Post by Eorl @ 01:40pm 20/11/12 | 67 Comments
We got our fellow survivor Chad Drake to grab a cricket bat and head out into the wastelands of London amidst the zombie apocalypse and check out just what ZombiU has in store for us.
Whilst not being one of the coveted Ninty iconic characters in a launch title that fanboys are hungry for, it looks like this will satiate the hordes with its gritty realism (as much as it possibly can be in a title about fictional zombies), tense environments and an immersive control set-up thanks to Wii U’s GamePad. So, as it turns out Zombie U is more than just a blunt tool with which to bludgeon the heads of your zombified friends -- it’s to a wannabe zombie survivalist what a flight simulator is to a pilot in training.Click here for our in-depth review.
Latest Comments
67 Comments
Show
Follow Us
Advertisement
Log In
Posted 01:52pm 20/11/12
Posted 03:26pm 20/11/12
Posted 05:25pm 20/11/12
There are some games which transcend their themes and have universal appeal, i guess the reviewer is saying this isnt one of them.
Posted 06:07pm 20/11/12
Posted 06:19pm 20/11/12
I'm actually glad that you enjoyed this Chad, as a few other review sites had some not-so-favourable reviews but I'm presuming it really comes down to the taste of the reviewer. It looks like a great survival horror that really tries to paint the picture of being alone in dark corridors with scary zombies.
Posted 11:02pm 20/11/12
Gamespot gave it 4.5.
IGN gave it 6.3
I'm waiting for the GiantBomb Review....
Posted 01:05am 21/11/12
Posted 11:23am 21/11/12
Posted 07:53pm 21/11/12
Posted 11:20am 12/12/12
I've never played a game where staying alive felt so critically important. I also love how everything feels like a risk, even just stopping to check your inventory. You actually have to take your eyes off the TV while the game keeps running, so you can't just manage your inventory whenever you want. I find myself pinging the radar really often, because everything just feels so risky.
I'm not very far yet, but I can see it taking a while to get through at my current pace.
Posted 12:22pm 12/12/12
Posted 12:28pm 12/12/12
Does ZombieU actually have a story? Or is it just more of a survival sandbox kind of deal like DayZ or something?
Posted 12:37pm 12/12/12
Also it is up to the developer if they want you to use both gamepad and TV or gamepad only, like what New Super Mario Bros. U does where it streams to both. I think with ZombiU having it use both the TV and the gamepad is a lot better because it gives you that feeling that the gamepad is a part of the game in that you are using it to survive, and not just seeing a duplicate of what's on the TV. I'll have to bring it in someday Khel and you can try it out.
Posted 01:15pm 12/12/12
If your going to add sometyhing like this to the "Things we didnt like" section of reviews, you may as wel be adding:
"If you dont like having fun, you wont like this"
"If you dont play games, you wont like it"
just sayin
Posted 09:44pm 12/12/12
As Eorl said, there's sort of a story, but it seems to be mostly about surviving. You're being guided via comms by a guy who calls himself "The Prepper," and he claims to have known that this was all about to happen, and had been preparing (hence his title). I'm assuming he'll eventually disclose how he knows and why he's trying to help.
It's not really a sandbox though, there's a definite "linear" progression, at least so far. You're free to revisit areas, and you probably have to later on, but yeah, there seems to be an intended path to take.
Posted 12:59am 14/12/12
Posted 01:30am 17/12/12
Considering I've read about people using the Gamepad from the other end of the house, rooms away from the TV, something is definitely not right.
Posted 10:00am 17/12/12
Posted 11:56am 17/12/12
Posted 02:03pm 17/12/12
I was having serious speed issues on our home wifi though, but it wasn't just the Wii U. For a while, everything seemed a little slow on our wifi compared to ethernet, but the Wii U was especially bad. I changed our router to channel 11 and now the Wii U along with my tablet and phone are all much more responsive.
This is a really handy Android app. It scans all the wifi networks around and plots them on a graph to show how heavily populated the various channels are. Makes it much easier to get your Wifi on a less congested band.
Posted 02:15pm 17/12/12
Posted 02:16pm 17/12/12
Posted 02:18pm 17/12/12
Disappointing cos it doesn't work, or disappointing cos I caved? :P
But yeah, I'm gonna be on holidays soon, so I figured, gives me something to amuse myself with.
Posted 03:03pm 17/12/12
I'll be keen to hear what you think of ZombiU, for me its the most compelling reason to buy a WiiU.
Posted 03:15pm 17/12/12
Posted 01:47pm 18/12/12
Posted 02:02pm 18/12/12
Please explain more. I'm on the verge of jumping into console land and will probably buy a 360 but curious to know if I should rethink the WiiU.
Posted 05:03pm 18/12/12
The amount of survivors I have killed is beyond 20 now. Seriously some of my deaths have just been plain stupid and other times its because zombies will just pop out at me in random spots.
Shame Khel, definitely sounds like a bad batch as I'm going strong here on the EB one I purchased at Indro's midnight release. Only problem I can remember was wireless not working automatically so I had to enter DNS settings manually.
The main grab for the Wii U for me was some interesting third party launch titles (ZombiU and Scribblenauts) plus the usual fun first party ones like NSMBU and the eventual Pikmin, Zelda, Yoshi etc. Really it's a great console and is heaps better then the Wii in terms of more entertainment. Great for parties too.
Posted 06:08pm 18/12/12
Yeah, I did get ZombiU though, so my corpses will be littered around the place I'm sure, got a nice deal on the couple of games I got actually, they knocked ZombiU down to $59 for me and Mario Brothers about $62
Posted 06:34pm 18/12/12
Sucks that your console was faulty. Better to find out immediately rather than a few months down the line though.
Posted 07:47pm 18/12/12
I require number of Khels out of 10 for this title stat!
Posted 08:24pm 18/12/12
Jb wouldn't swap my console for a new one though, cos it worked in the store. The problem is sometimes it works for a few minutes utes before dropping out and it wasn't on for long enough for it to happen so as far as they're concerned it works. My only other recourse is to send it off to Nintendo to get it fixed. Gay.
Posted 08:30pm 18/12/12
Also I'm pretty sure you are able to get a full refund within a week of purchasing and that they need to test it for more than a quick switch on.
Posted 09:28pm 18/12/12
Posted 09:55pm 18/12/12
Posted 10:25pm 18/12/12
Posted 10:40pm 18/12/12
Take it into work tomorrow and see if it works there? If it does, you might have ghosts or something at home.
Posted 12:41am 19/12/12
Tried it on a different tv, in a different room too, and same problem
Posted 09:14am 19/12/12
Posted 09:25am 19/12/12
Posted 11:36am 19/12/12
Posted 12:32pm 19/12/12
http://techforums.nintendo.com/message/82536
Posted 01:39pm 19/12/12
Posted 01:43pm 19/12/12
Posted 01:52pm 19/12/12
Yeah, thats the problem though, guy at JB refused to admit it was faulty cos when he plugged it in it worked, but a lot of times it would work for me too when I first powered it up then lose connection and die 5 - 10 minutes later, but he was in too much of a rush to leave it for that long.
Gonna try it in a few different places, work, my brother's place, etc and assuming its still f***ed (which I'd imagine it would be cos I can't honestly imagine there is interference at my place strong enough to disrupt the connection when the pad is a foot away from the console), I'm going to take it back again and insist on a replacement/refund.
Its just a pain in the ass cos I'm on holidays in a few days time and wanted it for then, so I'm hoping it doesn't come down to "We need to send it away to get it repaired".
Posted 01:56pm 19/12/12
Posted 02:16pm 19/12/12
Posted 02:37pm 19/12/12
Posted 02:53pm 19/12/12
Posted 04:56pm 19/12/12
Posted 07:53pm 19/12/12
I find the guy's enunciation a bit annoying but its a good review of a few launch titles. The Darksiders II review (which he annoyingly calls Darksouls) looks f*****g awesome and exactly the sort of thing the WiiU should be bringing as a point of difference for x-platform games.
Was also pleasantly surprised to pick up Super Mario for $64 bucks and the Premium Console for ~$370 from BigW on sale today! Protip (thanks Zapo) if you're getting one for Christmas, pre-load the f*****g thing, apparently it takes a while to update (like a gig or more of updates...)
Posted 10:06pm 19/12/12
Maybe I should just buy a new one from Big W for $370 and make JB refund the other one.
Posted 10:19pm 19/12/12
Can one of you guys confirm the ports on the console? Does it have an optical audio out?
Posted 10:22pm 19/12/12
Posted 08:19am 20/12/12
GENERAL WII U STUFF
1) The console itself is small compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3. It's a bit larger than the Wii if memory serves well.
2) If you have a Wii and want to transfer your saved games / downloadable games off it and onto the Wii U there is an application available from the Store you can download. Otheriwse you will need an SD card.
3) Patching takes between 2-3 hours out of the box. If your download fails (like mine did about 75% through) the next time you go to do a system update it will resume (phew!).
4) ZombieU, Nintendoland & Mario U all required patching. These take a few minute each, but I found Nintendoland took longer.
5) The Wii peripherals are comptable with the Wii U. It's great playing Nintendoland with 4 Wii Remotes and the Wii U controller - you don't have to go and buy $70 controllers again!!
6) I haven't confirmed it yet, but battery time on the Wii U controller is about 3-5 hours. There is a charging dock, I would suggest just using it all the time when you're not playing.
7) You get a HDMI cable with the premium system so don't worry about that. If you don't have a HDMI input you will need to buy an adaptor. I 'think' the Wii cables will work but don't quote me on that.
ZOMBIU
1) First off, this game is hard. You will need to take your time and play carefully. This isn't Left 4 Dead. If you want a quick shooter than you will be disappointed and you will die often.
2) I found the graphics a little disappointing. In the systems defence it is a f1st gen title, and everything I've read suggests on-par or slightly behind the PS3 and Xbox360.
3) The way they've used the Wii U controller is kinda cool, not sure if the gimcky stuff will wear out or not. Basically the bottom screen is your backpack. You have a sonar thing there which you have to activate to see if there are enemies near by. Looting etc shows up on the bottom screen too.
4) Seems to be a reasonable launch title, but fairly niche and not a system seller I'm afraid.
OTHER COMMENTS
1) I'm looking forward to some decent RPGs on this system. Inventory/weapon management / maps on the bottom screen would be awesome and streamline gameplay.
2) If someone can make a Wii U game where someone can play as the dungeon master or something and dynamically tweak the gameplay / enemies as their friends are playing it that would be awesome!! Perhaps even to the point where you have a basic map editor or something and you could share it to others would be brilliant.
3) Nintendoland is a great packin and some real fun when you've got 4-5 people around to give it a whirl. There's some really fun mini games and the use of the Wii U controller is great. Good party game, just would love it if there was more multiplayer minigames.
Overall I'm quite happy with the system, but it is missing the killer app that makes you go oooh. Then again I don't think there's been a killer app out for a console release since Mario 64!
Posted 08:59am 20/12/12
How will JB try and upsell me!! The main reason I was asking is because my TV does some weird stuff with the audio on HDMI inputs. I set it up ages ago so that all my devices plugged into the TV, then the TV plugged into the amp for the audio.
This was fine for a PS3 and Wii but my HTPC (Win7) would only recognise the TV as supporting 2-ch audio. No amount of d***ing around would get it to to override what the TV said and just push through 5.1. I ended up having to do separate audio connections to the amp for it.
Since there's only HDMI out, I'm hoping the WiiU lets you override the setting as well so I don't end up stuck on 2-ch audio!
Posted 09:33am 20/12/12
Unsure about override, but this guy has 5.1 sort of how you are set up:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/631516-wii-u/64684873
Kind of dumb that there's no dedicated 5.1 out though, only via HDMI..
Posted 09:37am 20/12/12
Yeah that's how I had it all before which was fine for the PS3, but the HTPC would only do 2-ch because thats all the TV said it could do. Only one way to find out I suppose .. Big-W trip tonight!
Posted 11:20am 20/12/12
Posted 09:12pm 20/12/12
Posted 10:00pm 20/12/12
Yeah, I haven't had a chance to take it back yet, too busy today and I might be too drunk tomorrow, so prolly hit them up on the weekend.
Posted 11:19pm 20/12/12
I think the guy who helped you was just a d***. I'm sure Melbourne has d****.
Posted 01:00am 24/12/12
Posted 08:14am 24/12/12
Graphics are nice and smooth, load times are reasonable. The only disappointment is they seemed to not make full use of the gamepad screen. All it shows is a map while things like inventory and what nots would have been good.
Posted 08:54am 24/12/12
Posted 11:36am 24/12/12
Also Ticman the inventory is shown on the gamepad, just have to scroll down from the top. Also all the details about game lore etc are shown on the gamepad.
Posted 03:59pm 24/12/12
Could have just exchanged it I guess, but if it was a bad batch I didn't want to end up with another one from the same batch or something. Also, it was just more satisfying to make them give me my money back and go buy it from elsewhere.