Zombie Army Trilogy Review (PC)

  Don't mistake Zombie Army Trilogy for some half-baked, re-skinned Sniper Elite add on. Those were my initial impressions after seeing some videos and screenshots of the game, and I'm not afraid to admit I was wrong. Aside from running on the Sniper Elite engine and some control scheme similarities, Zombie Army Trilogy draws about as much inspiration from Left 4 Dead as the developer's more serious World War II simulation. And it's not just the awesome, free Bill and friends skins, either.

  The basic structure of the game is: kill a bunch of zombies, get to a safe room, restock, kill more zombies, repeat. Such a simple formula (combined with the current oversaturation of zombie media) is an easy target for bashing mindless, violent, derivative repetition. If you were to play a level then I told you you'd be doing that same loop more or less for the next twenty hours I wouldn't fault anyone for grumbling and calling out my bad taste, which I wouldn't deny. However, there's an undeniable beauty, stupidity, and brilliance to the game that I found entirely endearing and entertaining. It's as if an immature kid with an overactive imagination sketched out a basic outline of what he thought was cool, then just ran with it without giving a fuck what anyone else thought. Then he got a sizable budget and talented team underneath him, and didn't let any external pressures compromise his original vision. Then that idea grew larger and more batshit insane over years, and he got better and simultaneously more creative as it went on. It's the gaming equivalent of a joke that gets a good belly laugh when you first hear it, wears out it's welcome to the point of annoyance, then circles around to being funny again.

 The slow motion, skull cracking, lung exploding long range sniper shots are here, though toned down just a touch because the walking dead don't really give a fuck and have rotten blood. Plus there's thousands of them. Tossing a grenade into a crowd usually racks up half a dozen kills on a bad throw. The undead make for tricky sniper practice as they shamble unpredictably, so going prone and picking off ghouls from half a mile away is really just the first line of defense for thinning the herd. Much of the action in Zombie Army Trilogy ends up in your face, whether you intend it to or not. This means your pistol is an indisposable tool for encroaching threats, and a generous kick will help you out of tight spots. Secondary weapons like SMGs, shotguns, and panzerfausts are useful against special enemies and specific situations, and traps like landmines and tripwires can act as early warning devices or crowd control.

  What elevates Zombie Army Trilogy from B-tier mediocrity are the tone, environments, and enemy variety. The soundtrack has to be called out as being particularly awesome: it sounds like a lost John Carpenter score or alternative takes to the original Dawn of the Dead. The minimalist late '70s/early '80s synth goes a long way to selling the pulpy horror setting. There's such commitment and attention to detail on every level: Nazi zombies is pure B-movie schlock, and developer Rebellion is well aware of this and they dive right in. The easy write-off would be the half-assed “wink wink, nudge nudge” route, but there's real affection for the genre here. Part haunted house, part best of horror movies, the game is full of nods, cliches, and Easter eggs. One beefy special enemy wields a chainsaw and reminded me of the classic Resident Evil 4 infected, then he straight up starts doing the Leatherface dance from the end of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are portraits of real world monsters like Elizabeth Bathory and Vlad the Impaler, and clicking on them results in nonstop fountains of blood pouring from the paintings. If you inspect a baby carriage occupied by an ever-present demonic doll, your character becomes possessed and feasts on a human body. On the lighter side you can also get drunk, and keep an eye out for a statue performing the Village People's YMCA dance in the distance. Zombie Army Trilogy is as dense with detail as it is with the undead.

  The “Trilogy” part of the title isn't just there for the hell of it or the three chapters in the game that connect the story and amp up in zaniness. I guess these chapters were available as separate games (presumably one for each Sniper Elite game), but the remaking of them here is handled so well I would have never known had I not read up on it. It feels entirely cohesive, though the quality and design does get markedly better as the game progresses. Along with the three main chapters that took me twenty hours to complete on Normal difficulty, there's also a Horde mode available on half a dozen maps. I only briefly messed with it, but for those who like co-op zombie action it's added value to an already lengthy game (which can also be played co-op). I came into Zombie Army Trilogy expecting cheap thrills and B-grade gore. I certainly got that, but by the time I took down giant zombie Hitler I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the game in an honest, unironic appreciation. Zombie Army Trilogy knows horror, comedy, and gunplay, and that's all on display in the game to greatest effect. It's worth it just to see what a fight against zombie Hitler looks like.