World War Z VR aims to bring the carnage of the hit 2019 game to PC VR and Quest headsets in all its glory. While my preview on Quest 3 didn’t prove quite up to that task, I hoped that the rest of the game could bring Saber’s iconic action-horror epic to life. Maybe it was just a rough first stab. So I strapped my headset back on and dove back in.
As discussed in the preview, numerous key elements from the original World War Z weren’t in their best form. Defense kits that let you use specialized traps at key moments are fewer and more rigid in their implementation. As a result, some aren’t even worth wasting one of the keys you find mid-level to unlock them. There’s also fewer weapons, no melee combat (outside of a shove ability), no multiplayer, and the levels are far less varied. Which is to say, the design ethos of “Left 4 Dead But Bigger” that made World War Z such a hit is completely absent.
What is it?: A single-player VR spin-off of the hit 2019 zombie co-op shooter.
Platforms: Quest, Steam (reviewed on Quest 3)
Release Date: Out now
Developer/Publisher: Saber Interactive
Price: $19.99
Now, that doesn’t preclude the game from being its own valid, unique experience. It absolutely could’ve used the hordes of Zeke and the novelty of VR in some creative fashion. Sadly, it doesn’t. This is one of the most bog-standard VR shooters I’ve ever played. It might be the worst thing Saber has released since their debut title, Will Rock. And like Will Rock, I doubt many will remember this game years from now.
World War Z VR is a single-player, first-person horror shooter that sends players through bite-sized missions that can be played standing or sitting. Both styles are thoroughly supported, with an array of accessibility and immersion options. It’s clear Saber wants no player left behind, but for all that effort, they barely do anything with the VR part of World War Z VR.
Here’s how it uses virtual reality: manually reload weapons, or not. Manually toss grenades, or not. Turn a gun turret left and right with your hands, or… not. Crank, pull, smack, and shake story objective items to progress through the level. Basically, things you could do in 2011 with a PS Move controller or Wii Remote. The only exceptions are the barebones VR staples of dual-wielding weapons and… climbing ladders. And the ladders are a bit finicky about letting you climb off them. That is, unless we’re counting the inconsistently working healing spray as a unique VR selling point.
While World War Z VR is playable standing, I’d recommend playing seated. There’s no benefit to standing and several gameplay adjustments that reduce the need for actual physical movement.
Player movement speed is smooth, even when sprinting. The integrated health and sprint meters on the player’s left wrist are easily read at all times. Weapons can be wielded in either dominant hand or with both. The red screen effects when damaged can get obnoxious.
You can adjust where your ammo pouches and guns are at any time. There’s also a toggle for playing seated in the settings. Snap turning and smooth turning are supported.
That said, far away enemies require a fair bit of accuracy, so those with unsteady hands may take considerable frustration when trying to hit distant Screamers, a special type of Zeke that can summon additional enemies. Manual grenade throwing can also be hard to gauge.
So the main hook to keep playing is a small, gradually expanding pool of perks and weapons. The idea is that they’ll add an ounce of variety to replaying the same handful of missions over and over. Other than an unexpected special zombie variant spawning to inconvenience you for a few seconds, that’s it. Most perks can only be unlocked by clearing missions on various difficulties or grinding experience points that slowly level you up. Experience points aren’t spent on anything; they purely exist to drag out the unlock process for a few unlockables.
Combat is fairly lethargic, except for when you’re defending a vulnerable objective, like a doorway or a bus. The health bars on these objectives can drop faster than a heartbeat, so you really have to be aggressive in defending them. However, the hordes are easily handled the moment you switch to simplified reloading and finally unlock the dual-pistol/SMG perk. Then it becomes pure spray and pray.
To be fair, manual reloading is well implemented and more involved. Except, it absolutely doesn’t fit the pace or balancing of the game, so you’re just making things harder for yourself if you use it. Still, mowing down zombies in and of itself could at least be mildly entertaining, if the sound design and score weren’t so by the numbers that they register as mutely as the impact when Zeke are shot.
Yet what really hit me was how rushed the current build of the game feels. I mean this in no exaggerated terms: I almost thought I wouldn’t be able to finish my playthrough of World War Z VR. There were multiple instances of soft-lock glitches preventing progress. We can all agree that’s pretty alarming to find in a release build available for sale, though a recent patch addressed some issues, particularly the soft-locks and a healing perk that broke your medical spray.
Mind you, the bugs were not the most glaring aspect. Your companion NPCs are typically as useless as confused ducklings. The New York levels are poorly lit, for some reason. Certain weapons are cumbersome to reload no matter the style of reloading you use. There’s a total lack of any facial animations despite several scenes that leave you staring at unmoving faces. And this is after patching. They did at least rebalance a few rougher encounters to be easier, so there’s that.
Of the three campaigns, each riffs on ones from the original flat release, but smaller. Their stories are dull, predictable, and laden with brief spurts of “humor” that range from mediocre to downright questionable. The New York stages are so pedestrian in their scenario design that they even have a “guard the bus full of survivors” mission. The Tokyo stages boast the most claustrophobic encounters, with its second mission culminating in a space so cramped it’d be small for a Call of Duty Zombies map.
Marseille tries to depict the largest scope, but these missions show how compromised everything is for smoother performance. Granted, this is the Quest 3 version, and Quest ports often have more concessions made, but even by that grading scale, this is rough. The framerate is smooth, but at the cost of obvious sprites in the background, obfuscated hordes to hide their real spawn points, and scenarios so cramped that trying to recreate the flat experience feels pointless.
This should’ve tried to chart its own path, not attempt to be 1:1 with an experience made for fundamentally different specs. I’ll be told by the end mission screen that I’ve killed several hundred Zeke, but it rarely feels like that. Mostly it feels like I’m gunning down a couple dozen at a time. Whenever it does work, a glimmer of the intended experience shines through all too briefly. It wasn’t worth the effort.
The absence of melee weapons, a key feature of the flat game, is also confusing. Yes, I can shove enemies, but how is that a suitable replacement? Melee combat was one of the first things VR games got right, so why isn’t it here? It’s weird that this new release by a major studio lacks a feature zombie games from half a decade ago can boast. It’s not for lack of gore either – especially since the patch, even a revolver or shotgun can insta-gib enemies into a pile of limbs and blood.
Perk design is just as strange. There’s no class system, and leveling up is basically just a carrot on a stick because it caps out at level 10. Of the perks available, there are objectively superior and inferior options. Why would I want a taser instead of always having two pistols or SMGs, each with a deeper ammo pool to boot? Why would I enhance my shove when I can make defense kits last longer? What good is receiving one percent of your health back per Zeke exploded when you can instantly refill 20% of your med spray every time you kill two of the most common special Zeke types?
You also have no input over what gear your companions wield. They won’t heal you or help any other way beyond shooting Zeke. Paired with static levels that only seem to alter what weapons spawn in crates, everything rapidly grows repetitive. And the weapon spawns change every checkpoint reset, so it’s possible to die and get stuck with less than ideal weapons on your next attempt.
World War Z VR Review – Final Verdict
Perhaps it’s fitting that when the campaign concludes, there’s no real plot resolution for World War Z VR. All you get is some narration trying to make sense of the disparate campaigns. Then you’re encouraged to replay the missions you’re already tired of, and to raise your level… even if it’s maxed out. That’s it.
There’s nothing remarkable here. Between the underwhelming graphics, compromised design, and gimmicky use of motion mechanics, this feels like an early Wii game. This reeks of the same ilk as Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, but at least that was built from the fantastic Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition. World War Z VR isn’t so lucky. All it achieves is a reminder that sometimes, dead is better.
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