World War Z: Aftermath Review (Xbox, PlayStation & PC)

World War Z: Aftermath sinks its incisors into a familiar stomping ground in an effort to capture the blood-pumping spirit of Left 4 Dead’s quote-riddled multiplayer rompers. Four players; multiple classes; one escape route; and an enormous horde of ravenous zombies spread out across a series of chapters. Oh, World War Z doesn’t shy away from its inspiration; it embraces it and gauges a giant chunk out of its heart. It’s so on the nose, in fact, that it takes less than five seconds to spot the elephant in the room. The four survivors; the rooftop; the helicopter fleeing from the scene; and the immediate “WE’VE GOT A LURKER OVER HERE!” Boy, World War Z might represent a movie, but it’s about as close to being a love letter to Left 4 Dead as you could possibly get. And you know, I’m not even mad about it.

World War Z: Aftermath is the polar opposite to The Last of Us, in that it features little to no character development, and no pre-apocalypse world-building jargon to help mold its narrative before it introduces the heroes. No, World War Z opts to do things a little differently, with four generic survivors, each with their own class and preferred weapon, and an episodic timeline, with each chapter in an episode featuring its own section of a world—a shopping mall, for example—and a collective of zombie classes. In other words, there are no plot points to unravel. It’s just you, a transparent goal, and an undead wedge that stands between your social clique and the evacuation point — wherever that may be.

With the goal established and the classes assigned, you commence your journey alongside three other players (or offline with bots, if you so desire) to jump into the fray and collectively quell thousands of zekes. The campaign rolls out, and before long that familiar feeling begins to emerge from between the cracks of Left 4 Dead’s bleeding heart. Desperately, you plunge into the thick of the apocalypse with a belt of ammo, a weapon, and a satchel of necessities, like medical supplies and projectiles, naturally. Zombies (or zekes, as they’re commonly known as in this world) bolt out from all crags and crevices, and you, as a team player, unleash hell whilst aimlessly wading through hordes and actively trying to keep your ragtag friends alive.

If all of the above hits a little too close to home, well, that’s because it is, in short, a predictable couch co-op zombie saga that leans into the traditional values of a familiar horde shooter. As such, it finds comfort in the usual trappings—the episodic format; the odd but fitting undead monikers; and the occasional challenge that tasks players with completing a death-defying chore in the face of danger, for example. World War Z contains all of that. Heck, the only thing that it fails to include is the irritating “PILLS HERE” quote. But other than that, what you see here is what you get: a nod to Valve and an even bigger nod to zombie culture.

Despite the fact that World War Z looks and, more importantly, plays like a Left 4 Dead successor, the truth is, Aftermath does actually make for a brilliant zombie shooter. Granted, it has little to no connection with the source material, and therefore the chances of spotting Brad Pitt among the walking dead are slim to non-existent here. That being said, even without the movie to stabilize its backbone, the game thankfully finds numerous ways to survive as a solid multiplayer experience. Again, the characters are about as dull and as forgettable as they come. But it’s the little bits and pieces here that make Aftermath a fantastic FPS game, like its graphical complexity, its class system and its thoroughly enjoyable combat, for example.

While the episodes are both predicable and littered with all of the usual undead-based curveballs that you would typically expect to find in a B-movie zombie flick, the journey that you take across the dying biomes is, surprisingly, a lot of fun. Heck, even the little things count here, such as the general idea of carving through hundreds of zombies and restlessly scrounging for supplies to keep heads above water. Unlike your typical zombie apocalypse, everything tends to move a lot quicker in Aftermath. The dead are smarter, stronger, and more efficient at adopting a horde mentality, thus making your job a lot tougher to handle. But, honestly, that’s all part of the fun here: the struggle to survive long enough to reach the next chapter. It isn’t always gracious, but it is annoyingly entertaining.

Of course, I can’t quite bring myself to sing the offline mode’s eternal praises, because frankly, World War Z is best served as a multiplayer game than a single-player experience. Similar to Left 4 Dead, most of the joy that you’ll find here is within the social aspect of the journey, as well as the collaborative process of mindlessly battling and chomping through hordes as a tight-knit team. Don’t get me wrong, the game is still a lot of fun to carve through as a lone survivor. Though, to call World War Z a game with a single-player mode at the heart of its infrastructure just wouldn’t be an accurate description.

On the bright side of things, World War Z features a lot of bang for your buck. In addition to its sizable roster and class system, Aftermath, specifically, offers a generous collection of episodes and challenges, weapons and objectives to work through. It also offers a good amount of replay value, too, with a procedural element that allows both players and enemies to take advantage of a highly unpredictable environment. The story might be the same throughout, but if there’s one thing I can say about zombies, it’s that no two think the same. And, if World War Z does anything at all, it ensures that there are enough curveballs to keep you on your toes, whether it’s for your first stint or your fifteenth.

Verdict

With a lofty collection of episodes and a huge variety of classes and characters to choose from, World War Z finds its place on the zombie frontlines as a chunky, well-rounded multiplayer shooter that can keep you and friends engaged for hours. Although devoid of any real provoking plot elements, the game still manages to find stable ground as a gripping corridor shooter with a lot of depth and evergreen potential. To that end, I’d say that the lack of Brad Pitt is excusable.

It goes without saying at this point, but if you are on the hunt for a Left 4 Dead lookalike that hits the nail on the head and delivers a captivating multiplayer zombie shooter experience, then you needn’t look any further than the bleeding heart of World War Z’s ravenous cortex. It’s gritty, gory, and about as much fun as you could possibly have with a troupe of friends.