World War Z GOTY Edition Review for Xbox One

User Rating: 6
World War Z GOTY Edition Review for Xbox One

Saber Interactive’s recent adaptation from Paramount Pictures’ World War Z in the video game medium was a great hit for the developer as it reached a huge number of sales in a short period after its launch. From the day it was released, the developers started revealing their roadmap for supporting the game with post-launch content. While the game has already reached its first anniversary, a Game of the Year edition of World War Z has arrived recently, featuring the core experience with all the additional content packs, including Marseille, the new location. Read on for our more of our World War Z GOTY Edition review for Xbox One.

World War Z 1

As you may know, World War Z is not a story-driven game at all. It just simply features a bunch of episodes with each one of them including some missions taking place in a specific country with a single objective which is to survive the ever-increasing hordes of zombies. To be honest, it’s a little bit disappointing to make a multiplayer-focused video game while using a movie as your source of inspiration. The name “World War Z” is just a title that appears on the box art to probably give you one more reason to buy it, but the game itself has nothing to do with all the things that happened in the movie. The only shared element is that all the people in the world are going to be swallowed by zombies, which is the simplest aspect of the movie that could be appeared in the game. Almost every zombie-based video game has such a background, so it doesn’t distinguish the game in any understandable way from the other experiences out there.

When it comes to the gameplay, the developers have attempted to adapt one key feature of the movie as a new tactic to challenge you, and they’ve been incredibly successful. The zombie swarm is the most satisfying part of World War Z that you can’t find in any other zombie-killing title in the market. If the game has only one new innovation, that’s definitely the swarm mechanics. Thanks to the swarm, there’s no safe place in World War Z to hide in. Everywhere in the game is reachable for the zombies as they will make a ladder out of themselves to get you.

World War Z 2

Each mission in the game follows a single scenario in which you get into different points, hold your position against a few waves of zombies, and then move to another location to do the same again. Playing World War Z in solo mode can be frustrating sooner than you expect. However, when you team up with your friends or other random players and challenge yourself at higher difficulty levels, the game could give you more reasons to stay and play it again and again.

World War Z features five difficulty levels and even the second one could be a nightmare for you if your team doesn’t have a certain plan against the raid of zombies. Fortunately, there a lot of new weapons in the GOTY edition which makes it possible to finally find the one that suits you well. Aside from primary and secondary weapons, there are some special weapons as well that work extraordinarily.

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You will get the best experience of a tactical co-op zombie-shooting out of World War Z only if you play it with a bunch of friends who you can talk to during the game. The campaign missions of the game need you to have some precise plans. Every player in your squad means a lot to the group and if you lost anyone during a defensive situation, you will get into huge trouble which might end-up losing the whole game.

There aren’t many different enemies in World War Z, but some types of them are more troublemakers than the others. Screamers, for example, should be taken down at once before they call an infinite number of zombies to attack you. There are nearly 5 types of zombies overall and they don’t change from one episode to another. Your progression in the game is deeply related to the difficulty level you choose to play at. So if you go on with the easy mode, the progression will be a little bit grindy.

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Map design of the game for each episode and each mission has some surprising moments for you. Sometimes you get to prepare yourself for defending your position against several waves of zombies in a small place such as a parking lot, and sometimes you have a big square in the middle of a city to take cover in with enemies attacking you from different sides. The new Marseille episode is a worthy shot for those who love to play the game’s campaign with a squad of friends, thanks to its distinct locations in each mission. That said, it’s not big enough to upgrade your standard version to the GOTY edition.

In the case of multiplayer modes, World War Z doesn’t use its capabilities to make a game-changer difference in there. Zombies are present in the PvP matches, but most of the time they don’t have a critical role in changing the winner of the game. Some of the maps simply allow you to run away from zombies. All of the multiplayer modes have a similar copy out there in the other games, which doesn’t give any privilege for World War Z in this area. Maybe the Vaccine mode seems a little bit new for a brief period of time.

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Regarding the fact that Multiplayer PvP modes in World War Z don’t include a big number of players, playing the campaign mode with friends is a more exciting experience, though the multiplayer could give you a break from focusing on the zombies.

All in all, World War Z is a game that you can probably play for a long time if you really love tearing the zombies apart in each mission with the all available difficulty levels. The game features satisfying gunplay and it feels great to win a game over a lot of hordes of zombies at the end of a mission. But first of all, you need to answer to the question that whether you would like to go through a repetitive cycle with increasing challenges or not. If the answer is a “Yes,” all you need to enjoy World War Z is a squad of friends like you. But if the answer is a “No,” just ignore this game and look for another zombie-shooting title in the market.

Summary
World War Z GOTY Edition is a complete pack of a co-op based zombie-shooter that keeps you engaged for a long time if you don’t mind repeating a cycle of events again and again. You will get the most out of the game when you play it with your friends. Otherwise, World War Z will be a frustrating experience that has nothing new to offer.
Good
  • Tactical co-op based gameplay
  • Lots of weapons to find and use
  • The Zombie Swarm mechanic
Bad
  • Lack of different scenarios in quest design
  • Lack of interesting PvPvE modes
  • Considerable delay when loading textures
6
Fair

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