Much like the Zombie’s depicted in a classic George A. Romero movie; the Zombie game genre is showing no signs of slowing down and seems to be coming at us in hoards. It’s no surprise that in the last year we’ve seen our fair share of brain hungry titles, but what sets one apart from another? The folks at Housemarque aim to answer this question with their depiction of post-apocalyptic armies of the undead in Dead Nation.

Dead Nation takes a step away from the third person shooter aspect that is typical of the Zombie genre and offers players a unique top-down gaming experience accompanied by the controls of a twin-stick shooter. The default controls require players to use the Left and Right Analog Sticks to control where their character moves and aims, and the shoulder buttons for firing and using the secondary functions of their weapons. The game comes packed with 10 chapters, where strategy is at the forefront of gameplay. In solo campaign, users have the choice of playing as Jack McReady or Scarlett Blake, both characters that share the same storyline and are looking for answers and seeking vengeance in a world of cursed corpses.

Sprinkled through each level are boxes of loot, special armour and health packs, so it’s important to leave no stone unturned if the player wants the most ‘bang for their buck’. Each chapter has several checkpoints, that if skilled enough to survive, the player will be rewarded with weapon and armour upgrades. These upgrades are available in safehouses at the end of every checkpoint and can be purchased using the gold found throughout the level. Where strategy really comes into play is in how the player upgrades their character. Deciding to use gold to upgrade armour will make the character slower but stronger, whereas, purchasing upgrades for their weapons would be sacrificing protection for power, so there are a number of choices that can be made. Be it that the zombies increase in difficulty the closer the player gets to the end of each level, it’s important to use these upgrades wisely.

The game itself has five difficulty settings: Braindead, Normal, Grim, Morbid and Undead. By default, the first three settings are available, and the last two can be unlocked by progressing through the Single Player campaign missions. Players also have the option of practicing in Single Missions to build their confidence and zombie killing abilities. Once comfortable, there is both Local and Online Co-Op Missions that are reminiscent of playing “Contra 3” on the SNES, by that I mean, using both players strengths to funnel in groups of enemies and then surround them on either side to meet their doom, which can feel quite rewarding.

Every stat is tracked through the Leaderboards and uploaded after each chapter. It is an extremely detailed leaderboard comparing not only your records with your friends but also groups your results by your country so that you have a live comparison of how many zombies have been killed by each nation. If nothing else, this in it of itself should be motivation enough to get in the game and help your nation lead the boards with pride.

It’s clear that the developers at Housemarque put a lot of time into all of the forth-mentioned aspects of the game, but where Dead Nation seems to really lack is in the storyline. With that in mind, if you are the type of gamer that craves a deep and visceral story, you aren’t going to find it here.

Accessibility Issues/Concerns:

The biggest concern with Dead Nation is that it requires a great deal of precision. Because of it being a dual-stick shooter of sorts, users are expected to move with one analog stick and aim with the other, if you are unable to do this in a timely fashion, the game constantly reminds you to do so with on-screen pop-ups and this can get quite annoying. The controls can only be adjusted as far as how you cycle through weapons and use the weapons, but when it comes to the analog sticks, they can only swap which one controls movement and aiming so I found that to be quite restrictive and may be difficult for users with one-arm or motor impairments.

Deaf Gamers have the option to toggle on and off subtitles that are displayed between each chapter, but I found that other on-screen font tends to be small and sometimes difficult to read. This leads into issues that color blind gamers may experience, as some of the loot boxes are color-coated for a specific power-ups (E.G. Red – Multiplier, Green – Health and Yellow – Gold/Coin) but there’s no other way to decipher this until after you open each box.

At a Glance

Mobility: There is an extreme demand for precision when playing this game, even the most experienced gamer, regardless of their abilities may have difficulty.
Recommended score: 2/10

Hearing: With Subtitles being an option, the game offers accessibility for gamers with hearing impairments, but all of that aside, other on-screen pop-ups are sometimes hard to read over the dark and ominous environment. Recommended score: 5/10

Vision: As mentioned above, some text callouts are hard to read over the various dark environments in the game and the biggest issue for vision is that color blind gamers may have issues deciphering the color of loot boxes before they open them (E.G. Red – Multiplier, Green – Health and Yellow – Gold/Coin). Recommended score: 4/10

Overall: If you are a fan of the Zombie Genre but aren’t sure if this game is your cup of tea, I would download the demo first to assess whether or not this game is right for you. There is fun to be had here, but there are also a number of accessibility issues, that if addressed, would make the title that much better.