REVIEW : World War Z: Aftermath (PS5)
Those who have seen Brad Pitt’s World War Z movie may recognize the area as the location where his wife and daughters were transported after being discharged from the Navy carrier. These two locations are fantastic additions, with gameplay aspects that aren’t available in previous campaigns.
Both sites have a lot of times where you may decide which way to go and significantly more comprehensive maps to explore. The territories you must defend against zombie hordes are substantially larger this time, forcing you to spread out and cover more terrain to prepare for zombie horde invasions.
New Mechanics Change How You Battle And Survive The Undead
One of the new mechanics in Rome is having to lug ammo cases around to reload a heavy MG mounted on top of an army truck so it can provide while moving through the city streets. Kamchatka, on the other hand, is an entirely different animal. Players must navigate frozen bodies of water in a brand new ship graveyard as the frigid conditions begin to take their toll on the survivors.
The frigid temperatures act as a mechanic, forcing you to seek out heaters to stay warm. You’ll perish from the cold if you don’t. There are even sections where you must carry a flamethrower to melt the ice frozen over doors to progress.
Randomized puzzles also appear in the form of turning on four switches in the correct order. Every time you replay the mission, the order you have to activate the switches changes, and their location moves around to make things even harder. Another one requires finding various circuit breakers to fix and restore power that changes their location with each playthrough.
We also receive a whole new opponent to go along with the new ads. It’s not a new zombie type, though; instead, it’s a rat pack. Don’t be fooled by this, though: rats are the game’s biggest enemy. Instead of requiring explosives or fire-based weaponry to dispose of efficiently, these beasts charge at you in a group and are nearly tough to kill with typical weapons.
Unfortunately, when they attack you, your character falls to the ground nearly instantly, exactly like when a Lurker attacks you. You have no way of defending yourself in this situation, so you’d better hope your comrades can deal with them before they eat you alive.
The New Vanguard Class And Updated Melee System Makes Up Close Action That Much More Entertaining
With the Aftermath add-on, the total number of classes in the game has increased to eight. The Vanguard-class is a defensive tank that I couldn’t get into, although it has some fantastic abilities that can assist your team out. For example, one of the Vanguard’s unique abilities is to sprint through a crowd of zombies, knocking them down and killing some of the simpler and weaker ones with a portable shield.
One of my favourite things to do with the Vanguard is charge at the Bull when it’s charging toward me and give it a good thrashing. The Vanguard charge has two sides to it. While it allows you to run through hordes of zombies, it also makes you vulnerable to the same horde; as a result, utilizing this skill can leave you trapped in the middle of a zombie horde with no way out.
Melee has gotten a good change as well, though it isn’t a large one. You swing your melee weapon at zombies to get them away from you before Aftermath. The melee attacks now incorporate a combination system that has different effects based on which type you utilize.
If you have a heavy weapon, such as an axe, swinging it to hit all the zombies around you will do AOE damage. Smaller weapons, on the other hand, are designed to dispatch solitary zombies quickly.
The First Person Viewpoint Is A Fantastic Addition And Lets You Experience The Game In A Whole New Way
The highlight of the Aftermath update is First Person View. As I described previously, it’s almost as if you’re playing the game for the first time. It’s a whole different sensation, and watching a horde of zombies approaching you in the first person is very scary. It’s also a lot more fun to aim for the heads and weak spots of zombies like the Hazmat zombie or the Bomber zombie.
Yes, you can still attack their weak spots in the third person, but the first person gives you a lot more precision.
Furthermore, you get to see all of the fantastic tiny things in the game that you might not have seen in third-person, as well as experiencing the excellent zombie body damage the game provides up close and personal.
The game runs beautifully in 4K, and the lighting is much improved with light streaming in through warehouse windows, and the lighting is strategically placed to highlight the zombie shadows as they wander around the scene. In a game when hundreds of zombies appear on the screen, the 60 FPS is a godsend. It’s probably one of the few games where the difference between 30 and 60 frames per second is noticeable.
Some AI And Online Issues Remain Along With Incredibly Long Load Times
Regrettably, not everything has gotten better. There are still bugs from the initial version that have plagued the game since its debut. When playing online, the culprit appears to be lag. There have been moments since the game’s launch when you were fighting zombies, and they would suddenly stop moving for a second before reappearing a few feet away.
The load times haven’t improved in any way, and getting into a single level can take up to a minute, if not longer. I wish Saber Interactive had done anything to remedy this, but I’m hoping the PS5 version will fix it next year.
The other troubles appear to be related to the new terrain, in which the zombies get trapped climbing on each other or invisible walls. There were numerous instances where zombies charged straight at me and then began climbing invisible walls.
They get trapped in the ascending animation and never make it to the summit when they climb over each other to reach you. It’s as if they’re caught on a wall-climbing treadmill that won’t let them go.
