Sniper Elite is a game series about creatively destroying the innards of Nazi soldiers from afar primarily using sniper rifles as the name implies. It has the best Kill Cam in the shooter genre with rather detailed and gory depictions of damage caused by the bullet as it penetrates its victim’s body. However, if you’re feeling bad about killing people (in a video game), you can always find a way to kill them without remorse, as Zombies. Thus, Sniper Elite got a spinoff series called Nazi Zombie Army and now Rebellion has packaged the third iteration in that series along with a remaster of the previous two as the Zombie Army Trilogy.
In terms of core gameplay, Zombie Army Trilogy behaves much like a mod of Sniper Elite 3, with three weapon types including a trusty sniper rifle and four deployables. The Kill Cam occupies the centre stage of this experience as well, though not every zombie will fall to a single bullet. Curiously, a bullet will also only claim one victim even if the animation shows it passing clean through and hitting another.
The key difference between Zombie Army Trilogy and Sniper Elite lies in the fact that while the latter is primarily a single player experience with PvP multiplayer, the former is best played co-operatively with three others. The game is designed for four player co-op and is utterly brilliant in this regard. The problem with this approach can be seen in the single player, which seems that much harder even at lower difficulties. There’s also a Horde mode in case you get bored of playing through the game’s many scenarios.
Zombie Army Trilogy is both a remaster and a new game. It includes enhanced levels from the previous two Nazi Zombie Army games and adds greater detail to the maps. It also continues the story of the previous two games and adds five new levels of its own, bringing it up to a total of 15 levels. In a first for the series, you can now play as a female character from one of the four alternatives provided. Each character has their own back-story and nationality and you can distinguish them from their taunts and attire.
You get to choose your loadout before every mission, but you will end up scavenging the level for different guns and ammunition. Ammo is scarce and you can quickly run out of it if you go berserk on seeing the numerous zombies. Also, different guns are effective at different ranges, so it’s wise to familiarise oneself with the proper application of each weapon if you hope to survive the Nazi Zombie Army. Sniper Rifles let you empty your lung, which also seems to slow down time, to get a better shot through the scope and you can also zoom in to improve accuracy, with the bullet path being indicated by a red marker. You must also learn to effectively use each of the four deployables, of which you can only carry a limited quantity. While tripwires and landmines will detonate when a zombie comes in contact with them, hand grenades will detonate on impact, but dynamite requires a trigger such as another explosion or a bullet shot from your gun. Dynamite has a pretty big blast radius so it’s best to keep your distance before detonating it. Melee, which is only limited to kicking enemies, feels rather weak in the game, except with certain enemies, so it’s best to keep your distance from the zombies.
Of course, it’s not enough that you must scavenge the map for ammo and guns, as Zombie Army Trilogy also has a couple of collectibles namely, Gold Bars and Bottles, which you must find in your sweep through a level. Supposedly, the Gold Bars are for future insurance in case you manage to get out of this mess and the bottles are for toasting the success of your mission.
The Level design is quite linear and there is no map or minimap to guide you. Few areas offer alternative routes and you will find yourself facing zombie hordes along cramped corridors oftentimes. There are objective markers to point you to your next location and saferooms allow you to take a breather while going through a level. Each level is quite long and offers about 20-30 minutes of playtime easily. Some checkpoints are glitched however, and you can activate them from inside a saferoom, giving you a greater advantage in tackling the zombie horde that subsequently spawns, since saferooms are usually inaccessible once you leave them and doorways make for great chokepoints. The game doesn’t let you save manually and you must rely on its checkpoint system. Exploring around the map is necessary to scavenge any ammo one can find, as not every downed zombie can be searched for drops.
In terms of story, Zombie Army Trilogy begins with you trying to make your way to Berlin to try to find an artefact that will help you stop the Nazi Zombie Army. The first game (chapter) ends with your successful escape from Berlin. The second game (chapter) tasks you with returning to Berlin to find another relic, this time taking you deep inside the Fuhrerbunker, and once more you leave Berlin to find the final piece of the relic. The new additions to the story now have you confronting an undead Hitler himself, in his mountain fortress, the Folterschloss. This also happens to be the location of Hitler’s Zombie Army factory and serves as a finale to the series. The game doesn’t have much depth story wise, but it suffices for the purpose of tying the scenarios together and giving some meaning to your survival against the zombie horde.
The game offers an interesting variety of enemies. There are your regular zombies that are slow moving melee fighters that will leap at you when they get close enough. You will quickly learn to shoot every dead body you see in the head, as that is the only sure-fire way to ensure that a zombie stays dead. Dead bodies can reanimate at times and surprise you. Shooting a zombie’s legs will not kill it as it then tries to crawl towards you on its hands. There’s the bomber zombie that madly runs towards you and is rigged to blow. Killing these can allow you to take out many zombies in an area at once, though they will detonate themselves once they get close enough. They have a distinctive scream and a lit fuse to stand out from the regular zombies. There are also skeletons that are best destroyed in melee, as bullets tend to pass right through them, unless you hit their pulsating hearts. Adding challenge to your passage across open terrain are sniper zombies that can relocate pretty swiftly and are quite good shots. There are also super soldiers that need multiple headshots to kill and carry a heavy machinegun. These are a challenge to kill with deployables and body shots and put your sniping skills to the test.
The Graphics are decent and seem to benefit from the remaster treatment. The kill Cam details are brilliant to watch, though curiously zombies have decayed bones and black blood. The atmosphere is dark and dreary and the music score adds to the tension. Gun sounds and explosions are satisfying in terms of visual effects as well. The overall theme of the game is designed to give you the chills while you survive a zombie apocalypse.
The Co-op is where the game really works best. You can co-op either the campaign or the horde mode, but there is no versus mode where you can play as the zombies similar to other co-op zombie survival games. You can create your own lobby or join an existing one, or find one using quick match. Co-op is all about teamwork and zombie spawns can be adjusted based on number of players or set to extreme for those seeking a greater challenge.
Zombie Army Trilogy is an interesting proposition for fans of the Sniper Elite franchise, simply due to the large amount of content it comes with. However, for newcomers and fans of the zombie survival co-op genre, this game is best played with friends, rather than solo. The game successfully creates a creepy atmosphere and you might find the occasional jump scare as a zombie drops in front of you out of nowhere. The creepiest part is when the bodies you thought were dead seem to reanimate of their own accord while your back is turned. The emphasis on sniping and headshots to thin the horde can detract from the fun for those who like to use brute force, as the game demands a certain level of finesse and skill from the player.
