of those episodes have three different levels with the exception of Tokyo, which only has two.
Each level offers different parts of the city. For example, in one of the Moscow levels players are in a museum, and then in another, they are completely outdoors in the snowy streets. In New York City, gamers might be down in the subway and then later going through sewer tunnels before venturing up to the streets.
Throughout each of the levels, players will encounter different kinds of objectives, such as defending and holding a position for a certain period of time or protecting a VIP target. Other objectives require the elimination of zombie swarms in a certain area or the protection of a gate from being destroyed.
During the zombie survival adventures, players will come across many different types of weapons, including machine pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and heavy weapons such as chainsaws or RPGs. The game also has a class leveling system. Each class has its own unlockable perks and an individual leveling system for the weapons.
For example, if players keep using their pistol repeatedly throughout the missions then that pistol will level up and gamers will be able to unlock better tiers of that specific gun. Each tier increases its base stats, such as attack power and accuracy. Once a tier is open, players then have to purchase the tier with credits to unlock it, which is done by earning credits after completing missions or online multiplayer.
As far as the different classes go, for the most part, they all feel the same, with a few different perks here and there. For example, a Medic class has perks that can heal players a lot faster with medkits, as opposed to players who are also using medkits but not a Medic class. Meanwhile, the Gunslinger specializes in perks that provide bonuses to guns, headshots, grenades, and more.
Fans unlock these perks by playing the game naturally and leveling throughout. Earned credits are then used to unlock desired perks, similar to how the gun leveling system works. Overall, it’s not a bad system and grinders will have plenty to do here across all guns and six different classes.
However, there are many annoying bugs, such as constant disconnects, or getting into games that are completely stuck on an objective that never ends no matter what, basically rendering the rest of the mission unplayable. Gamers are then forced to quit the mission, barely get any experience, and restart their matchmaking queue in hopes of not getting into the same bugged game. This can get frustrating. Also, it doesn’t help that the game doesn’t feel polished.
The gunplay and shooting feel a bit weak, the gore could be a lot better, and the special zombies feel like more of an annoyance than actual challenges. There are a total of three special zombies in the game, including a bull, a creeper, and a screamer.
The bull is an armored zombie unit that has a ton of health and will charge at blazing speed if he isn’t killed fast enough. The screamer screams, as the name implies, to create noise and attract zombies. Then there’s the creeper, who likes to hide around corners, stalk, and leap toward his victims and claw them to death.
As far as World War Z’s story elements, there is no real story setting here other than another typical zombie outbreak going on in different parts of the world. There are four different characters that take part in the world and their mission is to save the city or escape. The characters are forgettable, especially compared to Valve’s Left 4 Dead series.
As far as co-op, there is no way to start a private co-op game with a friend or anything of that sort, which is absolutely unacceptable in today’s day and age.
The majority of the people players get grouped with either have no clue how the game works or are there just to grieve someone and not follow objectives. So, to truly experience World War Z the way it’s meant to be played is to find three other gamers and play with them on a consistent basis.
The bots are honestly more useful than some real players in World War Z.
Multiplayer
World War Z also packs in a whole separate multiplayer aspect that has different types of game modes, ranging from collecting supply boxes to holding control points. The multiplayer also has its own separate sets of classes and its own leveling system, which separates it completely from the mission portion of the game.
The multiplayer is also plagued with many issues, including random disconnects or loading into an empty team while the enemy completely overwhelms the unfortunate solo player. A broken net code like this in the year 2019 is inexcusable. Sometimes, it almost seems the bugs were ignored in favor of meeting a deadline.
The multiplayer also has strange hitboxes that are inconsistent, and there is a huge imbalance in weapons. Some weapons will one- or two-shot players while others take forever to kill. Competitive gaming is all about reaction and muscle memory, but the PvP in World War Z is an unpolished experience that feels like it was added at the last second for the sake of having it at launch.
Once again, unacceptable. Multiplayer modes should be properly tested, fixed, and tweaked enough to where the gaming and competitive experience feel polished, enjoyable, and balanced.
Tech, Visuals, and Audio
World War Z is not visually impressive, but it’s also not really trying to be. For the most part, it looks like a current-gen game and most of the environments look clean. The Tokyo levels, in particular, are pleasing to the eye. The game’s main selling point as far as the tech goes are the swarms of zombies that attack multiple times throughout the missions. At first, it’s impressive to see such a high number of zombies on-screen at once, but at the same time the novelty of that wears off pretty quickly and the cost of that comes at too high a price.
Zombies from a far distance animate strangely. When there is a giant pile of zombies on top of each other and players throw a grenade, the explosion looks and feels weak, with the zombies falling apart as if they are made of paper. Basically, for the sake of all the zombies on the screen, the game suffers in other different visual aspects, such as the toning down of explosion particle effects and physics animations.
There are obvious technical limitations here. Normally, if a game wants to achieve many things on-screen at once with decent visuals, then the hardware must have a quality CPU. The CPUs in the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, however, is outdated. Unfortunately, the Jaguar x86 8-Core CPU has been bottle-necking many games in the past and will continue to do so until the next generation of console gaming.
However, Saber Interactive trying to be innovative and make something impressive with the horde of zombies is commendable, though, it came at too much of a cost and it would have been better to create a smoother visual experience instead. The game was played on a PlayStation 4 Pro and the lack of 60 FPS is upsetting. In this case, Saber Interactive chose novelty over performance, which was a huge mistake.
As far as the audio goes, there is really not much to laud. Thankfully, there are no weird audio bugs, glitches, or disappearance of sound. The soundtrack fits the game, though, there is nothing to write home about as far as that goes.
World War Z – Final Verdict
At the end of the day, World War Z is trying to bring back the DNA and formula of the beloved Left 4 Dead franchise. While it does feel familiar and tries to be original, it fails due to how buggy the game is, inconsistency with its net code, and weird design choices of not being able to play a private game with a friend or two. The tacked-on, unpolished, lackluster multiplayer doesn’t help the game’s case either.
Players are better off playing Warhammer: Vermintide 2 if they’re looking for something similar to Left 4 Dead. The only big difference is it’s far from a zombie game, but the polish, systems, and progression feels far more rewarding and fun than World War Z and the idea is pretty much the same.
If there is a sequel to World War Z, then Saber Interactive will need to take feedback and create a much better experience next time, because World War Z had huge potential to be incredible.
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