Review: Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition manages to capture my favorite rule of the zombie apocalypse and enforce it as law. One or two zombies can be taken out easily… but get surrounded and you’re as good as dead.

The game appears to be a simple stick shooter, but thankfully is a little more than that. Moving quickly through the chapters reaps bonus points for a very specific reason. If you want to stay alive, move slowly and be prepared for the worst at all times.

I played through a few chapters by myself and Dead Nation was just average. With a second controller and a willing friend, the game goes from okay to excellent. Adding another player will ramp up the number of zombies alongside the overall difficulty of the game. Don’t worry too much though, as that second player also serves to makes things much easier. In co-op, the zombies will find it harder to surround you. Going back-to-back unloading on hordes of enemies action, movie-style, is effective and extremely satisfying.

There is a half-hearted attempt at a story in Dead Nation‘s campaign, but it is not really necessary. What little narrative is on offer is very brief and super cheesy. The amount of one-liners crammed into such a small window puts Rainier Wolfcastle to shame. There is an unwritten rule in pop culture that if zombies are involved, the content is almost always B-grade. Even the serious zombie outings have a little of this. I find my expectations of quality writing are subconsciously lowered when a zombie staggers into the mix. Dead Nation manages to escape that lower grade, but not by a lot.

There are ten chapters to power through in the campaign; each is divided up into smaller areas. At each checkpoint you’ll have access to the weapon and armour shop. Here you can spend all the loot you have found on — you guessed it — weapons and armour. In the beginning of each of the early chapters, a new gun and new item are available, and it can be a tough choice between buying the shiny new gun or continuing to upgrade an older one. The new guns are expensive and can be a bit of a gamble as sometimes simpler weapons are more effective once upgraded than some of the more overpowered weapons. RPGs and flamethrower fuel are hard to come by, so if you invest in the stronger weapons you will find yourself buying ammunition from the weapon shop at most checkpoints. They can be incredibly useful for getting out of overwhelming situations, and let’s face it — who doesn’t like senseless hyper violence?

Loot begins to become an obsession as it’s the best way to improve your weapons. Trying to find everything is challenging as cars and vending machines that hold the all so important loot can explode or malfunction if shot. This makes tackling huge hordes of zombies even trickier if you are trying to avoid missing your next big payday.

Most zombies are a piece of cake to deal with, but as you progress they will inevitable start becoming tougher and more fashion conscious. Firefighter zombies sporting fire proof suits render all the hard eared cash you have spent working on your flamethrower useless. The most troublesome are the army zombies geared up in full Kevlar. They’re hard to put down making them tricky customers when in large groups. There are certainty enough different types of bad guys to keep you on your toes.

Standard zombies will be the least of your worries when the mini bosses start showing up. A lot looks to be borrowed from Left 4 Dead with the “special infected”, but who can blame them? The Boomer, Tank and Spitter are all there with a few extras thrown in like the howler that never made the cut in the original Left 4 Dead. These special mini boss zombies are a frequent occurrence and towards the end of the campaign they stat to really stack up.

Another idea lovingly inspired by Left 4 Dead are the crescendo events. Every now and then waiting for a slow moving elevator or a bridge to extend halts your progression. Beginning one of these events is like ringing the dinner bell. Swarms of enemies will come in waves while you wait for a clear path to the next checkpoint. A good game plan is essential and can make these sections less intimidating and lots of fun.

My favourite feature isn’t even part of the gameplay. After each chapter your total kills are uploaded to an online leaderboard and added to your countries total. Each county is tasked with wiping out their entire population in zombies. All participating countries are ranked by how far through their population they are. It was enough to bring out my competitive nature and I was devastated when France surpassed Australia in the tally. It’s a nice little feature that brings the overall goal into focus. Zombie genocide.

I wasn’t expecting much from the ending after the lacklustre story, but I was presently surprised. Dead Nation won’t win any Oscars, but it was nice to find some closure… even if I wasn’t that really interested in its story.

Working together in co-op is not only essential but it makes the game worthwhile. Playing solo is an option, but it’s just not engaging enough and quickly becomes repetitive. The campaign is a little short but the replay value is good enough to eat through some of your time. If you have a second controller and a friend to play with it’s a lot of fun. If you’re a hermit surrounded by cats, you will probably enjoy it a lot less but it’s still worth a look if you have PlayStation Plus; Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition is free on the service this month.

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