run boy run....
Z-Run is yet another game set in a zombie apocalypse. Unlike others in this genre such as Dead Island, Dead Rising, or Left For Dead, this is a third person adventure where the best thing to do is to err well run!
Our namless hero has to do just that, run, dodge, kill zombies (whenever possible) but above all else run and that's jjust about sums it all up right here for the plot. There are no subplots, no side missions, it's just a case of looking ahead of you and at the risk of repeating myself, run.
Oh there is the small matter of jumping over obstacles, such as crowd barriers, and dodging obstacles such as parked cars and vans. Inbetween these moments of leaping, running and dodging comes the act of actually killing the walkers. This can be done in a variety of fairly novel ways, including a sliding kick attack that sends them flying end over end, a pool cue, baseball bat and an electric guitar, amongst the tools on offer.
Though not as a varied arsenal as Dead Rising or Dead Rising there are a few novel ways of dispatching the zombies. Doing so earns you points that you can then spend on your character to build up his health and stamina and that's all so crucial as every jump, roll to evade attackers and killing zombies costs you endurance, and hitting obstacles drains health, and in early stages of the adventure, you can die with just one attack from a zombie, so you are very very vulnerable at the start.
But (and you know there had to be a but coming) avoiding obstacles is the hardest part of all. Our hero seems to have magnets in his pockets when it comes to avoiding vans, cars etc etc, because if you hit them, your health gets drained, our hero staggers backwards and before you can input any control to avoid the object, WHAM! he runs into it again, and sometimes this is repeated, and more health and stamina is lost. Collision detection is non existent, and that's no lie.
Should you manage to run from one checkpoint to another you'll get rated on your performance, and gain those points where you can upgrade the characters stamina, health, damage dealt with weapons etc etc. But getting those points is another matter altogether. It's a clumsily executed affair, and is mediocre in it's control response and that's being polite. Oh the main character is nicely animated, backgrounds etc etc look fine, the zombies look suitably zombie like, but those are it's finest points. The character may well jump when you want him too (Triangle button) but there are times that if you don't time it right, then again, he'll stand and then send himself sprawling over the same obstacle again.
This game is like a zombie, a shambling, stumbling mess and should be commited to the grave as soon as is possible.
Avoid it, I beg you.....