Overview of World War Z: Aftermath

When it launched in 2019, the game didn’t make a hole in the world, many wrote it off as a deluge of dozens of licenses, moreover, on the topic of cooperative zombie killing, which is sort of like a new successor to the endlessly worn WWII shooters. But if you’ve seen anything from the game, you might be surprised at how good it looks – and by that I don’t just mean unique avalanches of hundreds of zombies, but also the variety of environments or animations of the main characters. . During these three years, the game managed to collect an incredible 15 million players (including through distribution in the EGS). We now have the release of an “Aftermath” enriched version of the original game that adds new locations and missions, as well as an improved melee system or camera from our own eyes’ point of view.

• Platform: PS5 (peer review), PS4, X1, XSX | S, PC, Switch
• Publication date: 21 Sept. 2021
• Producer: Saber Interactive (USA)
• Genre: 3PS co-op game
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: 4 players
• Data to download: 50 GB
• Game time: 15+ hours
• Price: 999 CZK (Xzone)

real world war

The performance is based on the book of the same name, known, among other things, for a very peculiar form of narration, with an almost documentary style – although this is literally a world war against the influx of zombies. But the public probably knows the film of the same name, which glorified, among other things, Brad Pitt in the title role or a completely unique image of a literal avalanche of hundreds and thousands of zombies climbing each other – this was also borrowed by the Days. Gone, but not even. You didn’t have such elaborate handling of an avalanche as in the game World War Z. You can look at pictures or videos, but they can’t really explain the adrenaline when you see something like this rushing against you right in game.

All the more interesting is the fact that almost every mission in the game manages to combine these epic war scenes with mild creeping horror reminiscent of the original Resident Evil trilogy. If you move slowly through the streets in the game and shoot only with a silencer, you may be able to successfully walk through the aimlessly wandering undead without provoking them into a large mass attack. If, on the other hand, you want to rush into battle, additional zombie reinforcements will rain down on you from all the surrounding streets. Surprisingly, I must say that it was the stealth approach to the realistic environment of modern cities that I liked the most in the game, and the tension in these passages was really great.

Combine war scenes with creepy horror reminiscent of Resident Evil.

In the spirit of the original book, the game does not attempt to offer a complete story with a single main character, instead each chapter offers different locations with different characters. Thanks to this, you will see New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, Tokyo, Marseille, Rome and Kamchatka (the last two mentioned campaigns are new in the Aftermath version of the game). You will have dubbed characters that have their own profiles and stories, but it’s really more like a scene from a documentary than a continuous story. Paradoxically, I liked it all the more because this view of the collapse of society in different parts of the world seemed much more grand and cold than, for example, the one in The Division, which was set more or less in one city. .

Improved and expanded

A subsequent edition of the game will likely attract fans of the original version, especially with a couple of new campaigns. The one in Rome will take you right into the battle for the Vatican, and it’s actually a pretty traditional combo of sneaking through the infested streets and following monumental battles with an avalanche of zombies at key locations. On the other hand, the chapter that takes place in freezing Kamchatka is surprisingly fresh – giant ships of various nationalities have fled here in the hope that the frost will contain or immobilize the zombies – which did not come true. In addition to the fact that you have to engage in atmospheric battles right on board giant steamships, you will also face the frost itself, due to which you must regularly look for sources of heat to warm yourself up (fans of the ingenious Survival mod from the first The Division will have to be at home here). The game does not have its own version for next generation consoles, but it offers higher resolution and smoother experience.

The other improvements sound great on paper, but I personally didn’t find them all that dramatic. Why play the game with your own eyes when the creators have really taken care of the good models and animations of the characters from a third-person perspective, where you also have better control of your surroundings for a possible attack from the side or from behind? In addition, in this mode, you do not have the possibility of a full-fledged ADS, the camera is approaching, but you are not looking at the sight, but still at the UI sight. Slightly better is the new melee system, more dynamic and offering more weapons, but categorically: who would take anything other than a normal machine gun or a direct grenade launcher against an avalanche of fast zombies? Of course not me. It doesn’t change the fact that I enjoyed those 15 hours of play. If you’re in a similar situation, then you can spend more time in a game with a higher difficulty or in competitive modes, which, however, I felt more.