As of today, Tuesday, April 16, 2019, World War Z has been released. The new survival shooter with massive hordes of zombie enemies is available on PS4, PC, and Xbox One, adding some of its unique features to the already spicy genre.
What is World War Z? World War Z is a zombie shooter based on the 2013 film of the same name starring Brad Pitt. You play as survivors after the outbreak of a zombie virus that has infected large parts of humanity.
In real-world settings such as Moscow, New York, Tokyo, and Jerusalem, you fight against the zombies that act like a “swarm” due to their infection.
World War Z was developed by Saber Interactive. After the official trailer was recently shown, World War Z is playable on all popular platforms:
On PC, World War Z is only playable via the Epic Launcher, not via Steam. A release on Steam is possible after the exclusivity contract expires, but has not yet been announced.
What makes World War Z special
The survival and zombie shooter genre already has many representatives on the market.
Therefore, World War Z has come up with some unique features to impress:
A unique game mode: World War Z offers a unique mode where you can fight against both players and zombies at the same time. It’s called Player vs Player vs Zombies (PvPvZ).
According to the corresponding trailer for the feature, there are five different modes that can be played in PvPvZ.
Intelligent zombies: The zombies in World War Z are supposed to move more realistically than in other zombie games. They react to their environment and physics.
If too many zombies squeeze through a narrow alley, they will clog it and simply climb over one another. If they run too fast around a corner, they stumble. If they can’t reach you in apparent safety above them, they will build a pyramid.
Unique classes: World War Z offers six different classes from which you can choose one for your team of four survivors:
- Slasher, a melee class
- Hellraiser, a bomb specialist
- Exterminator, a trap setter
- Gunslinger, a weapon expert
- Medic, a healer
- Fixer, a kind of supporter for more ammunition
A class system in the form of individual abilities also existed in Left4Dead. However, in World War Z, there are more classes than available slots in the lobby, allowing for various combinations.
What the first reviews say: Otherwise, World War Z is said to play very similarly to the classic Left4Dead. For many fans, World War Z is even the unofficial Left4Dead 3.
Especially the fact that there are different classes and also the types of special zombies make the parallels more evident. On reddit, the criticism becomes clearer. The special zombies are almost exactly the same as those already known from Left4Dead. The similarity to Left4Dead is not necessarily a bad thing.
Most of the time is spent shooting down hordes of zombies, and especially in co-op, it’s probably a lot of fun. The visuals are particularly convincing, but if you’re still unsure, it’s better to wait a bit for more reviews.
The creators of Left4Dead are already working on their next game:
