Zombie Racers Review—Amusing for a While but Lacks Drive

[Atariboy]

Over the past decade or so, zombie games have become increasingly popular, most of which have been horror/adventure games or top-down shoot’em-ups. It is very rare that you come across a zombie game that veers from either one of these genres, but once in a while, a developer comes out with a zombie game with a difference. Zombie Racers, the most recent release from UK developer Big Head Games, is one such game.

Zombie Racers is a top-down racing game where you will face the top zombie racers in search of cash prizes and the chance to become the first ever champion of the Bloody Wheels Tournament. There are two modes in Zombie Racers, the first being Story Mode, where you have to finish first in each race to progress onto the next, while killing as many zombies as possible in each race to earn cash for upgrading your car. The second mode is Freeroaming, which has three different contests which I will talk a little about in a moment.

In Story Mode, you start with a choice of 4 different cars. Unfortunately, I found that even though you have a choice of cars, not a single one drives differently from the next. I was also extremely disappointed in the controls. With Square as your gas and Triangle as your brake, it feels a little awkward, although I found I never really used the brake much at all. What was also disappointing was the fact that you could only use the D-pad to control your car, and without being able to change the controls, this was a letdown. As you progress through the story, you are able to spend cash earned from running down zombies on upgrades for your current vehicle or one of the other vehicles that you can unlock. Killing zombies is actually a very important part of the game, as you will need to kill well over a hundred just to be able to afford the upgrades so you can keep up with the opposition. Fortunately, you are given six laps per race to earn the cash to purchase these upgrades and new rides, but even so, in the later races, I found myself having to replay the same level over and over again. What I also found to be frustrating was the fact that you are only able to upgrade each category once per race even if you can afford to upgrade it more than once. For a brief while, you may have fun making pavement pizza out of zombies, but Story Mode feels shallow and is missing simple things like mini maps, lap times and leaderboards.

Freeroaming gives you three different ways to feed your zombie-squishing lust while competing against three opponents. In “Dusk to Dawn,” you have to kill the most zombies within the time limit; “666 Zombies” is where whoever has the most kills after all 666 zombies are dead wins; and then there’s “Every Last Drop,” in which each zombie you kill fills your blood bag, with the winner being the first person who fills their bag. With a variety of weapons scattered around the levels to help dispose of the infected, it does make the contests a little more fun at first, but the fun is short-lived. Not only did I find two of the three contests extremely difficult, but I was also infuriated at the fact that the AI seemed to handle their vehicles and run zombies down with pinpoint accuracy, leaving you almost no chance at all.

The graphics are mediocre at best, and although the courses look as though they have been painted, which some people may like, I just felt that, in general, the whole look of the game seemed a little unimpressive. However, there are a few nice effects; for instance, when you run down a zombie, occasionally a limb or head will fly up at the screen.  I was impressed with the punk rock soundtrack done by Bankrupt, which I found myself humming along to as I wedged zombies into my grille. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of the sound effects in the game, with the cars sounding so generic and unimpressive that I was actually grateful for the fact that the music drowns out almost all other sound in the game.

Zombie Racers sounds like a good game on paper but overall feels outdated and a poor attempt at what could have been a great racing game. At first, running down zombies may seem fun, but it soon becomes monotonous, especially after six laps a race. And, with a $6.99/£3.49 price tag, you get very little value for your money.

5/10

POSTED BY DAN ON THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011 AT 9:33 PM

Edited July 19, 2019 by Atariboy