Zombie Vikings Xbox One Review

Zombie Vikings is one of those games that attempt to bring you back to the good 'ole days of hack and slash. With its comical storyline and peculiar yet, grotesque characters, it offers a fresh take on modern-day side scrollers.

The creators at Zoink! games have a distinct style and does a great job at creating a visual masterpiece in a genre that is screaming for something refreshing. As much as I loved the game, there wasn’t too much more that stood out besides its humor and the visuals that will remind you of a Tim Burton film. There is some very talented voice acting and it is satisfying to know that I quickly found myself laughing at a few of the jokes right from the jump.

For those looking to get a more fleshed out experience in gameplay, don’t expect much. It’s very simple and straightforward: You can run, jump, block, dodge, throw objects and use special attacks. Although the moves are simple, it gives you what you need to make something happen.

The game features multiplayer and you can play locally (which is rare these days) or online. Playing alone isn’t the best experience but once you find a few people to play with online, things start to become enjoyable.

Regrettably, that enjoyable experience quickly becomes a zombie nightmare. Gameplay at times can get extremely repetitive and boring, but one of the good things is that there are enough options offered to players as they progress through the game to keep you going. The ability to purchase weapons upgrades and runes to help make your character more powerful as you advance toward higher levels and battle bigger bosses.

Zombie Vikings is actually fun compared to that of other side scrollers that have come and gone, but this game still suffers from repetitive syndrome. There are some aspects thrown in here and there that break up the monotony, such as enemies that force you to run from them as the level progresses. There is also a soccer-meets-basketball mini game that as soon as it starts to become fun, quickly grows annoying a frustrating.

In a case of quantity vs quality. Zombie Vikings has a few notes to take. The game itself would’ve been better had it mixed in more game modes and fewer levels. Bosses near the end of each level keep things interesting enough.

The humor in the game is funny, yet, forgettable and if that doesn’t annoy you, the game’s bug infested glitches will. Zombie Vikings was released on Steam and PlayStation 4 over a year ago, and there were even glitches back then. One would think that before porting the game over, the developers would’ve brought attention to these very small things. The question is, could those fixes have made the game more forgivable? Most certainly. There were a host of bugs and issues that prevented me from finishing a level, thus forcing me to quit the game and load back in so that I could hopefully complete a level. One glitch in particular that I just laughed at was that I kept dying in an endless loop. Again, I had to restart all over again. I’m not going to beat up on the game too bad, but fixing these things would have made the experience so much better.

Zombie Vikings is better than most Indie games on the market right now and that’s saying a lot. That being said, the game is hilarious and the artistic touch on each prerendered background is simply beautiful. The usage of Zombies and Vikings together in a game is something new but, falls short simply because there are no creative connections made between the two which was disappointing. If you and a couple of friends are looking to do some easy achievement hunting and want to spend a few mindless hours beating the crap out of things, this may be your game.

Tao Dawkins, NoobFeed