[Preview] ZombieU Hands On
The WiiU Experience recently made the rounds here in Miami and I was lucky enough to attend it this past weekend. There were numerous titles on hand such as Pikman 3, Batman Arkham City, the yet untitled Project P-100, Nintendo Land, and many others, but the one title I was most interested in was ZombieU.
I was surprised to see there were two demos on hand for ZombieU, a single player demo and a multiplayer demo. I was able to try the multiplayer demo out first along with a friend of mine. This particular demo was showcasing a game of capture the flag/domination. We were each fighting for control of specific spots on the map to gain points. I was given the WiiU Controller to play as the infected and my friend was given one of the new WiiU “hardcore” controllers to use while playing as the human.
The main screen showed the game from the human point of view, playing as the only human on the map the game looked very much like a game of Domination in a Left 4 Dead setting. I was forced to play the game from the screen on the WiiU which showed me a top down view of the entire map. I was able to see where my opponent was at all times. I was tasked with trying to kill him while keeping control my own points and win by scoring more points than he did. I was not able to directly control any zombies here; instead the game works like an RTS of sorts. I am allowed to place 10 zombies at a time on the map using a variation of 4 different types of zombies.
One type did nothing more than stay near a flag point thus giving me control of that point. Another type from what I could tell worked as a scout letting the other various types know where the human player was. The third type was very reminiscent of the Hunter from Left 4 Dead, wearing a yellow hoodie this zombie moved with a very quick pace and would attack the human player when in range. The fourth type if my memory serves me correctly was your typical slow paced zombie that would constantly go looking for the human and attack them.
I was surprised by how light the WiiU controller was, I was expecting it to be much heavier. The placement of the triggers and thumbsticks actually felt quite nice however the placement of the face buttons felt a bit awkward. Luckily playing this particular game mode didn’t require them. Most of what I did involved the touch screen itself. While watching on the screen I was given limited places to deploy my army of the undead. Much like Left 4 Dead you can’t spawn in any part that might be visible to the human. I had to pick my placement wisely based on the type of zombie I was deploying.
Playing as either side meant you had to gain points by controlling sections of the map in order to win. While there is only one human player on the map at a time, you can only have 10 zombies in play at a once, so you can’t simply spam the human player with droves of the undead. Also killing the zombies was fairly easy for the human as weapons and ammo are abundant on the map. Even extra perks like deploy-able turrets made quick work of any zombie that came within range. The overall experience felt very balanced and was actually quite fun.
On a side note I asked my friend what he thought of the “hardcore” controller since I wasn’t able to actually use it myself and he mentioned that it felt “cheap”. Saying it was very light and flimsy. This particular model was wired I am not sure if the actual controller will be wireless or not, having batteries in it would certainly add some weight to it and might make it feel less cheap.
After playing the multiplayer portion of the demo I then decided to give the single player portion a try. I was given the WiiU controller and was essentially set free to figure it all out. The game played like any typical FPS game would but with added nuance of using a touch screen controller. To be honest I was somewhat let down by the whole experience of using the controller. The best way to sum up the touch screen experience would be “unnecessary”.
While watching the person before me play, his character came to a point where he kneeled down to search through his backpack. My friend and I speculated that the player must be using the touch screen to “search” through the backpack for something specific. I was very much let down to find out that wasn’t the case. Instead looking in your backpack works like an inventory system, the touch screen simply shows a list of what items you have and you can then drag and drop items either into or out of your inventory. My friend and I both agreed it would have been really cool to see all of the items on the screen and have it essentially show the inside of the bag leaving us forced to fumble around in it. Having the screen simply show an inventory list leads me to the “unnecessary” portion, this screen could have simply been shown on the main screen and accessed like a normal inventory with no real change to the gameplay. Using the touch screen in this manner didn’t add anything new to the experience and simply felt “unnecessary”.
Another ability of the controller is the scanner mode. At any point you can use the controller to scan your environment for useful items, such as ammo, weapons, first aid, and even key cards. You stare at the touch screen while moving it around in the real world, similar to an ARG but without the augmented reality part. However the part of looking silly while doing it in front of your friends did remain the same. Once you located items in this manner they then appeared with a marker above them on the main screen making finding them easier. The experience felt a bit contrived. However it felt even more contrived when you realized that taking items out of a cabinet required the touch screen. Having found a first aid cabinet on the wall I quickly walked over to it to retrieve my items. The game forces you to use the inventory system on the touch screen here. I had to drag the items into my inventory to take them, however other items such as ammo and key cards can simply be picked up by pressing the “X” button. Having to use the touchscreen to take items from the cabinet felt like a simple way to force the player to use the touchscreen, without adding any fun or creativity to it.
There was one instance that involved using the toucscreen in a rather cool way. To pick locks on doors! I was forced to pick the look on a door at one point in the demo and using the touchscreen in this instance felt very connected. You had to be very subtle with your movements and very precise. This was a great example of how to use the touschscreen in a rather intuitive way. Sadly the other experiences with it didn’t feel nearly as great.
The game did offer up some really cool and unique gameplay elements that I felt made it stand out from other FPS games. Sadly none of them involved the use of the WiiU controller. For instance there is no health bar in the game, the reason for that is simple, if you get bit once you die. So making sure to keep the undead off of you is rather important here! If you are wondering then “how do the items from the first aid cabinet fall into play in a game with no health bar”, you aren’t alone. That was never really explained to me while playing but since this was an early demo some things might change before the game becomes final. The second neat thing I enjoyed about the game was the fact that if you do die, that character you were playing as now becomes a zombie and you are forced to pick a new character to finish the mission from the beginning again. Chances are you will run into the undead version of your previous character once you are near that spot again.
The gameplay was solid and the controls felt right on par for an FPS game. The WiiU controller felt nice in my hands and the only issue I had was having to look down to locate the facebuttons. This is probably something that will change over time with more use and mostly likely like any other controller, will become second nature. It’s a shame that the touchscreen never felt like it was a crucial part to the game. I feel like it has amazing potential but sadly just wasn’t there yet. The graphics in the single player demo looked noticeably better than they did in the multiplayer one. Again neither of these demos was final so there are numerous changes to be made still. I plan to keep this game on my radar and look forward to seeing the final product when it gets released later this year.
