Overkill's The Walking Dead PC Review

Overkill’s The Walking Dead is a difficult and cooperatively heavy adventure that values teamwork and collaboration above anything else. The story is limited but makes up for it with challenging cooperative action. Upgrading your character and expanding your camp allows for a steady stream of rewards as you inch closer to completing each mission makes every step closer to the finale a worthwhile endeavor. The difficulty can be unfair at times but Overkill’s The Walking Dead has a solid edifice to become something great.

The story is pretty basic. You're part of a group trying to survive the zombie apocalypse through whatever means possible. New challenges are brought your way that includes defending your camp, securing supplies, or facing off against bandits. It's a shame considering that the promotion material focused heavily on each of the playable characters having elaborate stories. At least the cutscenes are wonderfully animated.

Players choose between Aidan, Maya, Grant, and Heather, each with unique abilities and advantages, such as Aiden's shotgun or Maya's medical bag. The game encourages players to pick a distinct character to ensure that all options are available but doesn't prevent the player from picking the same character multiple times. You can further upgrade each character by playing with them to unlock new skills, encouraging players to try each of the classes. Best of all, even if you fail a mission all your progress is maintained. You can play the entire game solo but judging from our experience the game doesn't offer a handicap for this, making cooperative play strongly encouraged. 

Shooting and controls are precise. Once you get used to the controls swapping between weapons, crafting materials, and other actions become second nature. What's even better is that the controller support works just as well as mouse and keyboard. Gamers can plug-in an Xbox One controller and play the game like it was on consoles(Releasing February 2019).

The map is divided into sections that unlock as you expand your camp. This will also unlock timed events such as defending the camp from the horde. This tower-defense mode is lopsided though, with zombies able to crash through barricades with ease. Almost like they were made of tissue paper instead of wood and barbed wire. 

Expect a challenge here, your characters are fragile and must rely on one another for support especially against the Walkers. Unless you headshot them the horde will keep coming. Zombies can take a lot of damage and deal equally heavy blows, even when on the ground. Guns do very little damage, unless you target the head, making them formidable threats. In addition, they can grab you quite efficiently, causing you to lose health while you escape and either kill or shove the zombie. You can become overwhelmed when more than 3 gang up, leading to an automatic down but not out the situation. You will die a lot here and unfortunately, there's no easier difficulty which would've been welcomed. Instead, the game alters the difficulty base on your performance.

Zombies do come in different types such as the bloater than explodes when close enough or an armored zombie. You can limit the number of zombies you'll face by reducing the amount of sound you cause or by sneaking up and taking them down quietly. Make too much noise and the horde will become more aggressive, leading to an almost certain wipe. The game does offer options to shove zombies to provide some breathing room but the stamina meter, which governs melee swings, prevents players from spamming this. You can also get to a high ledge to exploit the respawning system since zombies lack the ability to climb items. However, the infinitely spawning horde will eventually surround you turning it into a prison.

The developers did a fantastic job of designing the world and zombies. The environments are richly decorated and packed with supplies that sometimes require unique tools to unlock or use. The zombies share this level of quality, with body parts flying off depending on the point of trauma and their mangled rotting face shown in great detail when they grab you.

Humans are bit easier to deal with since the AI isn't too great. Sneaking past them is incredibly difficult given their astute senses but then they'll take cover in front of you. You can use the horde against them but most of the enemy zombies default to chasing you even if a human enemy in front of its path. It's strange that you cannot pick up the enemies weapons seeing that the game limits essential supplies. It can also feel unfair that the human enemies will cause so much sound unless killed quickly. Considering that this world focuses on trying to avoid Walkers instead of attracting them this reckless behavior breaks the immersion. Almost like these bandits want to attract the walkers to kill them.

The game also lacks a lot of variety. For most of the game, you'll end up performing the same activities with little change. Eventually, everything begins to bleed together and hopefully, future content updates will add more variety such as maybe a new zombie type, the chance to play as a bandit, or maybe more character focused missions.

The game also has its share of glitches and errors. For example, it's common to see items floating in mid-air and other oddities. In one instance my ally got stuck in the geometry and we were unable to complete the mission until he quit since he was out of reach of enemies.

Overkill’s The Walking Dead has a lot of promise of evolving into something great. Since the developers have promised to update the game with regular updates, divided into seasons, players can expect more content. It has a strong edifice to build on but the difficult challenge may turn a lot of gamers away. Leveling and improving your characters is one of the more addicting elements as you attempt to gradually progress through the campaign. Those who overcome Overkill's The Walking Dead difficult hurdles will find an engaging cooperative shooter.  

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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