Zombie Army Trilogy

Zombie Army Trilogy from Rebellion gives us the ultimate survival mode whilst sticking a little story in for kicks and giggles. It is 3 campaigns in one nice little package built on the framework of Rebellion’s better known title, Sniper Elite 3 except drilling down the immersive campaign Sniper Elite 3 gave us and sticking in way more enemies to face.

Zombie Army Trilogy packs together Zombie Army 1 and 2 and adds a third campaign in for good measure and extra challenges. Whilst relatively different from each other story wise, they all pretty much surround the same premise. Set in an alternate World War 2, Hitler has unleashed armies of the undead upon the world and it’s up to you to do something about it. I thought Hitler and his cronies were zombies metaphorically anyway so it isn’t far from the truth. The story is merely a backdrop for the ongoing survival-fest as you and up to 3 others online fight a horde of zombies then proceed through to another location where you have to survive again. Its great fun at first as your well-aimed shots trigger the iconic x-ray cam we know and love from the Sniper Elite games and for close encounters, a rifle or pistol may be your better weapon of choice. Ammo can be salvaged from fallen carcasses or you can work together to set traps. These situations are when Zombie Army Trilogy truly shines.

Going solo is a total different kettle of fish. It’s tough! The game doesn’t let up on the difficulty just because you’re all alone. The hungry horde comes at you from all sides and setting traps yourself takes more time to cover all bases so you feel like you’re screwed from the offset. It’s still fun but a lot more tense and stressful. Luckily between survival spurts, you’re treated with an ammo cache where you can select different weapons or just stock up and key moments carry short cut scenes to carry the story along. These are forgettable though. Playing these games feels like eating a sandwich that seems to go on forever. You enjoy it at first but it gets bland eventually.

Visually though, there’s not a lot at fault. Zombies look and move as you would expect and even walking skeletons enter the fray at times. They feel like they have been copied and pasted though as there is an evident lack of variety on the enemy design front. The environments are great though. Shelled French villages, rivers and hillsides are dark and murky and seeing a sea of glowing zombie eyes on the horizon is a genuinely intimidating sight. The main attraction is the fabulous x-ray bullet cam though and it looks just a gory as it did in Sniper Elite although you don’t get points for hitting certain body parts.

Pros

Great value for money.

Game-play is fast paced and satisfying.

Killing loads of zombies in one massive explosion never gets old.

Nice graphics.

Online is a better experience.

X-ray bullet cam

Cons

The fast and frantic game-play gets tedious.

Lack of enemy variety.

Hard on your own.

Like a big fat survival mode separated by meagre cut-scenes and ammo caches.

Summary

Whilst Zombie Army Trilogy gives you great value for money with three campaigns, it loses its flame after a while and the sandwich gets bland. Online provides the better experience but even on easier difficulty, the horde can get a bit too much. That bullet cam though....awesome!