World War Z: Aftermath Review
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With the Aftermath expansion, World War Z is a very different game than when it debuted in 2019, and overwhelmingly for the better. With more episodes to raze, a larger selection of playable classes, and dozens of major quality-of-life improvements (like zombies can no longer drag you off the shelves and devour you in the most unfair way imaginable, for example), there’s a lot going on. love these days. Aftermath is the important next step for this sleeper hit and one that mainly manages to move the zombie-filled shooter in the right direction. That being said, with ongoing problems online, forgettable stories, and some growing pains in the game, you still have plenty of room to grow.
One of the most notable things Aftermath adds are two great new campaigns that will lead him to reclaim the Vatican City in Rome and the lousy wastelands of Kamchatka, Russia. As with previous episodes, these episodes are fast-paced, challenging nightmare scenarios that pit you and up to three cooperative friends against literally thousands of zombies as they set traps, manage resources like medkits and grenades, and desperately try not to explode. firing a rocket launcher at point blank range.
Rome is the more successful of the two: it takes a familiar destination, gives it the opposite of a facelift, and then allows you and your friends to fight your way through it for a laugh. Aside from new sights, sounds, and giant burning pits full of zombies, there isn’t much that sets Italy apart from other destinations. It’s still good face-busting fun with some highlights, like when you have to guide and refuel a van through the streets of Rome while under constant undead assault. However, nothing stuck with me long after I defeated him, except perhaps those burning pits full of dead zombies; those might give me nightmares.
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The frozen tundra of Kamchatka, on the other hand, has some really memorable moments, like an area where a blizzard causes you to take damage just from being outside for short periods, so you have to run between heaters while fighting waves. cerebral. dining rooms. There are also some great puzzle sections that require teamwork, like one where your team has to use a flamethrower to melt frozen doors while the others provide covering fire, or another where you have to fix a net. by finding and pulling levers in the correct order. Rather simple tasks quickly turn into formidable undertakings with the constant threat of zombie hordes, and the best laid plans can turn into a comedy of errors in no time. Compared to the fairly straightforward design in Rome, it was really nice to see the developers have the most fun with Russia.
However, even when the new episodes are in their prime, Aftermath still isn’t getting any better at storytelling, which is still as disappointing as ever. Precisely zero characters are developed or interesting in any way, and their dialogue is cheesy and mainly serves as background noise while you run around shooting things. In fact, I feel like 90% of the time I heard a character speak, they were politely reminding me not to accidentally shoot them in the head. Because, you know, friendly fire is a pretty common mishap when fighting thousands of zombies in claustrophobic areas and the characters will never stop commenting on it. I’m totally in favor of mindless fun and World War Z has that in abundance, but telling true Left 4 Dead-style stories would make the world feel more worth saving.
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My personal favorite addition to Aftermath, however, is the addition of an optional first person mode, which breathes new life into all aspects of World War Z. Getting up close and personal with the meat parades you are up against adds a whole new level of panic behind your character’s eyes. As an FPS fan, I felt right at home facing the horrors of the apocalypse in this way, and it gave me another reason to go back and replay older World War Z episodes.
The caveat here is that for some reason, aiming your guns has curiously been left out of first-person mode. Many guns have scopes, but instead of looking down, you look to the side of the gun, which feels very strange, clunky, and downright unsatisfying. It’s especially weird since ADS already existed in World War Z on some weapons, like the sniper rifle, so it’s not like looking down wasn’t something you did in the third person. Despite all the added immersion that the first-person perspective gave me, I was pulled out again when I found myself looking beyond my reach during combat. Seriously, I can’t overstate how strange it felt, no matter how long I played; I probably mumbled something like “So we’re not going to use that scope, huh?” a dozen times per game session.
Aftermath also adds some welcome changes to the sandbox in the form of an eighth character class called Vanguard and some new melee weapon options, both of which are successful in evolving close-range combat. As the name implies, the Vanguard is all about taking on enemies and comes equipped with an electrical shield that you can use to charge through dozens of zombies or block paths turning you into a human barricade. It takes a bit of skill to master it, as I learned from my many ill-advised dives into lots of zombies, but mastering it is a lot of fun and can be invaluable in keeping your team alive. While other character classes quickly turn into Zeke’s lunches at close range, the Vanguard is far more viable, even if the high risk / high reward involved might not be for everyone.
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However, the new melee options are just a good time. Now with dual-wielded weapons like the sickles and heavy weapons like the sledgehammer, the melee system has been completely revamped with a perk system that helps you develop your play style. Using the sickles, for example, allows you to attack faster and less lethally than other melee weapons, but has an advantage that heals your character when you have killing sprees; the fire ax, meanwhile, is slower and more deadly and has a perk that makes you more effective when fighting Zekes who are on fire. The improved melee combat system adds much-needed variety to the game and also slightly improves the viability of close-range combat in general, previously only used by those with a persistent death wish. That said, you still won’t be able to take on the undead masses with melee alone unless you’ve really optimized your Vanguard class around them, but it does help you get out of the occasional unplanned head-to-head time. with a zombie or two, which is a godsend.