Making its way to Nintendo’s portable platform after spending the last couple of years amusing owners of the more powerful home consoles, four-player co-op shooter World War Z – based loosely (very loosely) on the book and film of the same name – drops players into a series of frantic scenarios filled with hundreds (and, indeed, thousands) of human-hungry zombies who willingly throw themselves in your general direction to be mown down in the name of entertainment.
Its main campaign, which can be played either solo (with AI-controlled bots taking care of your absent teammates) or online with random members of the public or in private matches with friends, consists of four “episodes” split into 3-5 chapters each, all putting you in the shoes of one of sixteen survivors whose main mission is to make their way through each area while occasionally completing some minor objectives before reaching the final siege / horde event where you and your team set up your defences (razor wire, turrets, that sort of thing) and stand your ground until help arrives. It’s all fairly standard as far as team-based mass murder goes and doesn’t really do anything that similar games haven’t done better, although it does at least manage to be more action-packed and exciting than the rather underwhelming Back 4 Blood. There’s much less content in this edition of WWZ though, with only four episodes and a challenge mode currently available – there’s talk of a few extra bits and pieces being added as free DLC at a later date, but the various cosmetics and extra weapons that have been included in previous “game of the year” editions are rather annoyingly not bundled with this version, instead being available at extra cost from the eShop…
In terms of the Switch port itself, it generally performs tremendously well apart from the occasional bit of slowdown when the hordes arrive en masse. Its smooth performance is certainly to the game’s credit, although the graphical downgrade from previous versions of the game leaves quite a lot to be desired – it’s to be expected, given the limitations of the Switch itself, but things do get very muddy and fuzzy at times, especially when playing in docked mode on a big screen. Nevertheless, taking out the gigantic piles of zombies as they attempt to stack on top of each other and clamber over each other to reach your vantage point is always entertaining, and there really aren’t too many options for this type of game on the Switch. If you’ve got a bunch of willing pals ready to join you, this is a solid and commendable port of a fun yet ultimately unremarkable team-based shooter that isn’t likely to change your life but will provide a few good hours’ worth of entertainment.
