Me and @emuse recently finished up Left 4 Dead 2 and all its campaigns. We tried playing it some more on higher difficulties and through the versus mode but interest quickly died off for the both of us. While Left 4 Dead 2 is an all time classic it does fall short on a few things 15v years down the line. It's relatively static and the graphics are starting to become dated.
Just in time for this inevitable loss of interest World War Z went on a 50% sale. After some initial confusion as to which version to buy we decided to jump the gun. Pro tip: buy the Aftermath version if you're going to buy this game. It includes the base game and all DLC content and is even cheaper than the base game. It makes no sense but that's how it is.
The gameplay
World War Z plays pretty much just like Left 4 Dead. You're a team of four survivors who have to battle their way through hordes of zombies across different stages. In World War Z however there are more zombies. A lot more zombies. If you've seen the movie World War Z you'll know what I'm talking about. Huge swarms of zombies that stack on top of each other to scale buildings. It's an awesome thrill.
Gunplay and the general mechanics feel a lot better than they did in Left 4 Dead, but that's just to be expected of a modern game taking advantage of 12 years newer tech. It's also really refreshing to be playing a game like this with modern and updated graphics. The environments look fantastic and I'm really digging the vibrant color scheme that they went with.
A sense of progression
Another thing I was missing in Left 4 Dead that's present in most modern games these days was a sense of progression. World War Z has a few progression systems that makes you stronger over time. There's different classes you can play that you level up and unlock new perks for. You can then customize builds for each class which adds yet another level of fun. I've dabbled a little bit back and forth with classes and haven't really settles for a specific one yet.
Guns can also be leveled up. The more you use a specific gun during a game the more experience you get for it. When the gun levels up you can use the currency that you earn in-game to level up the gun to a higher and more efficient version. The effects depend on the weapon but some weapons get increased damage while others get increased ammo capacity, range or handling. This is really awesome in my opinion. Since there's so many guns it's going to take us a lot of time to see those top tier upgrades.
There's also two types of currency in the game. The standard currency is simply earned by playing normally while there's a more special currency that's earned by doing challenged and partaking in events. Looks like the game is hosting quite a few regular events which is really cool to see.
New York conquered
So far me and @emuse have only finished the New York campaign. It featured four very enjoyable levels to play with quite a decent length. It took us a little over two hours to get through this one campaign. If that time holds up for all campaigns we'll be looking at around 15 hours of gametime when all the campaigns are through.
We're now moving on to Jerusalem for the 2nd campaign. I'm excited to see the world design and challenges waiting for us there.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.
You really liking this one?
I purchased the game just before the Aftermath update because it was on sale. I waited to play it until the update hit because the were hyping it up a lot and I wanted my first experience to be the PS5 version. I was underwhelmed when I first played it, maybe I wasn't in the right mood. I am going to redownload it and give it another shot since they just had another free update. I should love this game, I'm not sure why I didn't. It's just what I'd ask for. A fun zombie game with the option of playing in third person. Maybe I just need to find the right people to play with, because I really used to love Left 4 Dead.
It's simple and there's not much to the game except for moving forward and defeating zombies but that's exactly what I was hoping for. Just a simple zombie shooter with a slight sense of progression.
Hoping I like it more this second time around. I didn’t really give it much of a chance at the time.
It is cool they just added the game to PS Plus Extra game catalog.
You're in the game btw.
Looks like I’m contemplating taking a dump 💩
I tried this on PS+ and it was quite good. The only downside to me is that I don't have any PS friends to play it with and playing solo gets rather boring in short order. I love the dynamics you get when you play with a group in this game. Your one friend calling out for help, your other friend stealing all the good guns, That One Guy who wastes all the medical supplies? Ahhhh, good times!
It's definitely a game that's better with friends. I would probably get bored quite fast if I didn't play it with my girlfriend.
I have this in EGS (for free), I thought this was a third person only?
I went to find read up on the aftermath addon and it says first person mode, lol.
It looks amazing.
Yeah you can change between 3rd and 1st person with a button. I only use 1st person as it just feels so much better to me.
Con mi novia hemos jugado primero al Guerra mundial Z y luego al Left 4 dead 2 y aunque los dos nos hayan gustado se nota la diferencia de años tanto en mecánicas como en gráficos. En lo personal no sabría decir cual de los dos me gusto más pero totalmente de acuerdo que hay muchos más zombies en guerra mundial Z y que lo hace más frenético.
I don't want to compare the two to much seeing as World War Z has an unfair advantage of being 10 years newer. I'm sure if they made a new Left 4 Dead 3 it would blow everything out of the water.
Is the game story similar to world war z movie? If you have to compare between dying light and this game which one do you think is better? If you haven't tried it then you should check it out because it's pretty good. It's not just walking around with a gun in dying light. There is a lot of parkour involved for survival in the game which makes it stand out from other zombie games. I heard they released dying light 2 as well but didn't play it though.
The game doesn't follow the story of the movie but it's set in the same universe. There's 7 chapters that tell their own little story of a group of survivors in different cities around the world. It's quite hard to compare to Dying Light as they're totally different games. The only common thing they have is zombies and guns. It would be like comparing Fortnite to Minecraft because they both have pickaxes.
I see. That's good to hear. Might play it in the future if that's the case. I forgot to mention about Days Gone. I saw the gameplay it looks pretty good. Ever played it?
World War Z is basically a modern and more dynamic L4D2.
Days Gone is great! I platinumed it on the PS4 back when it released. Kind of wanted to play it again on my PS5 with better performance. Performance was crap on the PS4 for that game.
So it's an improved version of it with modern graphics and tech like you mentioned in your post.
You finished days gone too huh😁. I thought games didn't lag on PlayStation because they are made to play on them. It's very common to hear pc versions have performance issues all the time since the specs are different for different individuals. It seems like you really love zombie games. Did you ever play any arkam games before?
Even if games are made for the PlayStation it doesn't necessarily mean that the developers do a good job of optimizing their game for the console. There's a few cases liket hat but it was mostly in the early patches og Days Gone. I've heard it's better now.
I played Arkham Asylum way back when it released on the Xbox 360. I haven't touched the series since then. Never got around to it.
I see I don't know much about PlayStation development because I'm a pc player. Kinda annoying when you paid the game and the product has performance issues even on the intended platform.
Oh that was a very long time ago since then there were significant improvements in the gameplay, graphics and story. I think you should check out Batman arkam knight, it's the latest one from the series. It's graphics is incredible even though it's old but you can finally get to ride the batmobile inside the big Gotham City map now. Graphics is way better than Gotham knights which was released recently. Kinda shows how dedicated the game developers of rock steady studios.
Guns level up is a nice touch. I never played any of the Left 4 dead style game even after it being so massively popular. I always felt there is not enough content in those games. I just blame my ignorance...lol
How is the campaign mode so far?
You'll get a good 20 hours out of Left 4 Dead 2 just for playing through all the campaigns once. After that the content is mostly doing it again on higher difficulties or with different kinds of challenges. There's also a versus mode where one team plays as special zombies while one team are the survivors. I think that's what's keeping L4D2 so popular still.
Ah! That's probably it. I was wondering what's fuming the popularity but this online comp mode sounds interesting. Thanks, man!
I remember liking this game when it first came out, but I didn't play it a whole lot. I know they had some kind of major overhaul during the last year or so. I should try it out again some time. Thanks for the write up on it!
I haven't followed the development of the game so I don't know hot it was before but I can safely say that it's solid now.
I think this game is a popular one. I heard about it countless times but I never tried to buy it or gave it any attention.
Well, that's because I am not really a game freak but I play games sometimes.
It's relatively popular yeah. A few thousand people playing it on Steam at all times. Nice to have a crowded game like that.
I saw this today and it's looking like a hell of a lot of fun!
Might be the next game I buy!
Awesome! Hope to see it up on your blog soon then. The sale is active for 4 more days.
Haha I'm not sure I'll be getting it straight away but I did see it on the sale board ✌️
Wow this looks amazing, must be fun to play at night.
What about recoil? There is any recoil sensitivity?
!PIZZA
There's a bit of recoil but not much of it. They didn't really aim for realism when making the game.
ah i would love to play this game i really like zombie hordes and this format is brutal.
Left 4 Dead is a really good game, but as you said, the graphics are very outdated and that's why people don't prefer it. I haven't tried World War Z yet but it looks like it could take its place. Good luck to @emuse and you in Jerusalem!
Well there's 20,000 people constantly playing L4D2 and around 2-3,000 playing WWZ. People definitely prefer L4D2.
I mean the new generation wants games with newer graphics. That's why they might prefer World War Z. Otherwise, I know how good this game is and I've played it many times with my friends.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@ayamihaya(1/5) tipped @pusen