Zombie Training Simulator – In-Depth Review!

Gameplay/My Experience

The game starts you off in an interactive menu/environment level, giving you access to a variety of guns on a table. Only 2 of the pistols on the table are unlocked. There appears to be other machine guns and shotgun type weapons as well but the rest have numbers on them which represents how many zombie kills before they unlock.

Looking around you can see sign posts with a picture and title on each, these are game-modes and skill challenges you can select by shooting said signpost. Also in the background are random zombies wandering around that you can test shoot with your weapon while you decide what you want to do. Behind you next to the table is a post with a light switch marked “hardcore mode” shooting this switch makes the game go from daylight to night-time making zombie shooting even more challenging and scary.

I started off on the first mission, others were also unlocked with varying difficulty levels listed, I chose what appeared to be the easy mission. Once it starts I can see a few grenades, 4 steaks and propane tanks on the table next to my gun selection. To start the mission I shoot a single zombie standing next to a “start game” once he is down the other zombies start converging on my location. I take a few terrible shots before I get the feel of my pistols aim, knocking off the odd leg or arm of a zombie approaching before i get a solid head-shot. Now these zombies don’t mess around they move at a pretty fast pace so you gotta keep on your toes.

The horde coming at me appears to be picking up numbers so I reach over and grab a steak, tossing it into the crowd. The zombies herd around the steak gnawing and chewing at it, long enough for me to grab a grenade and toss it over. A huge explosion and cloud of dust clears away revealing a a huge portion of the crowd disintegrated. Unfortunately i’m not quite quick enough and another horde from behind me snarls forward. I pop off all the rounds in my clip killing a few but inevitably i am overrun and dead.

I move onto another few gamemodes including a sort of skill testing quick draw match where you are placed in the middle of 4 zombies that surround you. After your first shot connects with a zombie they all start moving forward and you try to kill them as fast as you can. I found this to be the most fun as i spent almost a half hour replaying it to see if i could get a faster john wick style killing experience. After all my time in gun kata practice i ended with a happy score of 1.182 seconds, a truly rewarding experience.

There were several other modes at different locations including a survival mission at a quarry where an entire gravel pit was filled with zombies as you sit atop a hill. Think of the walking dead scene in the quarry scene quite similar. You really get your skills tested as you try to pick off all the zombies before they squeeze up a tight road to your location. Very heart pounding and very fun overall experience.

Graphics/Audio

Although the graphics are very simple and cartoon like, I find this game to have a very inviting look, its angry birds meets plants vs zombies in the style department. The zombies maybe made of wood but when combined with the undead snarls and growls, your mind convinces you that your about to be eaten by the 2D plank approaching you.

The audio overall is fantastic, everything is set to a well balanced volume from the shooting, breaking wooden zombies and tweeting happy birds in the environment. The SFX are all very high quality and nothing seems annoying or out of place. The positional audio is perfect and your able to tell exact positions for when a zombie is sneaking up behind you.

The weapons are all very well designed, lots of detail and loud snappy SFX. The sound of firing and the cracking wood of a dead zombie is truly satisfying.

Environments are cheery and detailed with bright green grass and fields all leading back to an at home Angry Birds type feeling. Never have I killed zombies in such a pleasant calming environment before.

VR/Comfort

Everything feels very smooth in this game, all the text is readable, nothing is blotched out or visually unappealing. I found the gun aiming angles a little tricky to get used to but honestly once you overcome the angle of the controller your mind just fills in the blanks and your fine. The game features no artificial motion or any type of sick inducing effects making it a prime choice for those that don’t do so well in certain vr games.

My Wishlist

Overall the game so far is incredible but as always I have my wishes. I would really like the ability to dual wield guns as i think it would give a very nice bad ass effect. Now perhaps the developer didn’t allow this simply because it would make it too easy to just mass fire two guns and clean house removing the necessity of accuracy. Never the less i would love to see dual wielding implemented in the future.

I would also like to see the ability to manually load your weapons, currently you have a reload button on the vive touchpad or an automatic reload that happens when your clip count hits zero. I think it would cool to add an option to have to grab a clip and physically load it into your weapon. Even if it was added as like a super crazy expert only feature i think it would open up a world of skill and competition possibilities.