I got a chance to go hands-on with a beginning level of World War Z VR on Quest, the first VR entry into the storied zombie franchise. And like the novel, 2013 film and the handful of flatscreen games that followed, it’s chock-full of zombie hordes, which you take on with the help of two AI companions. While it promises up to 200 zombies on screen at any given time—by far the most I’ve ever heard of in a VR game—I walked in with a single question. Is more better? Read on to find out.
When it comes to zombie games, the formula is pretty basic. Less zombies usually means they’re more powerful, and as a result, single encounters are a lot scarier. In World War Z VR though, the inverse is true. Although you shouldn’t be scared of a single zombie, or even two or three, it’s the clusters you have to watch out for. And they can be pretty dang massive—at least by VR standards.
In World War Z VR, single zombies are essentially a minor annoyance, letting you easily bash them away with a rifle, or nonchalantly reload a magazine and blast them straight in the head. Because enemies are generally pretty weak, it also means you can spray down a giant patch of the odd mix of screaming deadheads, but also survive when you’re surrounded by a half dozen as they bunch up and take turns bashing you.
It’s not all dum-dum basic runners though. While enemy variety is pretty low at this point—I only played the tutorial and first mission in Tokyo—every so often a red highlighted zombie will come into view, indicating it’s not your standard sprinter. That quickly switches up what started to feel like was a pretty bland series of encounters, offering periodic shifts in how you take down clusters and navigate your way through the game’s variety of winding pathways, indoor spaces and large outdoor arenas.
So far, I’ve encountered gas zombies that fumigate do area effects, zombies that throw muck in your face from a distance, screamers that bring in bigger waves, and bomb zombies that explode nearby.
Honestly, before playing the game, I was sort of expecting it to be a lot more like the film, where zombies would bum-rush you and you’d quickly be returned to your last checkpoint. In the VR game though, they’re surprisingly respectful, reminding me more of an old martial arts film where a group of enemies would encircle the hero and take turns getting beaten up. The only difference is that these well-behaved hordes can replace a downed foe with a ready stream of new zombie bros who just happen to amble in face first from a nearby wall.
So is more better? I don’t know yet. It certainly is more though, I’ll give World War Z VR that.
I quickly found myself mowing down hordes of 20 at a time, which is easy-peasy, as long as you have the ammo to spare. As you move along though, and narrative beats push more and more zombies your way, it quickly becomes a task of not only blasting away and reloading as fast as humanly possible, but of drawing baddies into chokepoints and making sure your AI companions are by your side to help out.
Speaking of AI companions: these guys are dumb. Which sucks. In a large arena, I was dodging and weaving to pick up ammo and grenades, while my companions were stuck in an odd corner shooting slowly, and ineffectually taking on damage. Granted, the worst they can do is draw some heat away from you, but they just aren’t reliable enough to provide anything more than just a few head splats, leading me to quickly forget they existed. That said, World War Z VR feels like it should really be multiplayer, but just isn’t. Which also sucks.
One thing I didn’t expect though was the various hurdles I’d have to overcome to get to the end level, which was a nice surprise. In Tokyo, I had to find and place a bomb, which required multiple steps to arm, including rotating a a primer, shaking a liquid inside, and planting it in the right spot. There’s also the promise of plenty of goodies to play with, such as unlockable machine gun positions that require a key, which encourages full exploration of levels to find. In the end, you’re served up the biggest horde yet, which pushes all of the skills you learned to a breaking point.
There is a lot more meat on the bone than I initially expected, and I’m looking forward to diving back in for the full game. In short, I came out of the Tokyo level mostly liking what I experienced.
There’s a lot more nitty gritty to get into for our full review when World War Z VR launches on August 12th across Quest and SteamVR headsets. You can expect a full report on the game’s shooting experience (pretty standard, but good so far), weapon variety (no upgrades, but plenty of different guns) locomotion schemes (everything is there), and narrative (I have no idea what’s going on besides ‘bang bang’).
In the meantime, you can pre-order World War Z VR on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above and on Steam for PC VR headsets, priced at $20.
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