Is this zombie RPG shooter worth looking at?

The world after the zombie apocalypse is a grim place. You were born into it so you will have to struggle to survive and fight against many kinds of zombies, bandits and dangerous boss monsters. You will be taking important story quests and many side quests, level-up your skills and perks, sell and buy equipment and communicate with (un)lucky survivors.

The original game of The Walking Zombie only came out on iOS/Android and Steam so I missed out on it, but the sequel came to consoles a while ago and has come to my attention. It’s a RPG FPS much like Borderlands, it even has cel-shaded visuals to match. But does it have the same level of quality as Gearbox’s looter shooter?

To be honest, it’s not really a fair comparison since this game isn’t a looter shooter. Instead, it’s more a case of taking on missions in small areas, completing objectives like taking out hordes of zombies, tracking down objects, treasure hunting or looking for survivors. Upon completing them, you can fast-travel back to camp or town before taking on new quests. Rinse and repeat.

There are multiple areas to explore and a handful of camps/cities that act as hubs for your missions and trading items for coins. The main problem with the game is that it constantly has microtransactions shoved in your face, even though they are entirely optional, it’s just always there in the menu, even when you are trying to add your skill or perk points, with the very bottom option almost obscured by the PlayStation Store logo. The menu itself can be a bit frustrating to navigate at times, but gets easier the more you use it.

If you keep doing missions though, you won’t really need to cough up any cash for coins. You will be strong enough to take on hordes without any fear of failure. The missions themselves are pretty standard, but do get a bit samey and predictable after a while. Though there are definitely some surprises to be found including a town’s mayor looking suspiciously like Donald Trump…

Character models look simple and blocky, almost like Borderlands meets Minecraft if you will. The framerate is solid throughout and the soundtrack is pretty good overall. Areas are also simple in design, but gets the job done and has a certain charm to it. There are no differences in performance or loading between the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions.

The Verdict

The Walking Zombie 2 does a good job in providing a fun shooter RPG to consoles, despite the constant adverts for microtransactions throughout. It may not be the most original game out there and it does become repetitive after a while, but there’s a decent game to be found here.

Score: 7.0

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co