Zombies Overloaded (PS5) | REVIEW | A Twin Stick Zombie Shooter Of The Brainless Sort

Brainium Games' Zombies Overloaded takes me back to the early days of "OtakuDante's Gaming Inferno". A time when I spent week's churning out up to 10 indie reviews of the XBLIG kind. These Xbox 360 indies were the start of something special, both for me and the gaming community. It marked the era of indie friendly gaming that wouldn't break the bank. You could get some absolute bangers for a couple of bucks.

One genre that seemed to always pop-up on the XBLIG marketplace was the top-down zombie shooters that were based on scoring and survival gimmicks. These mindless twin stick shooters offered hours of fun, or short bursts depending upon what you were looking for. The ones with leaderboards definitely held players' attention longer. 

Fast track to today, and we find a similar experience in Zombies Overloaded, if not milder in content. This Duke Nukem inspired arena shooter with a zombie waves theme has about as much effort put into it as a cheap mobile game. That's not to say the challenge isn't there, but this barebones indie dares to barely innovate in it's offerings.

In the game you'll find two main modes of play centered around themed statically placed stages with Pac-man inspired exits and entry points. These modes include the Survival mode and a Pacifism mode. In Survival there are five unlockable maps in total that each feature their own layouts, hazards, and boss zombie challenges. That and three main types of zombies. One being the average human sized zombie, another a slightly larger brute, and another a gargantuan monster of man. You're goal in this mode is to clear wave after wave using weapon and item power-ups as the zombies come through their own entry points. The gun power-ups that are available include an assault rifle, shotgun, flamethrower, and space gun. The other power-ups include extra ammo, screen clearing nukes, and speed boots. All of which are limited use power-ups. 

Surviving in Survival ticks up the earned score as you survive for longer amounts of time, and adds bonus points for each enemy zombie that is killed. In a similar fashion the Pacifism mode offers a wave to wave zombie survival challenge, but the difference there is that guns are missing. There are no gun power-ups, and no starter pistol with infinite ammo. You can still get speed boots though. As far as surviving in Pacifism mode goes you will need to use the exits that loop back through to the other side to dodge contact with the chasing zombie hordes. As with the main Survival mode your score counts rapidly upward the longer you live. In both modes your run comes to an end when all life is depleted. This life is showcased in a health bar, and indicated in stages of bloody redness that increasingly covers the screen the more you get hit.

As you cull the population of undead in Survival mode, zombies will drop bones and gold medallions as a form of currency. The bones can be traded in at the main menu shop for gold medallions, and gold medallions in turn can be spent on a gamble at a Zombie Jackpot, for character skins, or to unlock extra stages in each mode's menu listing. You can also spend gold medallions on four different performance effecting stats in the Upgrade menu including those of damage, health, speed, and bone magnetism with each stat being able to be leveled up to 5 times at the cost of 50 gold medallions per upgrade. 

Any scoring efforts that render top score results will be shown on both local and global leaderboards. These leaderboards are mode and map specific showcasing the players' PSN ID, and their top score. Even if you don't land in the top 9 the game will still let you know where you rank overall.

The Presentation ...

Visually I think Brainium Games was going for a stylish Duke Nukem aesthetic. The character you play as looks like the Duke, and speaks like him. His voice-over actor additionally acts as the announcer that announces each feat, and power-up pick-up. Adding some badass flair to the otherwise simplified comic book inspired antics playing out onscreen. The gameplay itself is shown as a lightly animated fully top-down map with color swapped and slightly differing character assets that showcase only arms, chest and a head. These basic assets along with comic book style wording that flashes on the screen with each kill adds a layer to the action. In the pacifism mode, specifically, the added hazards like falling meteors on the Inferno map that double as damage dealers to your character and the zombies inserts yet another layered element to the otherwise flattened and lifeless display. 

The Verdict ...

While I feel Zombies Overloaded might have been welcome during the Xbox 360's XBLIG days it's not a game that holds up to today's standards. It feels like a low effort mobile game that's looking to cash in on the zombie craze, high score leaderboard chasing, and trophy hunting. It's cramped maps that hold you in place until you succumb to death by the undead does little to offer gameplay variety or objective variety. It comes off as different reskins of stages with only minor mechanical changes on each. The added fact that even at fully maxed out stats it's still a struggle to make it to higher waves on the stages due to the RNG of the weapon and item power-up drops only serves to exhaust any patience a player might have had with it. Unlocking skins, upgrades, and maps also feels more like a chore than a reward. It is truly a task in tedium. Even at a low pricing Zombies Overloaded fails to impress me enough to recommend it. At best it feels like a 99 cent throw away experience just for trophies and some light bragging rights.