Let’s be honest: there’s enough games based on the undead to last a lifetime, even if their lifetimes are well gone. Just like the recent resurgence of zombie movies, the gaming industry has thought fit to unleash title after title onto pretty much every platform capable of showing the shambling, shuffling hell. However, it appears nobody told Finnish developers Housemarque who, fresh from their wonderful space shooter revamp Super Stardust HD have taken on the unenviable task of going toe to rotting toe with the likes of the equally ambitious but slightly flawed Dead Rising 2.
Thankfully, Dead Nation is actually rather good. It’s top down, or thereabouts, so you’ve instantly got the rather dislocated removal from the main character that Alien Breed suffered from – even more so as this particular game is, at times, even more zoomed out than Team 17’s xenomorph based but otherwise mechanically similar title. That doesn’t mean it’s not scary, but it’s scary in the sense that you know you can’t outrun and outgun the encroaching hordes and the last checkpoint’s a good 10 minutes or so back. Going face to face with enemies is always scarier than seeing them come from above.
Regardless, the fact that Dead Nation is bloody dark and you’ve only got your torch to light the way means that there’s at least some sense of suspense and terror, even in the game’s wide open spaces of the first couple of levels we’ve been playing through. There’s some excellent use of surround sound, too, with the player able to precisely pin-point the location of any zombies aurally before they’re even visible on screen – there’s some brilliant ambient sounds going on as well, and the various shots, explosions and blood squirting thumps are a joy with the volume turned up all the way to 11.
The guns themselves pack a real punch – the standard rifle comes with unlimited ammo (but a small clip) and the second weapon we unlocked, the SMG, naturally offers much higher rates of fire but with the caveat of less accuracy. You can switch between them at will, and the various Ammo Shops that pepper each level allow you to spend any money you’ve collected on beefing up the various aspects of each weapon in the order that you choose – this means you can keep the rifle as your ‘heavy’ and pile on the damage, with the machine gun just for cutting down the weaker hordes.
Your armour is also upgradeable – in the build we have you can toggle freely between each part of the suit and choose different sections, affecting the numerous attributes of your player character as a result. It didn’t seem necessary to do so during the few hours we were playing, although on the harder difficulty levels this might all change as the zombies get tougher and smarter. Visually it’s rather gorgeous, the lighting effects are impressive and the frame rate’s consistently smooth, even when the screen filled with the undead – dispatched bad guys remain on the ground, too, which is nice.
Dead Nation could be a real winner for Housemarque (and the Stardust HD touches like the dash move are great fan service). I’m hoping for a change of level design as the game progresses, though – the open spaces work well but tension could be raised by breaking the familiarity and some classic zombie flick locations, such as old favourite the shopping mall, could work great. We’ll see what happens as we work through the game, which appears feature complete in the version we’ve got. Online co-op will be a big draw, too, so we’ll be sure to check that out and report back.
An-dz
I always liked these kinds of games, but none have done the zombie gerne justice,
untill now
Watchful
None of the other PSN zombie titles have managed to separate me from my cash. This is likely to be the first almost purely because SSHD (and all the updates it has had since release) have bought Housemarque much good will.
TSBonyman
Same here, this is probably the only zombie game i’ll buy. I’m looking forward to hearing more about it.
CNWLshadow
I have high hopes from this game, Housemarque are sure to deliver on this and hopefully they can provide an unique twist on the zombie genre with as much replayabilty as Superstar Dust HD.
CNWLshadow
Super Stardust HD even. Thanks Wing-Sabre for pointing that out.
gaffers101
Offline co-op would be nice too. My Mrs would love this.
CNWLshadow
Offline would be great, but like most games these days there’s more chance of you playing with somebody the other side of the world, than with the person sat next to you. Madness when you think about it.
Tuffcub
Tis a great game. Certain classic locations may – or may not – turn up later on the game. *damn beta tester NDA*. One thing I will say is it gets very difficult around level 4, I hope they tweaked that.
Second scariest game after Dead Space for exactly the same reasons as Dead Space – superb sound desisgn.
cleric20
I’ve been hooked on my preview copy of Dead Nation since it hit this week… As a lover of Super Stardust (my first ever trophies) DN does so much right and even though it is viewed from above, it can generate real fear, adrenalin and whoops of joy when you make through to the next checkpoint – especially when playing on ‘Grim’.
DN is a must buy for shooter lovers, packs some nice trophies and hsa a great ‘how much of your country’s zombie have you cleared’ world wide leaderboard!
Highly recommended – will put my hands on write up on darkmatters.co over the weekend.
Pemberton_
Really looking forward to this game, it looks quality.
minerwilly
Looks very promising , is this a PSN title or boxed retail game ?
Shakugan
PSN
Gamoc
I’ve been looking forward to this since I first heard about it – it looks great.
XisTG
i’m looking forward to this one, after the deception with burn zombie burn.