Undead Knights Hands-On

As much fun as it is to slaughter zombies in many gruesome but creative ways, bossing them around is just as delightful when there's a never-ending supply of undead to choose from. In Tecmo's bloody hack-and-slash game called Undead Knights, you play as any one of the three characters who were brutally murdered by the order of the king. At first, this game felt very much like a Dynasty Warriors game--except with zombies--but as we made our way through the chapters and learned the many different ways to use our zombie horde, we discovered that Undead Knights is actually a fun and interesting twist on the usual mindless hack-and-slash. The preview build we played still had a lot of issues that are being addressed, but when the game was running the way it should, it was satisfying to watch our bloodthirsty undead troops rip apart heavily armored knights.

Once a kind ruler, King Kirk Gradis changed drastically after marrying a mysterious woman named Fatima. When Romulus Blood, a devoted knight to the king, warned him of the queen, the king ordered that the House of Blood be executed. Romulus and his younger brother Remus, as well as Sylvia, the king's daughter and Remus' bride-to-be, were all murdered for Romulus' impudence. As they were dying, the three made a pact with some unknown being and were given the power to rise from the dead and the ability to suck the life from the living in order to transform them into the undead.

This proves to be useful, because the king also has a seemingly unlimited supply of troops to guard his kingdom. With this new power, regardless of who you decide to play as, you can zap the life out of any living person and turn him or her into a zombie follower. These zombies will immediately go after the closest living thing and gnaw at it, spewing blood everywhere. What's cool is that you can also order them to swarm and rip apart one person, send them to pull down barricades, or even order them to climb onto each other's shoulders to form a path for you to cross. You can also pick up your undead and toss them onto enemies, which knocks them down or distracts them so that you can deal some extra damage with your own weapon.

Romulus wields a large and heavy weapon and feels a bit slow when compared to Remus, who is quick but deals less damage. Sylvia swings a giant scythe and has a long reach, but she is vulnerable between swings. We preferred Remus, mainly because he was fast, which allowed us to pull off some quick combos and then follow up with the zombie transformation. The square and triangle buttons are for your attacks, and the circle button is to grab your enemies by the neck and suck the energy out of them. A circular timer appears to let you know how long it will take before the deed is done, which can leave you vulnerable for a few seconds. If you deal enough damage to your foes, they'll turn red and start to flash, and that's when you follow up with the circle button so you can instantly convert them, as well as gain a bit of health back.

Your undead army will rot away after a certain amount of time, so it's important to keep strangling knights as you hack your way through. Not only can you toss zombies, but you can pick one up and then slam it into the ground with the triangle button to do a devastating area attack. This destroys the undead you were holding, but it's not like you can't get more. The undead are also handy when used as meat shields, and when you need a specific number of minions to take down a structure, hold the R button and point them in the right direction and they'll automatically go running. Your infernal wrath gauge under your health bar will fill up as you plow your way through. Once it's full, you can unleash a powerful attack that kills everything around you, and your enemies will instantly come back as your loyal servants.

At the end of each chapter, your performance is graded, and you'll earn Dark Energy points, which are shared between the three characters. Our build gave us a ton of points to start off with, so we were able to customize and upgrade our characters by giving them boosts in their defense and strength, as well as give them new combos, weapons, and abilities. There's also an option to reduce the time it takes to convert enemies and gain healing bonuses.

We were given only one build, but you can play Undead Knights with up to four players via ad hoc mode. There's Survival Race mode, in which you race to the end of an area and then try to kill each other at the end. King Battle mode is more of a cooperative mode in which you try to survive a wave of zombie attacks and then work together to take down the boss. Apparently there is also going to be a zombie pillow fight, but we weren't given details on how that's going to work.

The opening cutscene and the visuals as a whole are quite impressive. There's still some work to be done in terms of fixing the glitches and camera issues, but it was a fun romp through castle courtyards and battlements. If you like heavy metal music, there are plenty of angry tunes and guitar riffs to keep you going as you sever limbs and watch heads fly. There's supposed to be some zombie smack-talking in the game, but we haven't come across any in the first few chapters.

Undead Knights is a violent and bloody hack-and-slash game, which is incredibly amusing because it's just so over the top. With the addition of zombies, that alone already bumps up the entertainment value. The game is broken up into relatively short chapters with checkpoints, so it's an easy game to take on the go. With customization options and multiplayer functionality, you and a few friends can dive into all this zombie madness when Undead Knights is released on September 29 for the PlayStation Portable.