🎱Zombie Army 4: Dead War | Recensione (PS4)

Rebellion comes back to tell us one alternative history of the Second World War in which zombies rage on the streets during the conflict. The fourth installment of the Sniper Elite spin-off series has the ambition of enrich the structure from the previous trilogy with new mechanics, new abilities and new types of zombies. Will he have succeeded? Find out in our review of Zombie Army 4: Dead War.

Single and cooperative carnage

We are now used to alternative scenarios of the Second World War, in which the Nazis have either already won or are very close to getting their hands on the entire globe. The Wolfenstein series is a master of this, even if it tackles the issue of rewriting of history, focusing more on realism, even if, in the Machine Games game, there is the presence of zombified soldiers, which underlines the passion, never denied by historiography, of the Nazis for mysticism and occultism.

This second factor in Zombie Army is taken to the extreme, with a whole zombie army brought back to life by Hitler, which starts a parallel conflict, the Dead War, the war of the living dead, like a Romerian film.

The plot of Zombie Army 4 is not what the game must be purchased and appreciated for, on the other hand we are talking about a story that serves as a mere pretext for multiplayer raids by players with a great desire to kill zombies and nazis, if the two things coincide, even better. We give precedence, in our review, to the single mode in order to clarify what a player unfamiliar with multiplayer should expect.

The campaign can be played by a single player or can be played with other people, in co-op, up to a maximum of 4 total players. In coop, the options include the quick match in which you are catapulted into the fray without many frills, puff pastry which allows us to choose various game settings and missions, e home which gives us the opportunity to be the hosts of a co-op game. Local offline multiplayer is not supported, so you must always use the internet connection if you want to play in company.

We continue this examination of the settings by noting that at the beginning of each single campaign mission it is possible to choose the configuration of the number of enemies. A single player will hardly be able to cope with a quantity of zombies designed for three or four characters, so we are allowed to choose the configuration based on the number of people present in the team. Speaking, instead, of things that have more impact on the gameplay, choosing a difficulty between normal e difficult bullets will be affected by the wind and from the force that all of us on planet Earth must undergo, the severity. This does not happen in easy mode. These two factors make the action, in some cases, more tactical than one might imagine.

Italy under siege

Having established all this, we can start talking about the actual game. Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a shooter in which we will always be in the minority, against hordes of infected that crowd regardless of any obstacle. Creatures are not all foolish, many will use firearms, melee weapons and stand between us and the target maneuvering a gun turret. The setting for the game is Europe, with missions also taking place in Italy, from Milan to Venice, from Sardinia to Naples.

Although the technical level is high, incredible peaks are never reached even if less cleaning could be the compromise for a stable frame rate. We played on standard PS4 and didn't experience any issues with the smoothness, even with hundreds of on-screen zombies and explosions in the background. We must recognize that the Spanish cities, invaded by zombies, have shown a particular purulent charm; beautiful, for example, the sections on the boat between the canals of Venice.

Another surprise that pleasantly struck us is the variety of “unique zombies”, that is the less common ones, a sort of miniboss that from time to time stand out among the infected crowd. We have giant zombies armed with heavy submachine gun (which we can collect once killed), armed with flame thrower, we met the Necromancer, able to revive already eliminated enemies, the Shadow demon, very dangerous enemy if he manages to get close and grab us.

The most total massacre

The players, single or co-op, must pursue the micro-objectives that make up the game missions. It shows from the first bars that the whole system was built in order to make more players collaborate and to make it appear multiplayer experience is central. The general structure follows in its footsteps over and over again, making us do, approximately, the same things for the nine chapters that make up the campaign (for a duration of about 15 hours).

The goals range from look for a fuse to be inserted in a generator that will then be defended from the attack of monsters, look for fuel cans for start a vehicle or machine who will then be defended from enemy attack, survive a horde, kill all enemies to break a blood seal barring a door, clearing an area, and so on. There are very few exceptions to the rule and this can be repetitive and monotonous in the long run. Things change, however, if you are part of a team of four players, since the various tasks will be divided by involving us more in the action and diversifying the development of the missions.

The players have on their side not only a fairly large arsenal, including pistols, rifles, submachine guns, fragmentation grenades, electric grenades, but also unique special abilities for each single selectable character. Shola, Boris, Karl and Jun (two more can be unlocked later) have different levels of endurance, agility, mastery with a weapon rather than with another, but these general statistics are accompanied by unique skills to be inserted in slots before leaving on a mission. The skills greatly influence the gameplay because knowing how to exploit them makes all the difference in the world: for example, Shola can select multiple enemies and kill them with a single blow to the head, or there is the second chance, that is the possibility of returning to full health if you kill a certain number of enemies before a red bar dries up. Then there are skills that allow you to charge piercing shots and super effective even against armored enemies.

By completing objectives and missions, you increase in rank, which allows you to unlock new skills and bonuses. In any mission, it is possible visit the refuges that act as a checkpoint and safe room, a bit Resident Evil, where you can reorganize, choose weapons and skills by interacting with the work benches. There is also the slow motion to X-rays which makes the extermination scenes even more beautiful to see and cinematic.

Multiplayer: hordes and weekly events

The multiplayer mode does not differ much from the structure of the campaign, indeed, it is more correct to say the opposite: the campaign does not differ from multiplayer because, as we have already stated, Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a title that pushes to play online with other players.

La Horde mode it's a lot of fun and confirms that the only rule that can't be broken is the utter slaughter of every undead form on the battlefield. Once you have chosen your mission and found your companions, start the collaboration with the latter to escape the siege of ever stronger and more resistant enemies.

The Horde mode of Zombie Army 4 leads to sure death if you stand still in one point of the map waiting for the others to do the bulk of the work, in fact the amount of enemies is really gigantic and to find the best weapons it is necessary explore the scenarios.

Players who want to experience more panache and clash with more restrictive rules can then play the Weekly events which are updated every Tuesday. Each event has specific rules that significantly change the experience; in some events you will be asked to stop the zombie advance with a limited number of ammunition, or without the use of the secondary weapon, while in others they will come distributed bonuses or malus, such as increased vitality or reduced stamina.

In our opinion, the weekly events are more fun and less repetitive than the other modes.

Final comment

Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a video game that gives its best in the company of other players with our same desire to eliminate hundreds of zombies. The missions that make up the campaign, in the long run, can be repetitive, but playing in co-op in a team of four things change radically. The Italian inspired setting and consistently solid frame rate deliver a rewarding experience. The best chapter of the series without a shadow of a doubt.