City Z Demo

Zombie games can still get a rise out of the public even now, in spite of the fact that there are hundreds of them to choose from already. It would seem like the genre is strong enough to take some more abuse, which is that much more impressive when you consider the fact that the same trend is currently being followed by TV shows and movies.

City Z is a top-down shooter in which you play the role of a zombie apocalypse survivor trying to lead a few people to safety and rid the world of the undead plague. It’s far from original, and the gameplay mechanics are very stiff and unremarkable, but you may still have a bit of fun with it. In short, the most attractive prospect is the fact that the game features VR support, even if a top-down shooter is not the best way to make use of the technology.

You have a small team of survivors with you at the beginning of each round, and it’s your duty to protect and command them. You can order them to stay put or follow you around, but it’s also possible to hand them ammunition when they run out. This whole component is very rough and somewhat useless, but at least it makes you feel like your decisions are more important than they really are.

The only really intriguing bit about City Z is the fact that the maps are randomly generated every time you start a new game, which means that at least it’s not overly repetitive. The same goes for the missions, which are selected from a list of possible scenarios, such as killing a powerful boss, surviving a horde assault or rescuing someone. On the other hand, all that variety means very little when the gameplay is so simple and badly designed.

Speaking of which, the maps may be random, but the graphics are very simple and unimpressive, which means that there’s nothing too exciting about exploring them. On top of that, the interface becomes extremely annoying after a while, especially since it also looks very primitive, not to mention the fact that it gets in the way all the time.

In the end, City Z is not very appealing right now, not even if you have a VR headset you want to toy with. Everything is a bit too rough at the moment, but with enough work and dedication, the game could be polished and turned into something more exciting, especially since the randomly generated maps have a lot of potential.