E3 2017 Preview: Bloody Zombies

VR has become a major buzzword around the videogame industry these days. For the past few E3 conferences, there have been whole sections of the floor devoted to people strapping on headsets and playing first person titles where you rock climb or pilot a spaceship. Other times you’re running in a foot race like the intriguing title Sprint Vector that I demoed at the show.

35432693645_0f25c2ff6a_b.jpg

Then there’s Bloody Zombies, developed by Paw Print Games and published by nDreams, which hints at an alternative future for VR gaming.

On first blush, it’s a basic four player scrolling beat-em-‘up in the 16-bit mold of the arcade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and River City Rampage — up to four players walk right, beating up enemies as they do with fists, kicks and various pick-up weapons. At the end of every level awaits a boss with loads of hit points and special moves.

From a gameplay perspective, the game offers some variety and gameplay innovation of the beat ’em up experience. There’s a mild competitive element to the game in that the game tracks hit combos, treasure capture, and so on and ranks the player who did the best during a level. Players can “juggle” enemies by kicking them in the air, and punching them to keep them aloft, with the possibility of knocking them into a level hazard for bonus points. Every level also features hard-to-find secrets that earn bonus points, but also take them out of the main fight so they’re sacrificing treasure for combo hits.

However, the game becomes a whole new experience when a player has a VR headset strapped on. Suddenly, looking in each direction reveals not only the entire level, but also things that aren’t visible when playing without it. (Amusingly, players wearing the VR headset have their characters onscreen wearing one, too.) For example, the museum level features a gigantic brachiosaurus skeleton. Without the VR headset on, only part of the skeleton can be seen; with one on, the player can see the head and neck arching over the ceiling of the exhibit.

The VR set also has a more practical purpose. Since the player can see in three dimensions while wearing the headset, they can now see if their avatar is on the same plane as an enemy, always a tricky bugaboo of side-scrollers in the past. They can also see upcoming level hazards, as well as secrets.

The other impressive aspect to the VR is that unlike most games using the headset, there’s no motion sickness. The game presents itself is presented as a model set with characters moving through it, as if playing with action figures. Developer Steven Craft confirmed that people who had complained they were extremely sensitive to motion sickness in VR games had no issues with Bloody Zombies because there was no first person queasiness to be had.

Bloody Zombies will be released on Steam, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions following. It will support all VR headsets, including PS VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

GTA China Town – Nintendo DSGTA China Town – Nintendo DS

Imagine that, the kids hand held grows up and is getting a Grand Theft Auto title. The game will, of course, be a sandbox-style title true to the franchise history and will feature new characters and a new game engine.

No real details came out of the announcement, just a little leak to the press so everyone can speculate on what is to come. First thing that will arrive will be nay-sayer parents telling the ESRB the game isn’t rated correctly, defines violence in today’s culture and is bad for the United States and the youth of America.

Just a guess.

The new game engine will probably be designed for compact hand helds and allow for a very touch-sensitive approach to the game. Imagine car jacking an innocent driver with the touch of a finger or beating an old lady with a bat with a swat of the stylus. Sound fun? Sounds disturbing.

The Grand Theft Auto series needs a DS game. Finally a product that shouldn’t require a billion dollar effort to produce and market yet should yield fantastic sales figures based on the DS install base.

Episode 463: Not an April Fool’s EpisodeEpisode 463: Not an April Fool’s Episode

This week’s episode has nothing to do with April Fool’s Day, since that was a week ago. There’s nothing surprising about the crew this time around, though Jonah does finally give his final (?) thoughts on Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Zelda keeps getting heavy praise. The Persona 5 news item alone spurred a ton of debate.

This week’s episode includes the following news:

  • Twitch and YouTube streamers slam Persona 5‘s video policy
  • Total War: Warhammer 2 announced with a new trailer
  • Valve only wants to sell you good games
  • Nintendo might have accidentally revealed that Pokemon is coming to the Switch

Let us know what you think of the heated discussions in the episode.

Episode 419: Virtual RealityEpisode 419: Virtual Reality

This week’s episode is full of pop culture… well, most of it got sliced off as outtakes, but there’s still plenty of pop culture. What there is a lot of these days is virtual reality, and none of it even involves the Virtual Boy. Jonah, Scott and T.J. discuss some of the rumors going on as well.

The news this week includes:

  • Fallout 4’s Far Harbor will be bigger than any previous Bethesda expansion
  • Outer Rim DLC for Star Wars: Battlefront still having issues
  • Sony hints PlayStation VR may come to PC

Let us know what you think.