Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army Review

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army. It's a silly title for what is in honesty, a silly game. You and three friends are charged with ridding Germany of a zombie outbreak, courtesy of that loveable rascal Hitler. He's unleashed the horde and you're there to stop it with some sniping shooty-bangs. It really is as simple as that.

Over the course of your journey you will shoot some zombies, watch zombies die in slow-motion, shoot some skeletons, then watch skeletons die in slow-motion. If you go ahead and repeat that sentence a few hundred times, you have your game.

With virtually no story past "Hitler's gone and raised the undead, kill 'em all!" there's no real reason to be invested here, it's a very senseless experience. It can be enjoyable to begin with, but that quickly switches to an exercise in frustration. The only thing that breaks up shooting zombies and skeletons is tedious boss battles, which would seem more at home in a House of the Dead game. Shoot the weak spots to expose the boss, shoot the boss for a few seconds until he regenerates, rinse and repeat a few times to win.

Gameplay is identical to that of the last game in the series; Sniper Elite: V2. You'll control your character - either a Russian, an American, a German or a Brit - in a third person view, moving into first person only to look through the scope of your rifle. Machine guns and pistols, as well as more specialised weapons are available should you desire, but these all use the standard over the shoulder aiming method.

The biggest issue, aside from the rinse-repeat nature of everything in the game, is that there is absolutely no reason to play alone, despite it being a selectable option; playing with friends is not a viable excuse to release a dull game for a single person, but that's exactly what this is. The entire game is one long horde mode, killing waves, and alone, it has no merit past the initial thrill of a long-distance headshot, where you're treated to a slow-motion kill-cam.

The kill-cam is impressive, no doubt. If you pull off a particularly fancy shot from a long way away, the camera will follow your bullet in slow-motion, right into the enemy. You'll get an x-ray view of the bullet impacting whichever vital organ you hit, along with the bones crunching as the bullet passes through; or at least that's the idea.

In reality, in single player it happens too often, so much so to be an annoyance. I counted. In the first level playing alone, with the kill-cam set in the options menu to minimal (you can't switch it off completely) I watched slow-motion kills happen twenty-seven times in a row, before I took out my machine gun and ignored the sniper rifle except when absolutely necessary. You can't skip the animations and they serve only to break up the pacing. In co-operative play this is less of an issue, as it happens very rarely, the worst you'll get there is a slow-motion bullet which lasts a second or so.

It's not all bad, the game looks good, even fantastic on occasion, with particular mention to the lighting. The game is always dark, but flickering fires casting a shuffling unseen zombie's shadow on the wall looks great. The first time you glimpse a horde waddling towards you in the distance through a sniper scope can be equally as intimidating.

The enemies themselves are pretty standard fare, for the most part undead in Nazi uniforms, or completely identical hordes of skeletons. There are more interesting creatures, such as a monster who charges suicidally at you with a live grenade, or the zombie snipers, but these are few and far between.

The shooting itself is also pretty tight, when using the sniper rifles. They sound vicious, like they could make your head explode. Other weapons, however, feel light, especially machine guns, which is a shame when they're what you'll need to use in emergencies. The guns, however, aren't your only toys.

You also have access to the usual grenades, as well as land mines, tripwires and dynamite. These are all useful in different cases, but all can save your life during a siege section. Sieges are the most interesting part of the title, giving you a minute or so to set up various traps and then find a safe spot, ready to defend against an impressive number of zombies. It's an extension of the games already dull horde mode, but with the strategising beforehand, it can be rewarding to get through it with as little pain as possible after a well-placed set of traps does most of the work for you. They can go on a little too long, but they are far and away the most enjoyable part of the game, especially, of course, with friends.

Scattered over five levels, with the usual completely pointless collectibles - gold bars and bottles of blood, in this case - the game is essentially a stand-alone DLC for the main game; V2, so don't expect hours upon hours of entertainment unless the tedium is something you're willing to replay. One run-through, with friends, is a somewhat enjoyable, if average experience. Solo play is not recommended unless you like watching the developers shout "LOOK, WE HAVE A KILL-CAM" at you over and over.

You'll be looking at around four-to-six hours, depending on how good your team is, on the highest difficulty. It's a good amount of time for the small amount of money asked, but it's the exact same thing all the way through. The game's biggest saving grace is that it knows playing absolutely anything with friends is more fun and it will do everything its power to push you into doing that. As with anything, above average with friends; alone, don't bother.