Undead Knights is a game about zombies, but it's not the kind of game about zombies we're used to seeing. You aren't blasting zombies with shotguns or playing cooperatively with other "survivors", Left 4 Dead style, but instead, you're running around as a distinctly Japanese knight, slashing identical looking soldiers and turning them into zombies to fight by your side. It's an interesting concept in some ways, and while the result is fun and satisfying some of the time, it's also extremely repetitive and uninspired at others.

You choose from 3 characters, ranging from the buff and demonic knight Romulus to the long-haired pretty boy Remus, to the scythe-wielding Sylvia. Each character feels somewhat different, but there's not so much of a difference that you'll feel the need to switch between them from time to time. You'll most likely stick with whoever you choose on the first level and proceed to customize them with additional attacks and bonuses. Each character is upgraded separately using points and a menu screen that lets you give them new combos, additional health and special one-time perks such as the ability to start a level with 100% more health. These lower your level grade by one, but since higher grades doesn't really earn you anything and the upgrades are so cheap, there's practically no penalty.

Sylvia holds a scythe which is fairly fast and can cut horizontal for maximum damage, while Remus wields two small blades and Romulus carries a large and powerful buster sword. I found myself playing as Romulus almost all the time as he's the least annoying of the three characters, but also because his weapon feels the most satisfying. It really doesn't matter who you choose, though, so if you'd rather play as Sylvia you're not going to experience any difficulties that you wouldn't experience as someone else. This is good in that you won't have to worry about choosing the weakest of the characters, but it also means you have no incentive to ever switch characters, and therefore, you'll never need to upgrade more than one character.

No matter which character you choose, you're going to have the very important ability to turn people into zombies and then control them. It's easy enough to do; just run up to a knight, whack at him until he turns red and then grab him with the circle button to turn him into one of your minions. You can then hold the R button to sweep and give commands to your zombies, such as attacking specific enemies or busting down a barrier. It's pretty much a more serious and much darker version of Overlord, and it works fairly well with the PSP's control scheme, but when playing the game I mostly just found myself disappointed that Overlord hasn't tried its hand at the PSP yet.

The game's combat is pretty dull, which is a shame considering 95% of the game is whacking people. You'll have to dodge, use your zombies and use special attacks, but for the most part you're just mashing on the square button and then throwing in a quick press of the circle button to turn someone into a zombie. The combat wouldn't be nearly as annoying if not for the enemies that respawn endlessly out of nowhere. You'll never get a break from the constant enemies, even in puzzle sections, and the game pretty much revolves around heading into a room, killing enough people to solve a "puzzle" with your zombies, then heading into the next room, and it doesn't help that the level design is mind-numbingly bad. The designs often feel like they were made by amateurs using a free level-designing program online, and in many cases they reminded me of the illogical and poorly designed buildings I'd create with Legos when I was little.

The game's combat is only broken up by sections where you'll have to command your zombies to break something down or possibly turn into a bridge for you to traverse a gap, but because these are as easy as aiming at an object and watching your zombies destroy it, the game designers tried to add difficulty by throwing in more respawning enemies. It makes them needlessly frustrating since you can't move or attack while commanding your horde, and since your zombies are too dumb to work without you telling them to, you'll likely die several times at these sections trying to get your zombies to cooperate while also trying to stay alive.

Another issue with the gameplay is that you'll often try to grab a knight to turn him into a zombie, but because your horde is surrounding him, you'll accidentally grab one of them instead. It sounds like a nitpick, but when you're in the heat of battle and being smacked around from all sides, it becomes a major frustration, especially since you'll sometimes have to wait for soldiers to transform into zombies, leaving you defenseless. The camera in the game is also, inevitably, a problem. You have to control it with the directional buttons, which in the middle of a battle is practically impossible, and the only other method of control is snapping the camera behind your character with the L button. It's hard to get it exactly where you want it, and trying to strafe with the L button can be difficult when your character won't aim where he's supposed to. Other than these problems the controls work pretty well, with responsive attacks, nice hit detection and decent battle controls overall.

Graphically the game isn't especially good looking. The dark gothic style is like a cross between Devil May Cry and the PlayStation 1 game MediEvil. The levels are dark, foggy and grey, and the knights all look demonic. The game's art direction is pretty generic overall, though, with uninspired knights, repeating enemies and bad level designs. Not to mention the fact that the three main characters are way too Japanese to be starring in a gothic medieval hack-n-slash about zombies. The zombies themselves, by the way, almost always look the same. The ability to cut off their limbs is kind of a nice touch, but in the middle of the game's over-crowded battles, it's hard to care. And speaking of overcrowded battles, the frame-rate drops significantly in later levels.

The sound is quite annoying as well. Romulus' voice is appropriately badass, but like the rest of the game, it's pretty generic. Remus and Sylvia both have extremely annoying voices, especially Remus, who sounds like a whiny emo teenager going through puberty. The music is heavy metal all the way through, and it's incredibly loud and annoying, not to mention repetitive. It doesn't fit the game's gothic style, and it definitely doesn't work with the medieval setting. The sound effects are decent, and they make slashing up enemies feel more satisfying than it might be otherwise.

Unless you're a huge fan of zombies, knights and all things goth, then it's difficult to recommend Undead Knights as anything more than a rental. The gameplay, while fun at times, is extremely uninspired, as is the rest of the game. And in the end, "uninspired" is the best word to describe Undead Knights. After all the beautiful, fun and creative PSP games before it, Undead Knights feels like a shallow and inferior experience, and if you pay full retail price for it, you'll likely start feeling buyer's remorse after your first hour with the game.