Zombie Vikings Xbox One Review
Zoink games beat em up/slash em up has finally made it’s way onto the Xbox One. After releasing on Steam December 2015 we finally got our hands on if for Xbox One.
Here’s our review:
Gameplay:
In Zombie Vikings you take the role of a yep you guessed it Zombie Vikings, you’re summoned by Odin who has had his eye stolen from him by Loki. Odin summons 4 Zombies all Vikings, they go by the names of, Caw-KAA, SeaGurd, Gunborg and Hedgy. Each character has unique styling and unique moves assigned to it. The characters have an upgrade path by unlocking weapons and Runes, which you can then buy with the tokens you collect throughout the levels and assign them to your character before each level.
There are also shops scattered throughout some levels selling both weapons and runes for the same price as at the start of the level but does give you the chance to change if you mistakenly got the wrong weapon or just can afford something better that you couldn’t at the start of the level.
The enemies damage taken will be shown in numbers but you won’t have any sort of idea about the remaining HP’s they will have left, boss battles do have a health bar at the bottom of the screen which helps but still no kind of counter and the same goes for you’re character, you have a bar at the top of the screen but have no idea of the amount of HP’s you can take. Health is regenerated by picking up brains from deceased enemies.
Graphics:
The graphics in Zombie Vikings are actually pretty good to look at, very unique styling and you do have to admire that art style. Plenty of variety in enemies throughout, you won’t rarely see the same enemy throughout the game which is nice and does vary things up a bit. Cut scene’s are played out in the same nice unique art style but are most of the time ruined by the unfunny humour which at times have led me to just skip past and get on with the level.
Sound:
Voice acting is in the game throughout and i’m not sure in some places that is such a good thing! This game tries way to hard to be funny, it’s constantly trying so hard it’s not funny at all and just cringeworthy. The Music is actually pretty good for the most part especially on boss battles. There is a majorly annoying pause menu singing about having a pause and telling me how a pause is great, i suppose that’s one way to keep you playing it must be said!
Controls:
I found myself permanently button mashing most of the time, there are a few ways to attack which are, light attack, pick up enemy and throw them, special character moves as well as blocking and dodging but for the most part you will just find yourself bashing the light attack button in crowded areas. The combat will become very repetitive after a few levels and some boss battles are boring where you will be constantly hitting light attack until the bar empties and they are defeated.
The controls are accurate on input and you won’t find yourself doing different things to the button you have pressed, there are no real combo moves just hitting the light attack will through together a few different swings but you can try to vary it up slightly by picking enemies up and throwing them or using the characters special move but again after a few times of using them you will most likely revert to light attacking you’re way to the end of the game!
Value:
There is value to be had here, the story is fairly lengthy but the main place would have to be the Coop, the 4 way local/online coop adds much more to the game and can take the boring slog out of playing this alone. There is an upgrade path with the weapons and runes that you can purchase but they don’t really make much difference in my opinion, with no health figures you won’t be able to tell if you are making any difference with these upgrades at all.
Pros
- Nice Art style
- Responsive Controls
- Coop can be fun
Cons
- Repetitive
- tries way to hard to be funny
- Story drags on
- No real progression with upgrades making little difference
Verdict:
Zombie Vikings is certainly not a terrible game with it’s unique and really nice art style but it’s really let down by trying to be funny the whole time. It can get extremely repetitive, the story and combat do feel like a bit of a long slog and does get boring after a while unless you are playing coop which certainly does improve things a bit. The target audience for this is the hardest thing to work out as the humour will drive away adults but then it’s not really for young children.