Nihilistic Demos - Zombie Apocalypse and Conan

[Dragon]

I tried out a couple demos on the PS3 before I went to bed last night. I hadn't realized before hand that they were both from a studio called Nihilistic.

Zombie Apocalypse was the first one that I downloaded. I guess I was expecting something more like Half-Life or Resident Evil, but when I started playing I thought of an old game that I played on the PS... I think it was called Loaded. (Yep, found a clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyXTzvIVnjc) From the video on YouTube though, it looks like Loaded was more fun. Being stuck in one small area with a bunch of zombies to fight with a chainsaw and a randomly-placed-gun just didn't do much for me. After about 10 minutes of that I shut it off and tried out another demo that I had previously downloaded.

As a fan of Conan The Barbarian, I just had to check it out the Conan game. Of course, as soon as I saw the opening credit with Nihilistic my expectations dropped. I was glad that I hadn't gotten my hopes up too high. For a PS3 game the graphics weren't very impressive and the voice actors had no flare. (For example, the comments that Conan said while fighting were so unenthusiastic that the character might as well have been reading a newspaper.) Of course, after playing God of War on the PSP, the bar is set pretty high for that style of game. The controls were clunky though, and to top that off, the tips that came up to would completely interupt the game, unless you happened to be jumping a lot at the time, since X is the jump button and the button for continuing the game after tips pop up.

On a 5 star scale, and of course, these opinions are just based on a few minutes of the demos, not a full game... I'll give Zombie Apocalypse 3 stars, since I might go back and try it again if anyone wants to try Multiplayer mode, but only 2 stars for Conan. I'm debating if Nihilistic's Conan deserves that much.

[Wyldwing]

Zombie's is a lot like another game where it was similar to a game show and you had to do the same thing.  Basically Robotron for the ages.

I liked it.  I would give 3/5.

Try the Wolverine Demo...very cool!

[TylerChuit]

Was the zombie demo a sample of the full game, or a gameplay demo?  I've played demos where some of the more interesting parts of the game were not available. 

Like when I played the demo of the original X-Com, they just dump you into a mission getting shot by aliens without giving you any indication of the larger game of research and base building.  X-Com ended up becoming one of my all time favorite games, but it took me an extra 2 years to discover that because the demo turned me off completely.

[Dragon]

There are always sections locked in the demos, but it seemed like a reasonable sample of the full game. It started with choosing a character and then which day to start on (which I'm guessing is something like levels) even though there was no choice other than Day 1.

[TylerChuit]

Is this the game where you can pick up random objects to beat zombies with, like patio furniture?  I remember seeing a commercial for a game where the character is running through a crowd of zombies using a giant umbrella to knock them out of the way. That one looked pretty cool.

[Dragon]

I don't think so, but I only played for a short time. I did see something in the description that said you could use the airplane turbines to chop up zombies. Maybe there were other ways to interact with the scenery. All I saw was a few different guns, like a flame thrower or shotgun (wider shot spread) that dropped out of the sky to use for a short time instead of the standard gun.

[Wyldwing]

You didn't use the chainsaw?  That was pretty cool!

[Dragon]

Yeah, I used the chainsaw a few times. It seemed slow. I guess that was for dramatic effect.

[tampamac2002]

Is this the game where you can pick up random objects to beat zombies with, like patio furniture?  I remember seeing a commercial for a game where the character is running through a crowd of zombies using a giant umbrella to knock them out of the way. That one looked pretty cool.

This game involved a mall full of zombies. It's called Dead Rising. Basically you take anything you can find and beat zombies to a pulp. The umbrella was reviewed, that's how I remember it. A new one is coming out soon, Dead Rising 2.

Mac

[TylerChuit]

Is that available for the PS3?  Cause, I'd buy that for Dragon just so I could come over and beat up on some zombies.

[tampamac2002]

Dead Rising was an XBOX exclusive. However, a copy was released to WII.
The new one, Dead Rising 2, will be on the PS3

"The game will be released sometime in 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows platforms."

[cinemax]

I have Dead Rising for the Wii. I loved it. It's the same as the X Box version but the graphics are poorer.