Zombie Army 4: Dead War Review

Publisher: RebellionDeveloper: RebellionGenre: First-person ShooterPlatform: PC, PS4, Xbox OneRelease Dates Out Now (Worldwide)

- Jamie Davies

Have you ever played a game that was so engrossing in its moment-to-moment gameplay that it began to invade your everyday thoughts? Where the button combinations and timings required just felt so… right, that you could almost feel your hands moving to the shape of a controller when you’re sat on the bus, at a work meeting or trying to get to sleep? Zombie Army 4: Dead War, to me, is one of those games. It won’t go down in history as an example of high art, but for a silly roller coaster ride centred around shooting Nazi zombies in their faces, it ticks all the right boxes.

Right off the bat, the game smacks you in the face with personality and a sense of self-awareness, both things that were sorely missing in earlier entries: zombie hands can be found dancing about as collectibles, typewriters spout ghostly threats when touched, bucket-head zombies shamble around blindly and creepy dolls can appear in the most unexpected of places —just to give a few examples. These quick jabs of humour populate the crevices and hidden corners of levels; no single one stands out, but they’re so frequent — in the best possible way— that it’s hard not to get swept up in the ‘ghost train’ vibe of it all.