Zombie Apocalypse 2 Trailer

A trailer has been released for the sequel to the flawed but fun twin stick shooter Zombie Apocalypse, titled Zombie Apocalypse 2: Never Die Alone. The original XBLA/PSN downloadable title suffered from the same four or five recycled set environments with little room to manuever around as you blasted wave after wave of the undead. It was repetitious and while it was plenty long enough, I get pretty damn sick of the same five levels cycled over and over again. Judging from what is shown in the trailer for the sequel though, it looks as if that issue has been addressed, with the players actually having full environments to wander through, similar to the vastly superior PSN exclusive Dead Nation.

Unfortunately it looks as if each character has been given much more personality this time around, undoubtedly attempting to mimic the lovable characters from Valve's Left 4 Dead games. The main problem with that is, the characters in Left 4 Dead all have their own quirks, are memorable, and the dialogue between them is genuinely funny. What is on display in this trailer is just annoying, not funny in the least, and pretty much just sounds like what you hear playing in a public match, instead of alone. Yeah that's exactly what I want my single player experience to be like, playing with the public. I've got my fingers crossed for a mute option.

Zombie Apocalypse 2 also looks like it's going to be a much prettier game, and will hopefully be adding some depth, with weapon upgrades and such, again like Dead Nation did. There was a decent bit of variety among the zombies last time around, but there was room for a bit more. I wouldn't be surprised to see some "special infected" along the lines of what we all know and love from Left 4 Dead. Guess we'll see what Backbone has in store for us when the game is released.