There was a time where you couldn’t get your eyes away from zombie games. There was this constant hype about zombie games and as you probably already expect, a lot of these zombie games are just knock-off products from others. Some of these games truly stand out like Dead Rising, Dying Light, COD zombies, Left 4 Dead… and a couple of others but in the end nothing innovative. Zombie Driver is a port of a 360 game that tried to be a little more creative. It’s a game where the ultimate weapon against zombies is your pimped out car and driving skills. It’s a game where explosions and your car painted by zombie blood are the main courses…
Zombie driver has 3 main available game modes for you to try out: Story Mode, Slaughter and Blood Race. The Story mode is all about your driver going all out against these massive hordes of zombies. As a lone wolf, it’s your mission to purge the city from these awful beings. The main story holds about 30 missions but there are still some bonus objectives to fill your gas tank. Blood Race is a series of events where you go against other NPC’s to get on top. These tournament races can go from getting the most eliminations or even testing the driver’s endurance. You collect points by completing the objectives and the player with the highest score will be crowned as the best driver. Then there’s Slaughter, a “waves of the horde” inspired game mode that’ll test your ability to adapt to the situation. Survive the horde of zombies each time by scoring different points to unlock the next map. All of the modes are included within the Immortal Edition.
“The concept is fairly simple but enjoyable.”
Even though these modes create some variety, the main focus is fairly simple: it’s all about killing as many zombies as you can and survive. Clearing out zombies can be achieved by mounting different weapons on your car such as missiles, railguns, miniguns, … and picking up armor orbs to fortify your car. These weapons and orbs are random spawns within the city, so keep an eye on these while you’re mowing down zombies. Of course, not only purging the city is the most important thing, but there are also survivors out there that need your help. You’ll have to search and defend them. After clearing out the threat, you’ll have to pick them up and drop them at a certain destination. This isn’t an easy task, especially with all of those zombies roaming around the city area but that’s where the cash comes in. With every zombie killed, a couple of dollars will be added to your bank account, as it has been promised by the mayor of this dreadful city. These dollars can help you with upgrades for your car or weaponry. Completing bonus objectives along the way will also unlock new vehicles.
I’ve spent most of my time with the Story Mode as it is the main feature of the game. The concept is fairly simple but enjoyable. The missions are short and don’t feel like a drag to go through. Occasionally, there’s the confrontation with mini-bosses and this mixes up things for the better. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking, the mini-bosses hold their own against you with their different mechanics but the simple “run and gun” feature remains the same. With the start of each mission, the main and side objectives are explained, so it’s up to you what you’ll tackle first. Story-wise, it didn’t feel engaging at all but the developers kept it all rather simple which is a good thing, especially when you want to keep the pace decent in this fast action-packed game.
The game can definitely be seen as a type of arcade-styled game because of the focus on your performance. Your performance is shown after each mission and will display multiple things like the total cash you’ve earned or the duration of your mission. If you’re the improvement type of gamer, you’ll want to view these statistics and try to enhance your driving skills but in the end, it’s just a way of saying “completed or not” for the casual player. After this performance display, you can go to the garage and upgrade your build. Your build can be improved with a focus on speed, armor or weaponry. Improving your build will heighten the chances for successful missions.
“The Slaughter is definitely a plus as it opens up the “replayability”
Playing the other modes was enjoyable as well but more of the same, especially the “Slaughter” mode. If you can’t get enough of this drive-by shooter, the Slaughter is definitely a plus as it opens up the “replayability”. For me, there wasn’t anything within this mode that kept me playing. After the story mode, I felt washed out. The “Blood Race” mixes up the story mode with different players and makes the game a bit more competitive which will definitely help with the replayability. “Blood Race” will be the go-to mode for a couple of hours of mindless shooting BUT with other NPC’s. Every game that has a bit of “competition” will keep most of their player base at bay. “Blood Race” is all about competing against other NPC in fragments (arena’s) of the Story Mode map. The activities are well designed and bring out the best of this zombie shooter. Eliminating others within the time limit or setting the best times with checkpoints are only some fun segments of what this game mode can offer. This would have been even a greater blast if the developers implemented some real-life competition, locally or online.
From what I’ve played, the game was enjoyable but it will definitely not be something that will stand out for its creative gameplay design. The game’s mechanics are simple and very “arcade” styled. In the end, all of the objectives of the mission feel very alike and it was a great thing to implement some of these bosses. Even though the bosses mechanics were from a simple design, they did a great job in “mixing things up”. The run and gun mechanic is good but it will not be liked by everyone. I liked the fact that you have to face your car towards your enemies in order for you to hit them. This makes the game a bit more challenging, especially when you’re driving and trying to get away from the horde of zombies. If they would have made the “aim” to freely, the game would lack some challenging and become less enjoyable. It’s a love or hate type of thing.
Conclusion:
Zombie Driver will be your go-to kind of game when you’re having some alone hours to spend. It’s a game where mindless shooting and doing it in style, is the main focus. It’s good to have some customization options to build the perfect murder machine but in the end, your murder machine will be quickly stowed in the garage, once you burned out the Main Campaign. There are some alternate modes to fuel that desire to kill more zombies but eventually, the game will wear out as you start to realize that you aren’t competing against other real-life Zombie drivers. Technically speaking, the game runs fluently and is a great port.
