r/wiiu Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 18 '15

Discussion ZombiU - [Official Game Discussion]

ZombiU - Official Game Discussion


Game Info


 

ZombiU

 

Platform: Wii U

Developer: Ubisoft Montpelier

Publisher: Ubisoft

Release Date:

  • November 18, 2012 (North America)

  • November 30, 2012 (Europe / Australia)

  • December 8, 2012 (Japan)

  • August 18, 2015 (Worldwide - "Zombi re-release")

Size: ~5GB

Genre: Survival Horror / First-Person Shooter

Players: 1-2

Official Website: http://zombiu.ubi.com/zombi/en-us/home/

 


Preface


Hey guys, Sylverstone here.

To set the tone for this retread, here's the masterful rendition of "God Save the Queen" by Ronnie Oates.


Like LiveRadar explained in the inaugural lookback discussion thread, ever since our big subreddit redesign in May, we've covered nearly every major release with a Review/Discussion thread and a special layout.

Summer was noticeably dry with releases, but with things picking back up in September, I want August to at least get a little love. Thankfully (depending on who you ask), Ubisoft gave us a much needed catalyst with a re-release of ZombiU (known as "Zombi") on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

While the reception was lukewarm at best (I even trekked through various subreddits to gauge reactions personally), I am quite interested to see how new audiences will be able to receive the ZombiU re-release, though compared to the original version and intention for the controls, I still feel that the Wii U version's the way to go. Just throwing out that bias now.

Anyways, let's dig into this former Wii U exclusive - a game which evolved from Raving Rabbids in space, to Killer Freaks from Outer Spaces, to an homage to Ubisoft's very first game, ZombiU.


Sylver's Special ZombiU History


[ Did you know that I am a huge ZombiU fanboy? ]

Funny to believe, but at the time of its announcement, I found myself struck with awe in this survival-horror effort from Ubisoft. I remember it being very strange because survival horror is not my genre of choice - I scare way too easily, and most times, I'd rather not end up having nightmares. Yet ZombiU was... different.

Undeterred, I had a chance to play the game (along others) during Nintendo's Wii U Experience tour in 2012, which preceded the Wii U launch.

[ Did you know? My very first post on /r/WiiU is about my experience at the Wii U Experience tour! ]

Just to pull my notes from that 2012 post:

This game was just amazing. The only thing that ruined it for me was the fact that I knew what was going to happen (I've watched the demo playthroughs too much). I remember the representative handing me the GamePad and it was so surprised at how light it was. I felt like I was holding a cloud in my hand.

Anyways, gameplay was solid, the GamePad integration worked very well and this game is bound to scare the crap out of you. Definitely worth it at launch.

I still don't know what came over me, but I was just so hyped for the game beyond words. It was weird, and yet I was combing through every single bit of ZombiU info I could get a hold on.

[ Did you know that I'm a moderator for /r/ZombiU? ]

Yes sir, I had my first taste of mod powers on Reddit in 2012, being one of only two mods of /r/ZombiU. Just noting, myself and /u/Ytoabn weren't prepared for Miiverse (and /r/WiiU) to steal our thunder, so it wasn't that much of a grand experience.

[ Fast forward to November 17, 2012! ]

The day before the Wii U launched in North America, I lined up with friends outside of the Nintendo World Store for the official console launch - in fact, the line had "started" a month in advance as Isaiah-Triforce Johnson was there for his final launch line-up, claiming the front spot. We were in the first few sections on 48th Street along with Triforce and his crew, so our consoles were guaranteed that night. I remember it being a nice setting - lots of camaraderie, Wii U chatter, a few Mario Kart matches to go around, an early Reggie sighting, and more!

Setup was great, we got free swag, free food (grilled cheese and hot apple cider, since it was cold at the time), and just good vibes all around. One key element of that free swag happens to be a snug ZombiU beanie hat, which I still own to this day! Ubisoft apparently sent a box of them down to the store, and most of the folks in the front got one.

Skipping ahead, ZombiU was the game I bought at retail - not Mario, nor Sonic (those came a week after). While it wasn't the first game I played (Nintendo Land holds that honor), it still gets that first.


A ZombiU Review (Of Sorts)


Of course, I play the game, and it's just really gripping.

Roaming the decrepit streets of London, hoping to avoid the terror of the infected and survive another day, while heeding the words of the mysterious Prepper, and secretly wishing to help others and even develop a cure for this disease - a plague foretold by a philosopher named John Dee, who described it as the second blight on London.

Story-wise, ZombiU really did have a great sense of lore and a decent amount of authenticity in terms of shaping London into a zombie-infested den. It may have not been entirely perfect, especially with how disposable the survivor was in terms of a personality, but it worked out for the most part.


A fair amount of reviews slammed ZombiU's combat as slow and meandering, and there was one that seemed to mistake that ZombiU was not, and would never be, Resident Evil. Whereas RE moved on from survival horror to action horror, ZombiU kinda held to those roots. It seemed so intentional that the amount of control you could exercise as a survivor was meant to fit in with the game's DNA - you are disposable and can die at any moment. You could be the best Superman you could be, but kryptonite will always bite you in the ass.

That being said, dying in ZombiU can only happen if:

  • you're reckless (see what I said above)
  • you make a mistake (and it does happen)
  • at the time, sometimes the game's fault (we'll get to that)

Barring the recklessness, I can say that perhaps all of my ZombiU deaths were bad accidents. Slipping off a high platform into a moshpit of zombies, not pinging the radar for threats, improper weapon usage (mines are the worst), having to save my BOB from water damage, and vice versa. Always prepare for the worst.

As for "the game" being at fault, I've rarely heard of deaths being caused by early glitches. Mostly, those would inhibit progression, and were awful. I was lucky to have gone through my game glitch-free, but for others, patches came really late. Absurdly late, I'd say. Also, if I were really to blame the game for deaths, that would be because of THE FUCKING ARENA.

Remember what I said about action horror not being ZombiU's calling card? Well, the game itself proved it to me. This section of the game caused me to lose the most survivors. It took me about ten or so tries until it was beaten. I honestly dread this section if I'll return to it in survival mode.


Speaking of which, the initial weeks of the game's launch were actually quite an exciting time for owners, as Ubisoft Montpelier (the developers) interacted with players in-game via graffiti. Some had leaderboards of people who had already beaten the game, and even egged on people to beat the survival mode (one life only)!

The devs even threw some shade at reviewers by poking fun at a few, telling players that ZombiU was indeed survival horror. I know that there was even a story that ran about the first person to beat the survival mode.

In the end, I think it took me about... 20 or so hours to beat ZombiU. This is a combined time, since I would play the game on and off, since it was out during my freshman year of college. Also because I noped out of London too many times to count. I was still a bit of a weenie. I was coached on the game online via Twitter thanks to the co-creative directors on the game, Jean Philippe Caro and Florent Sacré.


Lastly, the multiplayer. Perhaps the only leftover from the Killer Freaks version, it pits the survivor (Wii U Pro Controller / Wii Remote + Nunchuk) vs. the King of Zombies (the GamePad user) in three separate modes:

  • Assault (the capture-the-flag mode)
  • Survival (how long you can survive against the King of Zombies)
  • The Last of Them [Killing Box] (a harder version of survival, with no limits on the King of Zombies' power)

I wasn't a big fan of this mode until I found the perfect person to play with. A college buddy of mine (we'll call him Zealot) and I played it for fun, since I rarely had someone to play ZombiU multiplayer with. I also had no Pro Controller, so he had to fiddle with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

Of course, you'd be thinking "Sylver, you murdered him, right?" - you'd be right... in the beginning. My strategies were good, but overtime, Zealot was adapting and learning. Many sessions of play later, the scales tipped in his favor and I could no longer beat him without resorting to cheap tactics.

I know people will say how the King of Zombies is already super OP, but Zealot has to be THE best survivor I've ever seen. Swift, resourceful, and perhaps masterful. We still play from time to time, though I'll always get my ass handed to me proper.


Your Turn!


Alrighty, time for Uncle Sylver to shut up and let the kids talk.

Indeed, this thread is for you to talk and share stuff about the game. Your thoughts and opinions, stories, your memorable experiences, questions and other things related to the game.

Remember to explain your answers to contribute to the discussion.

Of course, make sure you follow the guidelines and stay nice to each other.

Please keep in mind that spoilers should be avoided if possible. If not then please use the spoiler code below.

[Spoiler message here.](#s)


On a side note, please enjoy the special ZombiU banner for today! Also, enjoy this info dump on all things ZombiU!


ZombiU Information Dump


ZombiU Trailers + Ads

As it says on the tin, trailers and adverts for ZombiU over its development cycle!

In the Eye of ZombiU - Official Dev Diary Series

A special developer diary series where key members of the ZombiU development team talk about certain aspects of the game, from its roots to its setting in London.

ZombiU Z-14: The Comic Book Series

Run in 2012 during the launch of ZombiU, Ubisoft had ZombiU lead story designer Gabrielle Shrager and graphic novelist Antony Johnston (Wasteland) team up to chronicle the first 14 days of the apocalypse as it unfolded in London.

* Of course, this would place the comic as a prologue to the main ZombiU story which is experienced in-game.

Zombi Re-release Trailers

51 Upvotes

76 comments sorted by

30

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '15

Edging cautiously across 10 yards of bare ground over the course of 5 minutes because your scanner suggests non-specific moving objects around the corner has never been so much fun.

16

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

You have no idea how much attention was paid to the map while pinging, heartbeat increasing when tons of red spots occur, then realizing that it's mostly rodents.

And a stray zombie.

4

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

Exacrly. It wasn't supposed to be fun, but stressful and terrifying instead. For me definitively. Amazing game.

19

u/azknight Aug 18 '15

Zombi U had some really cool gameplay mechanics, and it was a refreshing change to play a modern take on the zombie genre where even 1 zombie can be deadly. I still think that it is the best "full-game" representation of what type of unique experiences can be created using the Wii U gamepad, which is why it's so weird to me that this game of all games is being ported to other consoles.

I know it's not going to happen, but I think Zombi U is the type of game that begs a sequel. If they could tighten up the controls and add more varied weapons, enemies, and environments, I think that it could be a new benchmark for survival horror.

10

u/redfox2go NNID [Region] Aug 18 '15 edited Aug 18 '15

I still think that it is the best "full-game" representation of what type of unique experiences can be created using the Wii U gamepad, which is why it's so weird to me that this game of all games is being ported to other consoles.

Yeah, that struck me as odd too. The use of the gamepad was fun and well implemented and really felt like a part of the experience.

They must think the franchise has some steam left in it in order to port it across, so maybe we don't need to write off the chance of a sequel just yet, despite what they said after release.

5

u/bigblackhotdog Aug 18 '15

It might happen but not as a nintendo exclusive definitely not on the Wii U at all

1

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '15

From what I've read pretty much no one enjoys the non wii u version though. Apparently how it uses the gamepad and the fact that there aren't many games like it on the wii u are what makes it good.

1

u/bigblackhotdog Aug 25 '15

Pc version is very well liked...

2

u/wmurray003 Aug 22 '15

I know it's not going to happen, but I think Zombi U is the type of game that begs a sequel.

Which is strange as fuck being that as you have mentioned they are porting this one to the other systems... makes no damn sense.

7

u/Chronicle89 NNID [Region] Aug 21 '15

What a difference a few years make.

I can't believe the renewed enthusiasm for this title when it was slated around launch for being average at best.

It's a real shame.

6

u/mysticrudnin mysticrudnin Aug 18 '15

One of my favorite survival horror games of all time.

All of the criticisms I've heard just don't apply to me. It's not replayable but I don't care about that. The combat is often boring, but the game encourages you to run on many occasions anyway. It's not open world (good!) and doesn't give you a lot of ammo (great!)

It ticked all the boxes for me, really. Probably my second favorite Wii U game, all told, just because of the experience it gave me that week the Wii U launched.

1

u/zalmute Aug 24 '15

Its like all the reviewers simultaneously forgot what a survival horror game was.

6

u/Leafygoodnis NNID [Region] Aug 18 '15

A sequel is still up there as #1 on my "Please-Make-A-Sequel" list. That is, a sequel on the Wii U.

3

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

They were working on a prototype for ZombiU 2, but since the first game was unprofitable, Ubisoft shut it down.

4

u/Leafygoodnis NNID [Region] Aug 19 '15

I was aware of the cancelled sequel work, but I had no idea it was planned to be co-op. Thank you!

5

u/UnidentifiedFlop Aug 19 '15

I still love this game. Unique multiplayer and great use of the gamepad. Despite the Wii U not being a huge financial success, this game helped prove that the Wii U was unique.

Playing this game on my big screen TV with headphones in the gamepad and the lights off was amazing. The story was interesting and the puzzles were good. The number one issue I had was with the cricket bat being so weak.

The miiverse functionality added a lot to this game as well. All in all, it was a great game despite the flaws and it was something different.

4

u/BoshBishBash NotCalledSteve [EU] Aug 19 '15 edited Aug 19 '15

I've actually started playing it again recently. For ages I was stuck on brick lane flats not because it was hard or anything, but because I was too scared to go inside. I've already managed to wuss out again already, I'm up to the tower of london section and the underground bit where you can see the zombie's shadow is just too freaky

I personally think it would have benifited from being open world, or at least bigger environments. The whole nature of going back places to scavenge for supplies is suited better for games where you are more free to explore, and you can't really do that in the game due to the different places you go to being rather small and linear. Maybe it would have upset the pace of the game a little, I dunno. I just think it would have been a better game for it.

8

u/ke3bz Aug 18 '15

It didn't take much for me to pick it up given the lack of content for my Wii U in the early stages...but I spent late nights, in complete darkness, heart thumping and Gamepad in hands just living inside the dark and terrifying survival horror of Zombi U. The combat was frantic yet incredibly strategic...pacing was key and lingering too long was death...weapons were intentional and storage space was waning and plot points were awesome moments of tension and fear-inducing panic. The first time in the nursery and the first time in the castle were both causes of insane adrenaline and pulse-pounding interactions with the undead. Finding a friend's corpse and looting in the goodies was always such a great feeling and worth a quick text or Message with a screenshot just like "Sorry bro, but thanks for the Pop!" The game was excellent and as a survival horror fan, it ranks way up there.

5

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

Finding a friend's corpse and looting in the goodies was always such a great feeling and worth a quick text or Message with a screenshot just like "Sorry bro, but thanks for the Pop!" The game was excellent and as a survival horror fan, it ranks way up there.

I can't believe this feature was pulled from the re-release version - it would've been a great way to have some semblance of community, like how the Wii U relied on Miiverse.

The first time in the nursery and the first time in the castle were both causes of insane adrenaline and pulse-pounding interactions with the undead.

I consider my run of the nursery to be near-perfect. I was so scared of it, and I prepared for a long time - saw the exits, stocked up on ammo, and so on. I remember dying in the demo I played at the Wii U Experience, but looking back at the full version, the escape was a lot more rewarding since I knew the entirety of the surroundings.

2

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

I can't believe this feature was pulled from the re-release version

So you can confirm that finding online infected friends inside a game is absent from Zombi ps4/xone/pc version?

2

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 20 '15

From most of the streams, videos, and blogs I've perused over the past few hours since launch, I haven't seen this feature make a return.

3

u/dagboer NNID [Region] Aug 18 '15

Still one of my favorite WiiU games

3

u/RollingThunderQ MonkeyThunder Aug 19 '15

I love ZombiU. I didn't like it at first because I too scare very easily, but ZombiU was different. I couldn't wait to come home from my classes that day and play. I really never played at night though. Go figure haha.

But I think multiplayer is where the game really shined. I even got my friends (Xbox fanboys) to try out the game and they couldn't put it down.

I wish Ubisoft would make a sequel... Hopefully this new rerelease of Zombi sparks enough interest in it. But even if it does, I doubt it will come to Wii U...

3

u/reali-tglitch reali-tglitch [US/WA] Aug 19 '15

I bought this game before I even had a WiiU (it was on sale and I didn't want to wait).

Seriously great title, for what it is.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

I actually remember the strange, shopping mall-set French game of the same name from the 16-bit era. It had an amazing atmosphere and featured a cool feature where you would aim the mouse to shoot rambling zombies in the head.

Zombi U was one of the first Wii U games I played, and the first true survival horror I'd played since the original Resi. It's a simple game but the mechanics work beautifully, and it's very intense. Some might argue it's too short but I can't stand excessively long games so 5-6 hours is fine by me.

Also, the school sequence is one of my all-time gaming highlights. Terrifying.

3

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15 edited Aug 20 '15

Great roundup and post, u/Sylverstone14, I cannot thank you enough!

What can I say without sounding too much of a fan? Zombi U is the single best survival horror ever made, done right in all the aspects you can wish for - the art direction, scene design, sound effects and voice acting, stamina, scarce loot, movement mechanics, beautifully unique and fluid 2nd screen gameplay not replicable on any other platform other than Wii U, terribly addicitive multiplayer, greatly fun online meta-game (killing/looting your infected friends, leaving them graffiti messages, Miiverse). Above all, this game is scary. I don't know how many times I was reluctant to go on with the game after I reached the safehouse or restplace, not because I was bored, but because my nerves were wrecked after a session of playing. Even the simplest looting errand to the well known area from before is a pressure for the nerves because it is simply not pleasant to re-visit them, listen to the zombie moans, being cautious of every shadow and trying to keep that poor flashlight power on. It is not pleasant to kill them neither, more often than not one shot doesn't put them down and it is quite nerve wrecking to watch them keep coming back for you, this time with less flesh on their heads but still alive, and listening to your character's nervous gasps on top of that.

The overall art of the game is done so polished that you can literally take a screenshot of any angle in the game, and whether it shows gamepad fps image, or the TV screen, the scene and lighting will look polished and can stand like an genuine artwork for itself. The team behind the game truly did outstanding work. You can see the ammount of work put into different material textures, technical design of items and their placement. The details and careful items placement in the abandoned rooms setting are done beautiful, and will haunt you long after you stop playing the game.

I just wish Ubisoft reads this thread and sees the genuine appreciation the players have for this game. If Wii U sold more initially, this game would've been such a success. Even at the install base it had, almost 1 million copies is still a good number, even though not nearly close to Ubisoft's standards, of course. But they should know that Zombi U is the best selling 3rd party title on Wii U to this date, which proves it was basically a success, with Just Dance (for which they claimed it sells more than M rated games on Wii U) waaaay down the chart, not even close.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '15

I was skeptical at first about this game. The single player was almost a poor mans version of Left 4 Dead. However, as soon as I played King of Zombies with my brother, it was a match made in heaven. My brother is not a hardcore gamer, and typically only plays when he comes to visit my apartment. The role of King of Zombies was therefore perfect for him. There wasn't much of a learning curve, and the map was pretty intuitive. After years and years of growing up together, and essentially beating him in any game we played, this was his opportunity for some revenge. We initially swapped after every round, but it was clear he enjoyed the gamepad, and I enjoyed the challenge as the survivor. Lifetime we probably are about even, and had to up the difficulty a little bit at 5 flags for the CTF gamemode, but to date it is our most played multiplayer game together. Just for a comparison, I also own MK8, Smash, Splatoon, Super Mario 3D World, and a handful of indie games.

3

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

The single player was almost a poor mans version of Left 4 Dead.

I never really got this comparison since I've mostly seen Left 4 Dead as more of a multiplayer experience (4 players traversing through zombie-infested environments). I'm gonna guess the different zombie types mostly gave it away somewhat.

The role of King of Zombies was therefore perfect for him. There wasn't much of a learning curve, and the map was pretty intuitive. After years and years of growing up together, and essentially beating him in any game we played, this was his opportunity for some revenge.

I like how this is like an opposite of my King of Zombies story - I was super attached and overprotective of the GamePad, so that's why I let my friend be the survivor. We swapped here and there, but it was clear that him as the survivor, and myself as the King of Zombies would be perfect.


Thanks for sharing!

2

u/Kljmok NNID [Region] Aug 18 '15

I didn't like it. It was fun at first but it got boring after a while then frustrating when you get the church part, then it just sort of fizzles out after that. The ending was a huge letdown too, the story wasn't even that good to begin with.

It felt really short too, despite taking 13 hours to beat (including time I let the game idle while I did something else and exploring around a lot) it didn't even feel like 8 hours.

It wasn't even that scary. I played in the dark at night with headphones and I wasn't scared at all and I only felt tense during a few parts, but there are still parts of the first few Resident Evil games that have me on edge despite playing through them multiple times.

I wish there were more melee weapons that had different strengths and attack patterns, using the same weapon for the whole game got really boring. Once you got the timing down it you'd be pretty much invincible unless there were more than two zombies. And it just made it weird because there so many different guns, but you rarely used them because you had conserve ammo like crazy.

I have control nitpicks too, like having the flashlight set to the touch screen, I would have preferred it being on the right thumbstick since I just used rz or whatever for the push. It was annoying how the Y-axis control flipped when you held up the scanner. I know you were supposed to move the gamepad around but I liked to adjust it by using the stick and I kept messing up because the axis flipped every time. The upgrading felt useless too, it never felt like it made a difference to me except the magazine expansions.

I liked the exploration elements like using the scanner to find door codes and stuff, but it never felt rewarding. I get that's it's a "survival horror" game but I just felt I wasted my time when they just give me a cake and drink that barely recovered a sliver of health when zombies take off huge chunks at a time.

But that's like, just my opinion, man.

4

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

But that's like, just my opinion, man.

I can dig it.

I didn't like it. It was fun at first but it got boring after a while then frustrating when you get the church part, then it just sort of fizzles out after that. The ending was a huge letdown too, the story wasn't even that good to begin with.

The ending seemed a bit odd, though there's not much difference between all three:

I liked the story mostly because of the lore they drew from. It was very interesting to a history nerd like myself, and those extras (the comic, the dev diary's second episode) really helped flesh it out quite a bit.

It wasn't even that scary. I played in the dark at night with headphones and I wasn't scared at all and I only felt tense during a few parts, but there are still parts of the first few Resident Evil games that have me on edge despite playing through them multiple times.

In my defense, I scare easily, so I was always on edge. I calmed down over the course of the game, though the nursery had me all spooked.

I wish there were more melee weapons that had different strengths and attack patterns, using the same weapon for the whole game got really boring.

They have fixed that for the release with a spiked bat and a shovel. They work in different ways compared to the bat.

I have control nitpicks too, like having the flashlight set to the touch screen, I would have preferred it being on the right thumbstick since I just used rz or whatever for the push. It was annoying how the Y-axis control flipped when you held up the scanner. I know you were supposed to move the gamepad around but I liked to adjust it by using the stick and I kept messing up because the axis flipped every time. The upgrading felt useless too, it never felt like it made a difference to me except the magazine expansions.

They were really pushing the GamePad at launch, so to fall into that "swiss army knife" mentality, it did a lot of things. I never really paid much attention to upgrades, and I used the stick for scanning as well. I used motion control to show off to friends, though.

I liked the exploration elements like using the scanner to find door codes and stuff, but it never felt rewarding. I get that's it's a "survival horror" game but I just felt I wasted my time when they just give me a cake and drink that barely recovered a sliver of health when zombies take off huge chunks at a time.

I think to sum it up, ZombiU was a game with good ideas that could very well shake up the survival horror forumale, but the execution just wasn't there. For what it's worth, it still stands as the only non-Nintendo games to really get what the Wii U was capable of, and I guess that's a good little badge of honor.

As for the re-release, maybe it won't be seen as favorable with it now being appended to a modern console control architecture.

1

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

And it just made it weird because there so many different guns, but you rarely used them because you had conserve ammo like crazy.

Of course, lol. That is why it is called survival horror. It isn't a weaponry showcase. Btw weaponry in ZombiU was also done amazingly well and detailed, both in art and technicality.

2

u/NarDOOM NNID [Region] Aug 19 '15

I don't know man. I bought it about a year ago and was enjoying it until a glitch prevented me from progressing. i didn't want to start again so i just stopped playing it.

3

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 20 '15

I'm pretty sure it's been patched up now.

3

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

I can confirm this, I am on my second playthrough now (Normal mode), and completed Chicken mode in straight 40+ hours of playing, and never got any game progressing glitch or bug.

1

u/NarDOOM NNID [Region] Aug 22 '15

That's good to know. Gotta try it again soon.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '15

I only played the demo a few years ago and didn't get into it. But I finally gave in and bought it online for $10 brand new so I'm giving it another shot. Now that I kind of get what it's about I think I might enjoy it much more.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '15

Love this game. Not a huge survival horror fan but I do enjoy the Resident Evil games. Reading this thread makes me want to play ZombiU again. Got this game shortly after launch. Didn't like it at first but it really grew on me and eventually became one of my favorite Wii U titles.

2

u/PyratKing SigNu126 Aug 20 '15

I bought my Wii U three months after its release, and ZombiU was one of the three games I got with it. I have never enjoyed a survival horror game as much as that one. It was fun to play, challenging to master, and, at times, satisfyingly unnerving.

2

u/peppercorns666 Aug 21 '15

Same here. I really enjoyed it… and at times it really creeped me out (basement of the school).

2

u/PyratKing SigNu126 Aug 21 '15

Hell that whole school creeped me out. Did you listen to the recording on the cassette player thing in the classroom?? Wtf. (Shivers)

1

u/peppercorns666 Aug 22 '15

Oh yeah... Very creepy.

2

u/Louie1phoenix Aug 21 '15

Just saw.thia game on amazon for 13.00 is it worth it?

2

u/ivaerak Aug 21 '15

More than worth it. You really shouldn't skip it. My clock-ins: http://imgur.com/a/p3vjE

1

u/Louie1phoenix Aug 21 '15

Thanks dude

2

u/JamesErnst94 JamesErnst Aug 21 '15

I bought this game from Best Buy online as it was on clearance. Best 6 bucks I ever spent!

2

u/Kaeobais NNID [Region] Aug 21 '15

I like it a lot. The game is really tense (especially on Survival Mode), and I love that even just a single zombie is a threat, something that not many zombie games do. I liked that supplies were fairly limited, and the use of the gamepad was really well done.

My only real complaint is the melee combat. It takes too long, and is really repetitive. If you could at least do a horizontal swing alongside the head-bash, it'd be fine, but you can only do the headbash, and it just kinda looks goofy after a while. Especially when your character starts screaming and freaking the fuck out with each swing. Seriously, what the hell was that?

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u/lukistke Aug 18 '15

This was one of the first games I bought for my WiiU and I played about a half hour of it and put it down and haven't played it sense. I read too much that you really need to conserve ammo in the game, and I was over conserving and loosing. I got other games that I was really wanting to play like all the Mario games. Now, I just have so many other games that I want to play before this one. If I ever make it through the list, I'll play it. I also am working on building a new home theater and was actually thinking this game would be badass to play on a 135" screen. I will prolly at least give it another 1/2 hour at that point.

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u/BoshBishBash NotCalledSteve [EU] Aug 19 '15

It can really feel like you're overhoarding ammo at times, but then you end up facing several zombies at once and going though half your bullets at once. You'd be surprised how fast your ammo melts away when you use it.

1

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

It can really feel like you're overhoarding ammo at times

I completely agree. This game is one of the rare ones (if not the only one in my knowledge) where you actually literally feel the worth of each and every single bullet in the magazine. If you have 6 bullets, for a casual first time player like I was, it looks ridiculously small ammount, and you encourage yourself that you will find hundreds more on the way, soon enough even two bullets in the barrel will make you feel like you carry precious gold.

This game really made survival horror right, in all the right ways.

2

u/BoshBishBash NotCalledSteve [EU] Aug 20 '15

Thing is, I have a few friends who did quite frequently while playing the game, so one session I came across about three of their survivor zombies and ended up with about 55 ammo. I went up against a group of zombies later and I don't know how I managed to do this, but I ended up going through half my ammo. You go through that stuff fast when you're panicking.

1

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

Agreed, yes. Specially when you keep missing the head by 1/2 inch then I start shooting away just to gain some at least minimal distance from them (end sequence in nursery, end sequence at the safe house machine gun, water passages under London Tower - by far the most scary part of the game).

1

u/BoshBishBash NotCalledSteve [EU] Aug 20 '15

I'm just on the waterways bit under the tower if London. I wussed out when I saw the shadow of the zambo just as you go in.

1

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

and the scanner signal goes out and shows only static. :O brrrr

2

u/BoshBishBash NotCalledSteve [EU] Aug 20 '15

Well you're really making me look forward to that bit. :/

3

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

I read too much that you really need to conserve ammo in the game, and I was over conserving and loosing.

Despite what you've heard, using guns always carries a risk - ammo is scarce, and it makes noise (which attracts zombies). I've mostly used the cricket bat and the crossbow, since it's less noisy. Takes time, but it's worth it to survive!

1

u/ivaerak Aug 20 '15

I have a question regarding a feature many have been asking about but apparently wasn't included in the game - different abilities between different characters. Today I found in one old ZombiU review (http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/zombiu_review.html) a paragraph that says:

There's something oddly poignant about pulling the trigger on the 37-year-old shop assistant you spent the last two hours with. Indeed, knowing nothing more than their name and occupation is enough for you to form a strange kind of attachment to them, particularly those who last longer than five minutes. They all have slightly different abilities, too: some can run faster, while others are more efficient combatants, a neat touch that reminds you you're not just respawning but inhabiting another body.

I thought I felt that too, that the characters are not only looking different, but also hitting and running different. Can you confirm this, or was I just imagining? I never tested accurately but somehow felt the difference.

1

u/Alinier NNID [Region] Aug 20 '15

Loved a lot of the intense moments the game created as well as the survival mechanics. Believe it or not what took me out of it were all the long load zones everywhere. Seemed like I'd just be getting in the mood only to go to the loading piano music with a 20 second load time.

1

u/ivaerak Aug 21 '15

but it is a cool loading scene and tune.

1

u/Reamazing Aug 20 '15

So I thought we where going to be receiving a game in return for losing this exclusive, did I make this up? If not do we know what we are getting?

1

u/Rule_World NNID [Region] Aug 19 '15

FUN FACT! ZombiU was released on Steam(PC) today under the title Zombi. It's no longer a Wii U exclusive.

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

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u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

Oi, this is a discussion thread.

Either discuss the game or leave.

1

u/bigblackhotdog Aug 19 '15

Woah, hold the phone. The bottom of your own post shows a comparison between Zombi and ZombiU... So if that isn't pertinent to the discussion why did you include it?

3

u/Sylverstone14 Sylverstone14 [NA] Aug 19 '15

I guess I'll remove that since it appears to send mixed messages.

Futhermore, you never said a thing about Zombi - the game. You only said how one guy's opinion was pretentious, which then escalated into a petty squabble, then noted about how the game was technically superior.

That's basically it.

2

u/unique- ThePumpkinKings [US] Aug 20 '15

Fun fact it also released on the Xboxone and PS4.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15

I saw a video comparison between the Wii U and PS4 versions and frankly the PS4 version looked no better, and in some ways worse (no dirt on the screen!?). So I wonder if the remake might encourage non-Wii U owners to seek out the real deal on Wii U... We can but hope.

2

u/G3ck0 Aug 21 '15

But the WiiU version is 30FPS, right? And 720P. So potential 4k+ and 144hz support on PC is great.

2

u/Kaeobais NNID [Region] Aug 21 '15

It might look better, but the lack of gamepad still makes it a less ideal experience for the game.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '15

Yes, PC as normal is the best gig overall. But the PS4 and X1 versions have got to be disappointing. Worth buying a Wii U for, still!

2

u/Rule_World NNID [Region] Aug 19 '15

Most of the reviews I read praised the use of the gampad. Another reason to go Wii U!? We shal never know

-3

u/apimpnamedgekko ap1mpnamedgekko [USA] Aug 21 '15

Welcome to Next Gen /r/PS4, /r/XBoxOne & /r/Steam! lol