‘Zombie Army VR’ Blasts Onto Quest with Explosive Undead-Slaying Action Today
Everything in your life has been leading up to and preparing you for this moment. Every victory you’ve achieved, zombie you’ve slain, and Nazi you’ve taken down over the decades in other video games has been leading up to this next chapter in your adventure. Steel yourself and prepare for the ultimate battle against the undead hordes, because Zombie Army VR is out today on the Meta Quest platform.
To help make sure you’re as prepared as possible before heading out as an intrepid new Deadhunter, we spoke with Steve Archer, Executive Producer at Rebellion, to learn more about what’s in store in their epic new game.
Steve Archer: The Zombie Army series imagines that in 1945, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler initiated ‘Plan-Z’ which turned fallen Nazi soldiers into zombies. You play the role of a Deadhunter who is tasked with ridding Europe of the undead hordes.
You have a suite of authentic World War II weapons at your disposal including rifles, SMGs, pistols and throwables, including various types of grenades. It is a high octane, blood thirsty, first person shooter, where you are incredibly outnumbered but you and your trusty rifle have to save the world.
SA: Zombie Army VR is a complete experience with a full campaign that is playable both in single player or with a friend via online cooperative play. The campaign is set across seven different missions, each with various individual chapters, so there is plenty of gameplay for you to enjoy. There is also a high level of replayability in there as you seek out score multipliers and hunt down the various unlocks and hidden items in each of the chapters.
We are also committed to improving the gameplay experience once the game is out. The most notable future addition will be a Horde Mode where you fight against ever increasing waves of zombies. We look forward to adding this to the game in the coming weeks.
SA: Absolutely. You can play Zombie Army VR without any prior knowledge of the series and still have a great standalone experience. For fans of the series there are a number of returning characters and story threads as this game picks up before the events of Zombie Army 4. However, a brand new player will still have great fun.
SA: This is a completely new, standalone game in the series and adds some extra detail about events in the lead up to Zombie Army 4. Fans of the series will also be able to find out what happened to the Deadhunter’s legendary leader, Herman Wolff.
SA: Designing a VR game is intrinsically different from a flat screen game. There are so many different things to consider. Players are able to look and move in ways that simply aren’t possible on a regular flat screen game so additional thought and resource has to be allocated to manage this. For example, a player can pick an item up, bring it extremely close to them and start spinning it around to view at any angle. That means that our assets have to be high quality, even in areas you wouldn’t normally see.
For our game we also have to think about the gunplay as the way you hold, fire and reload your weapon is so different and far more immersive in VR. Getting that right really helps to nail the feel of the experience.
You also have to consider the various comfort settings, which add an extra layer of complication. Does a player want fluid movement, or to teleport from one area to the next? Do they want to play standing or sitting? Do they want to have full reload mechanics or just a button press. All of these areas need deep consideration and require additional development resources but make for a far better final product.
SA: We wanted to bring a fully fledged Zombie Army experience to VR and this takes time. As I said earlier, this is not a port of an existing title, but a completely standalone game, built from the ground up for VR.
We managed to get the core game up and running in a relatively short space of time but getting that up to the quality level that we require is the bit that requires a big chunk of time.
Virtual reality also allows you to create a far more tactile experience. For example you can pick a weapon up, throw it from one hand to the other, play with the reloading mechanics and far more. All of this takes time to implement. Additionally, not all of the features and game mechanics that are present in the flat screen game immediately transfer over to headsets so you have to iterate to see what works and what doesn’t and then refine the experience from there.
SA: We have managed to retain and if anything, intensify the feeling of tension and panic that comes from being overrun by the Nazi hordes. We have had to work within the specifications of the headsets but at the same time we wanted to maximise the number of zombies in each encounter. There are also different types of zombies, all of whom offer different threats and dangers.
The look and feel of the game rings absolutely true to the rest of the series. We retain that gory b-movie aesthetic, which leans into the occult with the use of pentagrams and other devices. We think fans of the series are going to love it, as will new players.
SA: Bringing X-ray Kill Cam to VR is no easy undertaking. Obviously the kill cam is one of the game’s signature features so we didn’t want to lose it, but at the same time, we were aware that switching to the kill cam could break the immersion offered by VR.
Thankfully we used our experience from working on the two Sniper Elite VR titles to implement it in a way that hopefully keeps you in the gameplay experience. When you land a great headshot, or a particularly gruesome bodyshot, the game switches to a slow motion kill cam that shows you the devastation of your shot. You quickly then snap back into gameplay and the first person perspective. There are also options in the game menu that allow you to refine how often kill cam is triggered, including turning it off altogether should you wish.
SA: For me, the full reload mechanics add so much to the game. Each weapon has its own reload method but in general you have to eject the empty magazine, insert a new one and cock your weapon before it is ready to fire. Doing this in a quiet environment is completely fine but trying to do this while being chased down by a horde of zombies immediately adds to the sense of panic and tension. This in turn means that you make mistakes and fumble the reload, which further increases the panic.
Therefore my advice would be to learn these mechanics so that they become muscle memory as they add so much to the experience. Make use of the shooting gallery which is available in the game hub to not only have some target practice but also get those reload mechanics down.
It is also worth spending some time exploring the various comfort settings that we have available in the game. Finding the right balance here will enable you to become a brutal deadhunter while finding the settings that best suit you and the way that you want to play. You can access these settings in the game menu.
SA: For the latest Zombie Army news and updates, please visit zombiearmy.com and be sure to follow Zombie Army on our social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. To find out more about Rebellion you can visit our website: rebellion.com.
If you’re ready to dive into Zombie Army VR, make sure to check out our previous pre-order announcement blog with more game details, or the game’s page over on the Meta Horizon store to buy it for yourself. Happy hunting!
