Soup du jour. Scorching hors d’oeuvres. Why, we solely reside to eat brains!
Beginning up twin-stick shooter Zombie Soup, I used to be instantly hit with a way of nostalgia, regardless of this being a brand new sport by a more recent developer I wasn’t beforehand conscious of. This sport evokes a method and nostalgia for early 2000s 3D cartoons, harking back to the considerably off placing type of reveals like Jimmy Neutron, the place the fashions aren’t actually interesting however that contributes to the general really feel. Zombie Soup feels form of like that early 3D animation: it has appeal and components of it are compelling, however finally it’s a bit tough across the edges.
Zombie Soup has a reasonably simple premise. You play as Ricky, a backpacker who will get caught up in a zombie infestation and desires to save lots of the woman. It’s fairly naked bones so far as tales go, and whereas there are some humorous moments, numerous the humor appears to get misplaced on this sport. Sure plot beats fall far flatter than they should, as nicely. Early on, you run right into a skeleton often called MC Cranium, who then travels with you as a cranium and supplies the backwards and forwards with Ricky. It feels fairly clear that AeonSparks Interactive wished to make MC Cranium a form of mascot however nothing he says is especially humorous or stands out.
The gameplay could be very stable: it’s an isometric twin-stick shooter with quite a lot of weapon lessons to mess around with. The principle lessons are fairly normal shooter fare, with pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles among the many weapon varieties, however there are additionally particular weapons you could find with enjoyable results and restricted ammo. My private favourite was the Basezooka, which lobs a volley of baseballs that bounce round your setting, however I had enjoyable with many of the arsenal. There’s no constant solution to get these weapons in order that they’re much less of a technique and extra of a novelty, however they do a great job of shaking issues up and making the second to second gameplay extra enjoyable.
The precise gameplay entails transferring by a number of totally different environments (a membership, a hospital, a cemetery, and so forth.) whereas searching for the following boss to defeat with the intention to transfer ahead. Sometimes there are aspect missions, like discovering an merchandise for another person, however they’re principally backtracking by earlier areas. The format of those differ from both unobtrusive to annoying, however are for probably the most half stable. There appears to be little or no incentive to battle the typical mob of zombies, except you’re trying to find a selected particular weapon or want the forex for upgrades (which I hardly ever didn’t have sufficient of) so at a sure level I began dodging enemies fairly than combating my approach by them. I simply want there was perhaps extra incentive to combating the typical zombies. The improve system could be very primary (a handful of tiers you may select one perk from) so perhaps supplementing or augmenting that might be a solution to make the grind really feel price it. There are some challenges you may strategy, reminiscent of replaying boss fights with totally different objects and timed challenges to get totally different weapons, however nothing specifically that personally me to maintain taking part in past the ten or so hour runtime.
A part of the rationale I counsel tweaking the improve system is that Zombie Soup will get arduous, quick. The issue curve shoots straight up on the third main boss, which feels prefer it comes out of nowhere. After that, I positively needed to take just a few tries to defeat any of the bosses, as soon as I received the timing down. Whereas there are specific features of the mechanics I discovered irritating, reminiscent of how slowly the stamina meter recharged and the way unforgiving the invincibility frames might be, I beloved that feeling of satisfaction when taking down a very tough boss. I believe your enjoyment of Zombie Soup goes to be primarily based utterly on how you’re feeling with troublesome encounters like this.
Sadly, the problem spike in boss fights results in extra frustration with sure features of Zombie Soup. Sometimes there are some glitches, and whereas they’re uncommon they are often fairly annoying. I used to be significantly pissed off by a battle towards two bosses on the identical time the place one by some means despawned mid-fight, which compelled me to reload though that had been my finest try thus far. One other glitch was within the pre-fight cutscene, which confirmed Ricky operating right into a door and never by it for a number of seconds earlier than loading within the battle. Boss fights with any form of animated cutscene might be skipped but when it’s completed within the sport engine, it could’t be skipped, which makes attempting a troublesome encounter time and again much more grating. The music for Zombie Soup is first rate, however every boss battle has the identical music which received monotonous quick with how repetitive it might be.
Zombie Soup is a flawed however fascinating twin-stick shooter. I definitely loved my time with it however there have been quite a lot of frustrations that made it arduous to be an prompt suggestion. It doesn’t add something significantly new to the style whereas additionally not being polished sufficient to excellent the style. That mentioned, it’s a stable sport that makes me wish to see extra from this studio, and one I’d suggest to followers of those shooters who need that welcome satisfaction of triumphing over a stiff problem.
