There’s two types of zombies: slow zombies and fast zombies. While it’s the slower, shambling hordes of rotting flesh and bitey teeth that defined the zombie horror of 60s and 70s cinema, by the 2000s we needed something a bit more to get our pulse pounding. The House of the Dead games brought speedier zombies to test your lightgun reflexes (and drain your pockets of coins), but it was really 28 Days Later that redefined the speed and ferocity of the undead for the masses.
World War Z has straddled that divide. Max Brooks’ original novel featured the slower, more implacable kind of undead, but by the time it was adapted into film and video game, those zombies had taken up track and field. Now, with World War Z x The Walking Dead, it’s coming full circle in a pretty unusual way.
World War Z x The Walking Dead does what it says on the tin. This is the game of the movie with DLC based on the TV show. It’s like sitcom plots where the parents of a young couple also end up falling in love.
Four of the key characters from The Walking Dead are present – Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, Michonne, and Negan – all looking like their TV selves. Don’t expect this video game Norman Reedus to trick age verification apps, even if he and Andrew Lincoln did turn up to record their voice lines. Despite Negan being one of the main antagonists of the series, he’s lumped in to fight alongside the others through the DLC’s three missions. These take you back to The Prison, the Alexandria Safe Zone and Grady Memorial Hospital, though it’s not quite clear how these fit in with the timeline – Negan comments about Alexandria in such a way to suggest that he doesn’t know where it is yet. Speaking of Negan, I quickly tired of hearing that he’s “feeding the beast” every other time he reloads.
The immediate difference that you’ll feel is that, yes, these are slower zombie hordes that stumble their way in your direction instead of coming at a mad sprint. They still come in large numbers, exhibit all of the horde mechanics of the base game, like clambering over fences and walls, and can sneak up on your surprisingly well, but it’s really their increased toughness that means they remain roughly as threatening as the faster hordes. Let any one of them get too close and they can still grapple you down to the ground and kill you.
There’s also special zombies as well. The Spiked Walker is all stabbed through with spiky blades, meaning that you need to keep a distance to avoid getting impaled, but all of the specials from the main game return. They’re one of the main stylistic departures, moving faster, leaping and charging, and screaming or exploding in clouds of gas depending on which one they are.
Each of the three levels lasts for around 30 minutes, running through their locations, often having you deal with situations like finding computer terminals or putting out fires through more open patches, and then building up to a climactic horde defence, where you place down extra traps to help stave off the shambling masses.
While you can still find yourself outnumbered and surprised, you’re still running around with plenty of ammo and tools for dealing with large crowds, defusing some of the desperation that’s felt through every big zombie encounter in the comics and TV series. Trying to deal damage to the zombie noggins with regular guns does add a little pressure for better aim, but then you can find the explosive crossbow, which is as powerful as you would expect.
Having more levels for World War Z is always good, and it’s neat to visit key locations from The Walking Dead with key characters and (mostly) slower zombies, but the gameplay ends up as an odd hodge-podge of the two. It might not be saying much given the competition, but this still ends up as the best straight-up action game in The Walking Dead franchise, and proof of concept that a full game could be worth a shake.
