ZombiU is the best-realized use of the GamePad to date.
Forget being one of the best launch games, the most innovative survival horror game this generation, or the most optimized experience for the GamePad: ZombiU is the best Wii U game period. Ubisoft’s foray into the zombie genre, while seeming a bit generic thanks to its name, is one of the most frightening, stressful games ever. With a concerted effort to limit player’s power in the face of the trend to turn horror games into action movies, ZombiU embraces the end of the world with a maniacal grip that is felt every single time your motion detector pings with movement somewhere down a dark hallway ahead.
Ammo and healing supplies are in limit while a few hits from a zombie will kill—permanently kill—your character. The mysterious Prepper guides you, and eventually many yous, through the ravished streets of London in search of supplies and, perhaps, some way out. With ammo being so sparse, your cricket bat will be your primary mode of engagement with the walking dead. The combat feels weighty and appropriate, and each exasperated grunt from your character, tinged with fright, that accompanies contact reminds you that this isn’t natural, to you or your character.
Still, death can’t always be avoided, and though your character will be dead forever should he fall, the concept is built directly into ZombiU’s gameplay. Once killed, your score will be displayed to you, and then you’ll wake up as a new survivor, with a new backstory (limited though it may be), ready to try and survive the decrepit London streets. Off the bat, a choice is available to you. You can continue on with your mission, or you can go back to where you died, kill your former self, and collect your previous items. The choice is yours; sometimes it is easier to simply move on. But the finite resources available to you might be enough to push you tread through a perilous location to reclaim what is yours. Die before that, though, and it’s all lost.
As in the best horror staples, it is generally the absence of action that is most unsettling. Often times, you will wander around dilapidated flats or empty streets, the light hum of your motion detector serenading you. But when it beeps—and it will beep—the terror begins to grab hold. Looking down at the GamePad screen, a few dots are strewn about, fading out and then back in with each sweep of your motion detector. You look up at the TV again, but don’t see anything in front of you, yet the beeps grow higher pitched and more concerned. You glance, for the most indiscernible amount of time, back at the GamePad to see the dots once more, now closer to the center of the screen; closer to you. An unearthly moan interrupts the now-frantic beeping, and you look up to find a decomposing body wrapping its hands around your shoulders, pulling you in. Or maybe you simply see a crow fly up and into the air, away from all of this. You never know.
The GamePad also acts as a backpack where a limited amount of supplies may be stored. It can be accessed at any time, but doing so leaves the world around you in movement; there is no pause in the action. While you look at the GamePad to equip weapons, use a healing item, or simple rearrange gear to make room for new equipment, the TV screen will show a slightly overhead view of your character, giving you the opportunity to effectively look over your shoulder while you rummage through your things. It feels incredibly natural and serves the genre perfectly.
Even your Nintendo Network friends, so content to draw pictures of Link or Toad on Miiverse most of the time, betray you here. Their rotting corpses are pulled into your game and can be found milling about London where they initially died. Generally more powerful than a regular zombie, these undead friends can make a bad situation worse as they shamble around points with lots of undead foes. However, killing one not only allows for bragging rights and screenshot fodder, it gives you the chance to rummage through his gear and collect what was in his possession when he fell to the horde, including illusive ammo and health supplies.
ZombiU makes excellent use of Wii U’s unique features to help create a wholly unique horror experience. The fact that we get all of that out of a launch title is astounding. If you haven’t given ZombiU a chance yet, you are missing the best experience to be had on Wii U. Turn down the lights, turn up the sound, and be prepared to be terrified.
