Rebellion

Hunting the Dead

HIGH Watching a single bullet plow through five zombies.

LOW Anything with skeletons. Seriously, the skeletons are horrible.

WTF I'm disappointed by the utter lack of zombie Hitler, Rebellion.

When I wrote a post about the Camp aesthetic in games a few years back, I suggested that one of the greatest areas of camp potential in games lay in violence. A commenter suggested I take a look at Rogue Warrior, a universally-panned game inexplicably starring Mickey Rourke as real-life SEAL team commander Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko. The game did not disappoint: Rogue Warrior is a great example, perhaps the best example, of a game that in its violent excess becomes unintentionally comic.

Theater of War Crimes

HIGH The quarter-mile shot.

LOW Are those tank guns manned by psychics?

WTF And then the bullet plowed through his head, popping his eyeball before blasting off the back of his skull! (Repeat 100 times.)

In this episode we have a good old fashioned "What have you been playing?" Discussion. We then have a debate sparked by an email over Sniper Elite V2 and round it all out with some thumbs! With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard Naik and Dylan "I have no witty nicknames" Collins.

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The only interesting thing about NeverDead is that it's not actually as bad as it seems after you've beaten it. I don't mean that NeverDead is secretly a good game. It truly stinks, mostly for boring reasons—awkward and mushy controls, inconsistent mechanics, stock characters, vapid story. However, NeverDead leaves an even worse impression than it deserves to, because its concluding bosses exhibit excruciatingly stupid design.

NeverPlay

HIGH The few scattered moments when the basic mechanics show their promise.

LOW The final two bosses are simply insulting.

WTF Why sell out your unique premise less than 10 minutes into the game?

Tragedy: Exploited!

HIGH Finally a zombie game since Resident Evil 2 that acknowledges shooting them in the leg is a really good tactic.

LOW It's a Vietnam war game with absolutely nothing to say about the conflict other than: it happened.

WTF Okay, so you're turned into a zombie—I get putting on a gas mask and picking up two cleavers. Hey, who wouldn't? But how does that make you bulletproof?