If you played Zombie Army Trilogy, then you already know what to expect in this new installment in the series. Zombie Army 4: Dead War was nothing short of fun. From when I started the campaign, I just couldn’t stop playing until I officially slaughtered Zombie Hitler, which surprisingly was a really great boss battle. Although I did have a blast blasting my way through the campaign, I did start feeling a little fatigue towards the end with repetitiveness, but as a fan of the series and shooters in general, I already expected this much and it did not sway me in a direction that would make me negativity reflect on it.
First off, I never changed out my load out throughout the whole campaign. I found the Mosin and the Trench Gun were just plenty for me to tackle the zombies. They did not disappoint. The beast of a shotgun was the first weapon I completely upgraded from the start. The electric effects and increased damage felt so satisfying going through the hordes of zombies. I don’t think there was a single time throughout the game where I ran out of ammo, and if I was close, I would just stomp in some heads of the dead and retrieve more if I wasn’t anywhere near a re-supply. Sniping on the other hand was near perfect. After fully upgrading the Mosin with explosive goodness, nothing was stopping me. The guns in this game just feel so great. Every weapon in the game, you can master. And by that, you have a list of tasks for each weapon to complete in order to achieve full mastery. Not only are you upgrading your weapons to get the most out of them, but you are also tasked to complete different challenges. One of the last challenges that I am almost done with that would grant me full mastery of the Trench Gun is 200 triple kills with the shotgun. This may seem a bit tough, but really it’s not considering you are constantly being thrown in or around a huge horde.
I played the entire campaign single player, which to some might get a tad bit boring, but not me. Being an achievement hunter and finding ways to get 3 kills with a single headshot round or rounding up hordes of zombies to I can get the 20+ explosion kill was so fun trying to achieve.
The story is filled with collectibles and little Easter Eggs, like references to Stranger Things. I came across an alphabet lit up with Christmas lights and a locked safe that had a clue painted out over one way on which lights to shoot out that would open the safe. The few safes I did manage to open were home to an artillery gun that would call in a strike when shot into a horde, or really some creepy ass dolls that would mechanically move, laugh, and just give you a creepy feeling. Collectibles in the Dead War vary from comics, documents, and a live zombie hand. I thought the zombie hand was a really cool collectible to find. I found one underneath a bucket just moving around and even one just scraping its nails down a chalkboard. I can’t wait to start a new play through and collect all the remaining items that I missed.
Each chapter in the campaign has 4 sections in it, with the majority of them being about the same as the others, like activating a blood fountain or holding a position and surviving the endless hordes of zombies. There are quite a few types of zombies in this game. I think the most annoying to me were the creepers probably because as I’m blasting away at several of them, more and more just keep coming and can eat up your ammo pretty quick. Heavy zombies were represented great. You had some that were just heavily armored that could be taken care of with a few headshots after knocking off their face shield, then you had the others that carry heavy machine guns, flamethrowers, and buzzsaws. The flamethrowers could get you easily caught in a corner if you’re not to careful, but for the most part, they aren’t too bad to take care.
Horde Mode is a challenging experience, but once you get the hang of it its not bad, and pretty fun. I was able to get into a lobby with a full squad first try. If you bleed out, however, you get to watch yourself turn into a zombie and try to take out your squad. I probably would have spent more time in Horde Mode if my real life squad was up and online to jump in with me, but either way I was able to join in on the fun with a quick matchmaking search.
Zombie Army 4 Dead War is a great entry into the series, and I couldn’t recommend it any more than I am. If you like just a straight up shoot em up gore fest with some friends or solo, this is the game for you. The addition to effects on weapons really stood out to me most when comparing to the Zombie Army Trilogy. The replay factor is moderately high. Especially if you’re like me and you want to 100% everything in the game or get as close as you can get before it starts eating you alive, and even then I’ll probably still keep trying my hardest. With having one of the best boss battles that I experienced in quite some time, the people at Rebellion has done a fantastic job on this game, and even though I am done with the campaign, I will be visiting it again and again.
