Blast your way out of a zombie infested city in this well executed tactical shooting game.
For those unfamiliar with Alien Swarm, it plays mostly as a dungeon crawler but instead of hacking, slashing and casting spells, you're firing rifles, machine guns, shotguns and grenade launchers. You can also use flares, Molotov cocktails, mines and other means of distracting or killing your enemies.
The game is divided in chapters, each consisting of a section of the zombie infested city. The art and level design of those chapters is one of the spots where the game truly shines. A park, a harbor, a hospital, an airport and a other key locations are really brought to life in Dead Nation, not only in the art design, which is really cool, but the zombies also reflect the place you're in. Expect police officers near police stations, patients in hospitals and so on.
All the levels require you to fight your way through progressively tougher and larger zombie groups until the gran finale, which require you to withstand for a given time, or to completely wipe out, a massive horde of the undead. All the events are scripted, packed with surprises and high adrenaline moments. The lights go out, an eerie and foreboding music start to play, you can hear the zombies coming closer as you draw your flamethrower, all reminiscent of zombie and horror movies.
Destroying zombies and looting abandoned cars will give you money, which can be used on weapon shops, conveniently placed on most of the game's check points. The arsenal at your disposal is powerful. Machine guns tear down large groups of weaker zombies and shotguns have true stopping power. Flamethrowers, blade guns and grenade launchers are expensive but they're incredible against heavy armored foes. Secondary items such as flares, mines and grenades are great to control large groups of foes but limited in quantity.
The music suits the mode but does not stand out, save for the one played at each chapter climax. There is a simple plot, told through screenshots but it doesn't add or subtract much from a zombie killing game. The satisfaction comes from an arsenal that feels powerful, great level design, varied scenarios, good atmosphere and high adrenaline moments.
The downside is that it's not an easy game. It takes a while getting used to, specially if you start on hard (grim) looking for the platinum trophy. Also, the game only saves at the check points and they're not close to each other. It's not rare to die at a hard part multiple times and be taken back to a check point that had been visited 10-15 minutes ago. If you like to breeze through your games, I'd advise to play on easy (braindead) or normal.
The game can be played alone or in co-op mode, local and online. I've experienced lag during my sessions and some people complain about it at the forums. It might be a result of the player base due to the fact that this is one of the games that can be downloaded at no cost as part of the Playstation Network welcome back program.
Dead Nation fully embrace its nature and doesn't try to be more than a fast paced ride through a zombie infested city. If you like shooting zombies, you should definitely get it.