Great visuals, solid gameplay and fun co-op overshadow Dead Nation's difficulty spikes, flat story and lacking rankings.
Dead Nation is the latest project from Housemarque, the renowned developer of another PlayStation Network title, Super Stardust HD. However, this time, Dead Nation is a top-down dual-stick shooter akin to Nihilistic Software's zombie shooter, Zombie Apocalypse. However, there is an excellent atmosphere, great level design and superb visual design amongst the chaos around the city.
You can play as one of two characters – Jack McReady or Scarlett Blake – Where both will have the same storyline. The actual plot is that an outbreak has occurred, and one of the chosen characters must find out the truth about the cause of it, and who is responsible. The story is very forgettable, as I was only focused on killing the undead during each lengthy mission and was only reminded of a plot when cut-scenes arose. The cut-scenes aren't amazing, but they do the job and there are some good images in them. It's just a shame that a tighter narrative wasn't added to the core gameplay.
The atmosphere is absolutely brilliant. Within minutes, you get a sense of the dread and panic, and the terror of the undead. In later levels, tension gains momentum, introducing the player to more and bigger challenges, in the form of bigger creatures and a large frequency of zombie waves. Each level is superbly designed, with burning buildings, capsized vehicles and cordoned-off sections of the city. This gives an impalpable impression of what the citizens must have gone through, and the steps taken in order to evacuate. You are never safe; zombies come at you from more than one direction and you must be careful at all times. That's a big and great part of Dead Nation; knowing that you are never alone with the feeling of dreaded isolation, trying to reach the next big checkpoint and the only source of safety.
The atmosphere is undoubtedly largely aided by the fantastic visual design. Every level is filled with chilling roadways and eerie paths that lead to collectibles and items. The lighting is extremely impressive, perhaps some of the best I've seen in any game to date, with only Uncharted 2 coming to mind. Great flashing of car lights, beautiful red and yellow orbs returning to the player and great fire shadowing make the game a stunning artistic achievement. Perhaps the best aspect of lighting is from the flashlight (torch over in the UK) – Directing the light over fences and walls is terrific, and because the levels are dark and oftentimes misty, the light helps tremendously , as opposed to most shooters where the light is optional and doesn't help too much. The shadowing is even better. Flash the light on a zombie and then at a wall, and you'll see the figure running – It's exceptional. More so off the flashlight, where zombie shadows move realistically. It makes it very hard to realise that this is a downloadable title. The textures, for the most part, are great, with solid work on vehicles, buildings and walkways. If you thought it couldn't get any prettier, wait until you play a level with rain.
The weather effects are beautiful, with stunning raindrops trickling off the ground and off vehicles, with great lighting to compliment it. The fire effects are good though never mind-blowing, yet more impressive when sticking to zombies. Another great aspect of the visuals is the physics. It's great to see zombie corpses fly through the air after a commencing grenade, the explosion often sending them into the sky and falling realistically back to the surface. The gore is also good, with pieces of flesh and blood falling from damaged zombies.
Sound is great, thanks mainly to the terrific music. It plays during tense firefights, which makes them more enjoyable and brings a little "epic" to the atmosphere. The voice acting is hit-or-miss; also as you don't hear it much anyway. The sound effects are really good; good weapon gunshots, groans from zombies and stomping steps from the larger enemies. It's all good and will keep you entertained.
The gameplay may give you the impression of "kill zombies and complete the level" but there's more to it than that. Each level must actually require you to think and plan ahead. For example, you could have the mentality of running through the level and reaching safety, which many may do. However, there are lots of items and loot to find that you will miss a large chunk of it. You could then slowly charge through the level, killing every zombie and collecting as much loot as possible. Or the other option is testing out your entire arsenal and inventory. It gives a good strategic layer to Dead Nation's gameplay architecture, where there are different plans to suit each player.
Collecting items and killing zombies gives you gold. Gold then lets you purchase over half a dozen weapons contained within the game as well as dozens of upgrades, such as increased power, a larger inventory for explosive devices and quicker rate of fire. Collecting loot also nets you gold, but can also contain weapon ammunition, grenades or both. Also, searching the large, yellow crates leads to armour pieces. There are loads of pieces, and each one increases three attributes – Strength, Endurance and Agility. Finding the right combination is the key to survival, and its fun to explore the different options at your disposal. Loot can also be obtained from vehicles situated throughout many a level.
A cool feature of Dead Nation is that you can trigger alarms and distractions in each level. For example, you can trigger a car alarm and zombies will attack it, resulting in an explosion. You can also shoot vending machines, where a noise will occur that distracts the undead. Then there are your inventory devices, such as grenades, mines, dynamite, Molotov cocktails and flares. You can upgrade to a maximum of four of each, and saying they help tremendously would be an understatement. They are also a major factor in whether you survive, as you must plan and use them at the right moment.
There are ten chapters in the game, ranging from streets to graveyards, and from docks to airports. They are all varied and challenging, and are incredibly fun to explore and complete. Variety is a good thing in the game. There are different zombie types that I only touched on earlier and I will explain them here. There are the usual roamer zombies; the default, slow type if you like.
However, later on they come in the form of fireman or military soldiers, where one shot is not enough. You must shoot off their armour and then pick them off, and they can also run at you. Then there are experimentation creatures with large knives as hands, and who will also tear you apart should they enter your proximity. There are large, Hulk-like monsters that jump and charge down on you, and there are acid spitters and wide, kamikaze-esque creatures.
There is also a great co-operative mode. You and a friend can romp through the apocalypse, with one player playing as each main character. It's fun and particularly required when you bump it up to a harder difficulty. Undead is incredibly difficult in solo mode, so definitely get a friend to help out – even then the odds are still stacked against you.
Dead Nation is also the first of what could be many downloadable titles that supports a Platinum trophy, so the trophy gamers have a great reason to pick this game up. Content here is also meaty, with several difficulties, loot to perfect in each level as well as all the armour pieces, and co-op.
There are some deficiencies, however. The animations aren't particularly amazing, as they are quite static in how they move. Also, the camera can be zoomed out quite far that you can receive cheap hits, as you can't see from all directions.
Also, during the big firefights, the framerate takes a hit, dropping quite severely. Fortunately, this isn't a frequent occurrence. There are also difficulty spikes within the game which can lead to frustration. Enemy AI is especially brutal in these areas, where multiple large monsters can all be present at one time. Also, when there are dozens of enemies around, you can receive cheap damage and it can be frustrating.
There is also a Dead Nation race. This is a leaderboard ranking system, where your stats are tracked, but as a country. There are several countries that battle it out to stop the outbreak, with the best country on top. This is an ambitious feature, but it feels empty and doesn't really add to anything – just kind of "being there" and nothing else, really.
The sprint feature is handy but it runs out ever so fast. I would have loved a parameter which you could manage; using it whenever you need but requiring some sort of item to replenish it. As it is, it's good, and I understand that it may make it more eerie, but it could have been implemented better.
Overall, Dead Nation is a very fun and beautiful downloadable shooter, with great visual design, great sound and great content. It isn't perfect – the trial-and-error spikes, some technical hiccups and camera issues, but all in all this is a great, ambitious take on the zombie genre and, with its price tag justification in the balance, this is the best zombie apocalypse yet.
SUMMARY
Presentation 7.0 - The story is flat, and the menus lack flair.
Graphics 8.5 - For a PSN download, Dead Nations look great, with beautiful lighting, atmospheric environments and bloody animations.
Audio 8.5 - Great sound effects and cool music.
Gameplay 8.5 - Despite some difficulty spikes, Dead Nation's game mechanics are satisfying, and the open levels are great to explore.
Replayability 8.5 - A campaign that can last 5-7 hours, with enough content to satisfy multiple playthroughs.
Overall - 8.5/10