[PC/XBLA/Android/PSN] Zombie Driver, now in HD

[CeeKay]

ZOMG THEY LEARNED TO DRIVE!  oh, wait, you drive into zombies, you're not a zombie yourself.

yet.

anyways, this is coming out digitally and looks pretty freaking cool.  no MP though, or at least none that I see listed.  too bad, from the way it looks online MP could have been a blast.

[morlac]

Ok, that looks way fun. 

[EngineNo9]

Yeah, I'd give that a go.

[Harkonis]

the top down GTA was my favorite, I miss the gamestyle.  this might fill that itch

[Caine]

this looks like fun.  nice visuals too.  reminds me of that ds gta game with better graphics. (not knock on it btw)

[CeeKay]

some new screenies.  I'll definitely be grabbing this one off of Steam unless Impulse gets it at the same time.

[Aganazer]

Looks like fun, and I'm on a zombie kick lately. This one might be a little too arcade for me though.

[morlac]

Looks like fun, and I'm on a zombie kick lately. This one might be a little too arcade for me though.

What you want a run over zombie driving simulator?   

[CeeKay]

well, this is due Friday.  I figure I'll pre-order this tonight.

[Aganazer]

well, this is due Friday.  I figure I'll pre-order this tonight.

Free roaming city, destructible environments, and its a whole one buckaroo off for a preorder making it cheaper than my lunch today. I think I'll get it as well.

[Crusis]

IN! GTA with Zombies sounds like nothing but a good time.

[TK-421]

Purchased!

Now I need to get around to buying Gratuitous Space Battles as well.

[Bullwinkle]

Someone remind me to get this on Thursday (I'm hoping a review will be out by then, but I'm not counting on it).

[CeeKay]

Someone remind me to get this on Thursday (I'm hoping a review will be out by then, but I'm not counting on it).

I doubt there will be any advance reviews for a small title like this one.  Since I was getting Zeno Clash I decided to throw this onto the same order.

[Aganazer]

Someone remind me to get this on Thursday (I'm hoping a review will be out by then, but I'm not counting on it).

I doubt there will be any advance reviews for a small title like this one.  Since I was getting Zeno Clash I decided to throw this onto the same order.

The pre-release sale only saves $1.00 anyway so its not like waiting for some impressions is going to break the bank. I've ordered it and will most likely post some impressions on Saturday. I am pretty much biased toward anything niche, indie, zombie, or free form, so don't be surprised if I'm as thrilled with this as I was with Fort Zombie.

[Bullwinkle]

Someone remind me to get this on Thursday (I'm hoping a review will be out by then, but I'm not counting on it).

I doubt there will be any advance reviews for a small title like this one.  Since I was getting Zeno Clash I decided to throw this onto the same order.

The pre-release sale only saves $1.00 anyway so its not like waiting for some impressions is going to break the bank. I've ordered it and will most likely post some impressions on Saturday. I am pretty much biased toward anything niche, indie, zombie, or free form, so don't be surprised if I'm as thrilled with this as I was with Fort Zombie.

It's more about my vow never to buy anything from Steam that is not on sale.  I think Gamersgate is having the same deal, though, so maybe I'll do that.

Oh, and I'm not expecting to see any reviews, but no sense jumping until the last minute.

[CeeKay]

It should have unlocked by now, anyone get a chance to play?

[Aganazer]

I played for about 20 minutes and finished three missions. Unfortunately I started feeling motion sick. It might have been that wicked lunch I ate today, but I'm affraid it was the game since the feeling is fading now that I stopped playing. I'll try again tomorow just to be sure. The last game that made me feel that way was Farcry 2 and before that it was Descent back in the day.

Gameplay
The few missions I ran took about 5 minutes each. Upon completion they reward money and unlock upgrades that you can then buy for your car. Some missions reward additional cars.

Driving around is easy enough especially after you get some guns to clear a path. Ammo is limited so its best spent sparingly. While driving around you can find power-ups that repair your car, provide ammo, and additional money. Memorizing the location of the power-ups may be the key to success in this game. There are lots of little shortcuts and hidden power-ups that you can find.

The most challenging part is clearing out whatever zombies might be hanging out around your objective. They need to be cleared before you can stop and pick up any survivors.

Graphics
The graphics were real nice. Performance was good. The controls intuitive and responsive. Nearly everything but buildings and brick walls were destructible. Even stray bullets from my machine guns would destroy things which was really fun to watch.

The camera is locked onto the vehicle for the most part. The environment rotates around as you turn. It will float around a bit and not track when you do a powerslide with the emergency brake. That is probably what make me get motion sick.

[Bullwinkle]

I played it, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Not GTA-like at all, wherever those comparisons came from (I guess the look), but it does remind me of Death Rally.  You get a mission with primary and secondary objectives, then tear through the city to the destination (no map, but there are icons on screen to show you the general direction).  It's not open world, really, as you have to get to the location before the zombies eat the survivors you have to rescue, so you can't wander, but there are plenty of ways to get to that location and hidden loot en route.  There are also zombies in the streets.  You can plow into them, but that'll damage your car.  You can fire at them, but ammo is limited, and you may need it more once you get to your destination (where you'll have to clear out more zombies).

At the start of a new mission, you can upgrade your weapons and/or add armor, speed or a battering ram, but only if you unlock those upgrades in the previous missions.  You can only have one weapon at a time (and turbo counts as a weapon), and since you find them on the street, upgrades apply to all cars.

So far I've unlocked three or four cars, and it looks like each new one is better than the last.  I would have expected the limo to be better armored, but slower than the sports car, but it seemed to be faster, too.

There are a few types of zombies, and they just introduced a new one in my game (an exploding fatty).  Mostly though, theres not much to distinguish them in-game.  The animals run a little faster, and the big guy moves more slowly, but the rest are just fodder in the street.

It controls pretty well, but some cars can be a little slidey.

It's not super-deep.  The controls are four direction, handbrake and weapon.  The camera can be a bit disorienting, but it works.  There's not an incredible amount of variety in the missions so far (go here, wipe out the zombies there, then haul survivors back to base), and I've finished the first area (maybe 5 or 6 missions).  There's a little more variety in the secondary objectives.  Beat the clock, wipe out all the zombies at this bridge, clear out the zombies in a place to get the car at that location, but really it's just get to point A and back, clearing out zombies as you go.

It's simple, but cheap, and it is fun.

[Tscott]

I jumped at the last minute and saved myself a dollar (or cost myself 9 dollars depending on how you look at it).

Just completed the first 3 levels.  So far it's fun.  Controls are ok.  Graphics are fine.  Each mission has a primary and secondary goal.  The first must be obtained or you'll fail- the second is optional but gives you more money for upgrades or an unlockable.  The primary goals so far are all 'Kill all the zombies in this area' and then pick up some survivors.  The secondary goals may give you another area to clear, or an amount of zombies to kill overall, or a timed goal.

So far I've got the taxi (the car you start with), the sports car, and the limo.  The weapons, once you buy them, are scattered throughout the map and have limited ammo- so once you use it up you're back to just ramming the zombies until you find another pickup.  

Driving through the zombies slows you down, depending on your current speed and how many zombies you're mowing down at once.  Once you're too slow they can start damaging your car.  They can also throw things at you if you're moving slow enough (like if you're turning around).

The first 4 missions are all on the same map, but after mission 4 it looks like you'll get to a new area in town.  But I didn't get 4 of 6 survivors needed to pass mission 4 to confirm that yet.

[EngineNo9]

I played for a few minutes and wasn't a fan of the camera and I could see it getting old really quick.  I'll try again later tonight and see if I can get used to it, but if not I fear it won't last long for me.

[CeeKay]

played up to mission 4, where the difficulty makes its first jump with big zombies that can stop your car dead in its tracks.  pretty fun, but I wish the camera was zoomed out a bit more than what it's set at.

[Crusis]

Noooooo I was really looking forward to this game but I can't get it to start. Probably something dumb on my end. My new computer seems to run everything else but this game won't even start - anyone else had similar problems? My new laptop will be here Monday. Maybe it will work there.

[Aganazer]

I guess I wasn't the only one who got motion sick.

From their website:

We have started to work on the issues that have been reported on our forums or sent to our support email ([email protected]). The main things that we are currently working on are:

- camera movement to eliminate motion sickness that some people are experiencing
- customizable controls including support for gaming pads
- graphics options to improve performance on low end machines (soft shadows, clouds, bloom etc.)
- pixel shader 2.0 support to eliminate the so called "white texture problem" or "brightness problem"
- fixing problems with running the game on some rare hardware configurations
- some startup crash problems

We are working hard and will try to deliver a patch as soon as possible so everyone can enjoy the game to its fullest.

We have already noticed that some people are modding Zombie Driver. In the upcoming days you can expect some guides to help you with that. We will try to explain what you can do, where to find things and how to easily mod Zombie Driver so stay tuned!

I'll wait for the patch and try again.

[Tscott]

I really wish the camera distance was adjustable.  I find myself wanting to be able to zoom in and out the camera with the mouse wheel all the time while playing this game.  It'd let me move to a distance I was comfortable with and let me zoom in close to view maximum carnage when I wanted to.

I don't know if that's what they mean by "camera movement" but I can hope.

[CeeKay]

they just released the new patch:

Zombie Driver version 1.0.4

    * Added game pad support
    * Added two new camera modes - "static" and "free look"
    * Added Pixel Shader 2.0 support (fixed white textures problem)
    * Improved performance on low end graphics cards
    * New graphics options for low end systems
    * Fixed a few misc start up crashes
    * Fixed some sound card compatibility issues

looks like they got all the issues they said they would.

[CeeKay]

so, what do people think of the new cameras?  I really wish they had put in a zoom option with the free look one.

[Gratch]

Glad I only paid $2.50 for this, since I can't play it for more than 5 minutes without it giving me a raging headache.

[CeeKay]

for those on the fence they just released a demo.

[Caine]

Glad I only paid $2.50 for this, since I can't play it for more than 5 minutes without it giving me a raging headache.

almost the same thing for me except I paid $5 for it and can play about half an hour before having to quit.  Motion sickness + headache FTL

I wish they had put the demo out sooner; would have saved me the trouble.

[EngineNo9]

Glad I only paid $2.50 for this, since I can't play it for more than 5 minutes without it giving me a raging headache.

almost the same thing for me except I paid $5 for it and can play about half an hour before having to quit.  Motion sickness + headache FTL

I wish they had put the demo out sooner; would have saved me the trouble.

Didn't they add a couple new cameras a while back?  I haven't tried them out, but I figured one of those would have fixed the motion sickness feeling.

[CeeKay]

they just released a free content patch.

[EngineNo9]

they just released a free content patch.

And part of this is that it is also on sale for half price!  (as you can see in the Steals and Deals forum)

[CeeKay]

Blood Race mode, a free expansion coming soon.

[EngineNo9]

Blood Race mode, a free expansion coming soon.

Sweet!  Hopefully they have both AI races as well as multiplayer, as I'm not sure how big the online crowd is for this game.

[CeeKay]

Blood Race mode, a free expansion coming soon.

Sweet!  Hopefully they have both AI races as well as multiplayer, as I'm not sure how big the online crowd is for this game.

I guess this is out now, they're advertising it with the sale they're having on Steam.

[CeeKay]

arise....

Zombie Driver HD is coming.

[EngineNo9]

Weird, it didn't look particularly HD-ified compared to what I played on Steam 2 years ago, but what do I know.  They certainly added a bunch of fixes, options and content in patches, so maybe this is just a repackaging now that it's releasing on other platforms.