ZombiU was perhaps the biggest surprise to come from Nintendo’s E3 - a brutal, first person survival horror/shooter in which your main goal is to survive the zombie ridden streets of London.

For those who missed the conference, ZombiU is a re-imagining of Killer Freaks from Outer Space, which was shown when the Wii U was unveiled in 2011. It is certainly unique, and it certainly is scary. You will be battling monsters with melee weapons or a weak pistol until you manage to find a shotgun or crossbow. But even with one of these, don’t expect to last long.

ZombiU uses the GamePad in perhaps the most extensive way of all of the third party offerings shown so far for Wii U. The screen gives you access to your inventory, accessed in real time, so to change weapon, you must take your eyes away from any potential danger surrounding you. It makes you feel like you are actually immersed into the situation.

The screen is also used for analysing surroundings – lifting it in front of the television will allow you to scan the area for loot. Looting corpses and raiding chests works in the same way as your inventory – you must use the touch screen to move things from the body or box in question to your bag. While you’re doing this, the TV shows a dramatic third person view of your character and any oncoming attacks. Grabbing items really causes some panic, as zombies can pop out from anywhere.

The GamePad also shows a map of your surroundings, giving you the location of any oncoming attackers.

The interesting twist and unique selling point of ZombiU, is how easy it is to die. In the demo version we played, you have one syringe, which can kill a zombie if it reaches you, but if you are caught again, you’re history. You must then start again as another survivor, with a timer running to tell you how long you survive with each character.

However, your efforts with each play are not totally lost when you die. You can recover any items you had accrued by destroying the zombie version of your perished character and looting its corpse. Ubisoft promise that in the final game, online friends will also be able to loot your rotting carcass. Each time you play you start at the beginning and it really is a challenge to better yourself with each play.

The atmosphere of the demo was brilliant, with the early stages set outside Buckingham Palace, complete with Beefeater and Met Police zombies, before moving into a creepy children’s nursery.

In terms of graphics, it looks similar to what you could expect in an Xbox 360 title, but with some great shadow, smoke and lighting effects. However, some of the zombies look terribly undetailed, there is still a lot of polish needed before launch later this year.

The controls worked well, although coping with two screens took a few moments to get used to, but it really adds to the atmosphere of the game. My one complaint is that the turning of your character using the right stick felt a little slow, but the final version may well have settings to adjust the sensitivity like many other shooters.

ZombiU’s tense atmosphere and extensive use of the GamePad makes this one of the games to keep your eye on in the months leading up to launch, and it will be interesting to see how much replay value there will be in this creepy shooter.

Paul Muchmore

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in ZombiU takes the shape of a Capture the Flag game, with one person playing a survivor while the other controls a zombie army.

Whoever holds the Wii U GamePad controls the zombies using a top down perspective, with the other player using the Wii U Pro Controller to try and capture the flag and avoid the zombies.

The survivor aspect plays the same as the single-player mode, although obviously without the ability to use the Wii U GamePad.  

The person holding the Wii U GamePad plays as King Boris (which, as a Londoner, amused me greatly) and sees a map of the level.  You have four different types of zombies at your disposal; one that captures a flag, another that defends, one that attacks and a forth that is quicker and deadlier than the others.

You may only have ten zombies on the field at any one time and each of the four zombie types 'cost' a different amount.  It was unclear in the demo if the 'currency' was meant to be anything specific, but whatever it was automatically refilled.  The flag-capturing zombie is the cheapest, while the quickest zombie is the most expensive.

The map featured a number of red zones that you couldn't place zombies in, with one around the survivor itself.  This meant you couldn't swarm the survivor with zombies and helped to balance the playing field.

That being said, it felt easier playing as the zombie king but there is a certain joy in being challenged to survive.

Hopefully Ubisoft will allow for more players to join in as, at the moment, only two people can play.  The ability to plant more zombies, even if it is an unlockable/cheat, would provide a whole new level of bloodlust-filled fun.

Ashley Jones