Konami’s follow-up to ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (available for the PlayStation 3 are Xbox 360) sports a mediocre storyline at best, and the characters soon get on your nerves with their attempts at humor. Luckily, it’s difficult to hear what they’re saying during combat, though there are subtitles if you really care to know what’s going on.
If you’ve ever played an arcade shooter like SMASH TV or ALIEN BREED, you already know the basics of ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: NEVER DIE ALONE. You control your character by running and gunning using two thumbsticks simultaneously. You can pick up items that give you benefits, like additional grenades and temporary gun upgrades. Each character save Alma (who gets an automatic turret), can also enter a “rage” mode where they become more powerful for a short period of time. These are all basic concepts that, while not groundbreaking, are a good foundation for engaging play action.
The story mode is 10 stages long, which is far shorter than the game’s prequel. In addition to the combat improvements ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: NEVER DIE ALONE has made over its predecessor, each stage has a number of objectives for players to complete, such as never being grappled and using special moves a number of times. The stages are far more interactive now as well. Traps that kill the undead within certain vicinities are back in the sequel, but there are also goals scattered throughout stages that need to be completed, rather than simply fighting off a predetermined amount of walking dead in a central location. There are also two unlockable modes, Blackout and Survival, which add great replay value.
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: NEVER DIE ALONE has substandard graphics, though, which can make it hard at times to quickly determine where your character is in combat. When you combine this problem with the overall difficulty of the game and the over-the-top camera view, it can make for frustrating and unnecessary deaths. Other problems arise when the camera zooms in too far, because you have to keep all four characters within the field of vision.
If you can look past all these problems, though, there’s some pretty decent fun to be had when ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: NEVER DIE ALONE on October 26, 2011. You may want to pick up the trial version before buying the full game, because you may find there are other titles that your money will be better spent on.