Raising zombie minions just never gets old.
For a start, Stubbs needs to feed on brains. While your health will regenerate if you stay out of trouble long enough (one of many nods to the Halo engine it's based on), eating brains helps recharge 'ammo' of various organs you can use in battle. While you can, for the most part, rely on frantically clicking the mouse near an enemy and trading blows with him until he dies, sometimes you need that extra bit of help in the form of a gut grenade or fart. Not to mention using your disembodied hand to grab an enemy to do your bidding. And while these various abilities all add to the tactics you can use to get through areas, the real charm (if one can call it that) in Stubbs is in creating your undead army. It just never seems to get old. Now, let's be frank, the zombies aren't all that useful in battle. They're great shields and will distract enemies, but they have a short lifespan if everyone's shooting at them, so carefully managing them is important, as is creating large amounts of zombies. The game aids you in this, because you don't necessarily have to eat someone's brain to zombify them (a finishing move, in essence), a normal kill will also raise a zombie. So if you take an active stance in your attacks by, for example, circling an enemy that's shooting at one of your minions and then eating his brain, there aren't really any obstacles you can't get around. The only real problem with eating brains is that it's sometimes difficult to tell what state your victim is in. For civilians a simple push of E will do, but policemen and other victims take a few hits to subdue and if you're not careful you may end up missing your window and slapping them to the ground instead. You still get the zombie out of it, but no brain energy refill. Sometimes I resorted to an efficient pummeling of both the mouse button and e at the same time and the game would "register" the E press the moment it was usable. This helped, but it made the game feel more like one of those boring "press button quickly to get out of this situation!!!" gimicks. The game features an over the top level of gore, but still maintains a comedic stance to all the proceedings. The tutorial that teaches you that you can immediately eat the brains of an enemy whose back is turned to you, for example, features a policeman wanting to take Stubbs to the station in his squad car but not wanting to touch him as Stubbs stinks. "So I'll just stand with my back turned to you while you get in, sir." he says, and it's one of the many times you giggle with glee at the chaos you can unleash on this beautifully naive little city. A jock tries to convince a girl it's time to move on and forget about her boyfriend who died "over three hours ago" before Stubbs lands on the trunk of their car and screams ensue from everyone involved. One thing that Stubbs does excellently is the loopy humour, as any other approach to this kind of game would have been just too dark - not that Stubbs doesn't have its own dark moments, such as your victims at times screaming they have a wife and kids. Other times they scream "stop... eating ... me!" so it balances out I suppose. Actually, the taunts and other audio of the citizens of Punchbowl is one of the best parts of Stubbs. Personally, I just hate barbershop quartets and while the inclusion of some enemies that sing (and dress) in this fashion is suitably wacky, their voices just irritated me so much it was a great relief to get rid of them. In the end I'll concede it's a matter of taste, but I would have preferred something else. Or at least had them keep their mouths shut. As you'd expect, Stubbs doesn't have much of a storyline, although there are some back stories that are revealed during the game, story isn't the focus here. In fact, I found the story to be somewhat lacking as it, in my opinion, failed to properly justify just why the whole city has to be zombified in Stubbs' act of revenge against the mayor. If you just take the areas you're in and how you get from one to the other the "story" works fine. After all, the main focus here is always on zombie chaos. Stubbs also features some vehicle combat (another nod to Halo) and other bizarre minigames like a dance competition to give the players a change of pace and for the most part these work very well. It's also funny to see a zombie hop into the passenger seat of a vehicle Stubbs is driving. The soundtrack to the game is excellent, featuring 50s classics interpreted by good-yet-not-too-expensive bands like the Dandy Warhols and the Raveonettes and works very nicely. So nicely they've released it as a stand-alone album that I'm actually contemplating purchasing, as I grew up listening to mum's oldie station in the car and something touched that nostalgic nerve as I was playing Stubbs. Despite all the gushing blood, ha ha.
So what's the final verdict on Stubbs? It's not an original game, basically being a 3d person action/adventure game, but it packs in so many interesting features (like controlling enemies or rolling your head around) that it stands out quite well in its genre. Add in the fact that there's no real opportunity in the gaming world (that I know of) to play as a zombie and you've got a real winner. It's got its flaws (such as not being able to run on command) and feels rough around the edges at times, but always seems to redeem itself in the end leaving you satisfied and entertained. And no one had to lose any brains either. Definitely recommended.