|
|
|
REVIEW | DREAMCAST
ZOMBIE REVENGE (DC)
|
Publisher: SEGA.
Developer: SEGA. Released: June 2000 (Europe). Genre: Roaming beat 'em up. Posted 1st December 2022. By Shane Battams © 2022 |
|
The Dreamcast may never have got the Streets of Rage sequel fans pined for, but the console wasn’t short on substitutes. After hitting arcades in 1999, Zombie Revenge would grace SEGA’s sixth-gen platform the following year. An absurd mix of beat ‘em up action and House of the Dead, the game was largely overlooked upon release. Nevertheless, it’s one which, for genre aficionados, is well worth a punt, so long as you can bear its steep difficulty. It’s a great conversion, and also has some noteworthy extras to further entice gamers, making it a solid addition to collectors’ libraries.
Set in the same universe as House of the Dead, players take the role of one of three agents from AMS as they set out to stop a man-made plague of zombies and other nasty monstrosities while unearthing some concerning connections that hit close to home for our protagonists. If you’ve ever dipped your toes in the lightgun series, you should know what to expect from Zombie Revenge: melodramatic dialogue, horrendous voice acting and some very dodgy lip syncing, like a badly dubbed B-movie. However, it exudes much of the same charm, with unintentionally comedic elements cropping up during certain dramatic scenes, all adding to the entertainment.
|
|
Daft, theatrical and lots of fun: Zombie Revenge shows its ties to the House of the Dead games
Zombie Revenge trades the lightgun in for beat ‘em up gameplay, though guns are still a core component. As one of three AMS agents, each comes armed with a pistol, punch combo, block and sprint. Depending on your choice, your agent specialises more in certain skills. Linda Rotta is adept with a pistol, but has a woeful melee attack, while Rikiya Busujima benefits from far stronger punch combos but slower firing rate, with Stick Brietling serving as the all-rounder. It takes a while to get used to the controls here, and with your character choice forcing very different play styles, you might find yourself zombie chow very quickly. Zombie Revenge’s arcade roots are apparent in its difficulty, designed to devour coins as quickly as ruthlessly as possible with tough attack patterns, overwhelming zombie numbers and frequent, challenging boss fights. You may find yourself rarely reaching the end.
Zombie Revenge still becomes quite addictive though, despite the steep difficulty curve. Once you dissect each character’s style, it becomes a game of playing to their strengths. Frequent time-limited weapon drops, including sub-machine guns and shotguns, must be used sparingly and can be knocked out of your hand after an attack, but prove very useful in sticky situations. Hidden doors can lead to rooms with either plentiful recovery items and weapons, or more zombies and scant rewards considering the damage you may take trying to earn these items. It builds the tension, whereby learning which rooms contain what items is key. The constantly ticking timer can also cause nightmares, immediately sapping a credit if it reaches zero, but it is at least fairly forgiving in standard play. If you can grab a friend and another controller, there is also two-player co-op, which is a riot.
Zombie Revenge still becomes quite addictive though, despite the steep difficulty curve. Once you dissect each character’s style, it becomes a game of playing to their strengths. Frequent time-limited weapon drops, including sub-machine guns and shotguns, must be used sparingly and can be knocked out of your hand after an attack, but prove very useful in sticky situations. Hidden doors can lead to rooms with either plentiful recovery items and weapons, or more zombies and scant rewards considering the damage you may take trying to earn these items. It builds the tension, whereby learning which rooms contain what items is key. The constantly ticking timer can also cause nightmares, immediately sapping a credit if it reaches zero, but it is at least fairly forgiving in standard play. If you can grab a friend and another controller, there is also two-player co-op, which is a riot.
|
|
Zombie Revenge is a great example of how to bring an arcade game home. Along with traditional arcade, Original Mode lets you play through the story with modifiers that change the trajectory of the game. One has you unarmed, but with more potent melee attacks, while another increases gun damage, but limits ammo. Playing through these rewards food items, which can then be transferred to a character stored on your VMU. These can be further trained on the device by taking part in both Zombie Fishing and Doubt, proving not only fun diversions but also rewarding cheats for the Original Mode upon earning a certain quantity of points. There’s also a Vs. mode, which sees two competing fighters trying to take each other out, with a few weapons dropped into the arena. It’s pretty shallow stuff, though at least it’s another avenue for the two-player experience.
SEGA did a great job porting Zombie Revenge to Dreamcast, though it still has some foibles. The game runs at a crisp pace, with no slowdown to speak of and while it’s hardly chocked with polygons, everything looks respectable. The levels are decent, running the usual gamut of sewers, as well as a more exciting train top sequence and a nostalgia-fuelled return to a familiar mansion. The sound, as mentioned, is horrific, but in mostly the right ways. Outside of the hilarious voice acting and dialogue, the music is decent enough and the effects potent.
SEGA did a great job porting Zombie Revenge to Dreamcast, though it still has some foibles. The game runs at a crisp pace, with no slowdown to speak of and while it’s hardly chocked with polygons, everything looks respectable. The levels are decent, running the usual gamut of sewers, as well as a more exciting train top sequence and a nostalgia-fuelled return to a familiar mansion. The sound, as mentioned, is horrific, but in mostly the right ways. Outside of the hilarious voice acting and dialogue, the music is decent enough and the effects potent.
|
|
Zombie Revenge is a solid beat ‘em up that will please fans of the genre, though it might scare off the uninitiated. It’s a rather unforgiving game and a cursory inspection may leave players unimpressed with the unwieldy controls and cheap deaths. But stick with it, learn the characters’ unique intricacies, and you will soon find yourself addicted to the zombie-killing action. With plentiful content, multiplayer action and a layer of theatrical cheesiness to top things off, it’s a riotous and enjoyable brawler that just requires a bit of dedication to see it through.
|
|
VERDICT
"Zombie Revenge is a solid beat ‘em up that will please fans of the genre, though might scare off the uninitiated" OVERALL: 7/10 |
MORE ROAMING BEAT 'EM UPS ON SEGA PLATFORMS REVIEWED
Cyborg Justice (1993, Mega Drive)
|
Final Fight CD (1993, Mega-CD)
|