ZombieZoid - Zenith Demo

Zombie invasions are a regular occurrence in video games nowadays, especially in first-person shooters or survival games. However, due to the obvious violent nature of the subject, children and sensitive folks are not able to enjoy the genre too much. Thankfully, they now have the chance to club a few undead humans over the head without worrying about blood splatters and guts.

ZombieZoid - Zenith is a casual third-person action game with beat ‘em up elements and a very friendly approach to the whole “end of the world” situation. The violence is cartoony and amusing instead, and there is absolutely no gore to worry about. Even the main character is pretty whacky, although he does have superpowers, which come in handy against the unending hordes of undead brain eaters.

The story starts when the main character sees a TV announcement about a vicious zombie invasion that has taken over the city. Naturally, his first thought was whether his girlfriend is fine or not. As such, he grabs his cape and goes on a rampage around the city, in order to deal with the zombies and rescue his girlfriend before it’s too late. The plot is obviously weak and ridiculous, but you are not meant to take it seriously anyway.

On the other hand, it can be rather tricky to play the game without struggling with the controls and all the other annoyances. The combat system is absolutely atrocious, because you are never in full control of your movement or attacks, which transforms every confrontation into a random clickfest. You can use a controller as well, but the situation doesn’t change all that much.

There are issues with the camera too, because it rarely stays where you want it to stay. The third-person point of view usually comes in handy, but it actually makes things harder for you in this case. While the graphics are pretty smooth and decent for a game of this caliber, there are optimization problems, which means that it runs slowly and glitchy even on a decent rig.

In the end, ZombieZoid - Zenith plays very much like a work-in-progress title, which is not the case here. There are just too many gameplay issues to deal with, and they can seriously hinder your ability to have fun with the otherwise fun and engaging idea.