Xbox Reviews

Zombie Vikings Review


Review Zombie Vikings | I fell in love with a previous game from ZOINK games, Stick it to the Man. I was stoked to see that Zombie Vikings had the same visual style, to my disappointment the game wasn’t announced for Xbox One last year and came out on PC and the Playstation 4. It might have been for the best because the game had a rocky start and received some very mixed reviews for bad performance. Now a year later the game is finally available for Xbox One, let’s take a look in this review if you should buy this co-op brawler. 

THE GOOD

  • Fantastic, brilliant, awesome, outstanding, sublime and all other words that describe very good can be used for the art style and visuals from Zombie Vikings. The cardboard look immediately strikes out and gives some very original Norse themed levels and characters. The level design is top-notch but the character design… I am honestly baffled by how they are made. So many neat ideas for each and every playable and non-playable character. Developer ZOINK has a beyond awesome visual design team!
  • I played the game with my girlfriend and we both loved the humor, we laughed out loud with many moments. Especially when a worm character decides to do a worm dance. They did a fantastic job making the story worth while. The story is about finding the magical eye from Odin, (who comes up with these kind of things?) it provides a meaning for fighting all the enemies and everything is told with outstanding cut scenes and dialogues. Weird situations and unexpected plots keep the story interesting throughout the game.
  • For a pure 2D brawler game the combat mechanics are a little easy but all the special abilities make up for that. Each character has different moves, Gunborg can power herself up and explode,  Caw-kaa born and raised by crows (Is this Z-nation?) can fly but my favorite is Seagurd, seeing the giant squid remains impressive, even after five hours. Collecting new weapons and runes change the combat slightly, doing more damage from behind or life siphon. Visually all the different weapons look awesome (again) and I was always curious to see what would be next.

Mixed Feelings

  • Zombie Vikings is made to play with friends, you can play the game alone but it would be a missed opportunity. Why play alone if you have a local and online co-op option?
  • Like always, brawler games have the habit for becoming repetitive, this is also the case for Zombie Vikings. BUT! The developer tried to battle this with some clever boss fights and platforming sections. While playing co-op your partner can become your nemesis too, fighting for a new weapon. These things help for making it less repetitive but the genre remains fighting waves and waves of enemies.

THE BAD

  • It is definitely a nice extra but the competitive multiplayer mode is not really something that many players will play. The balance between the playable characters isn’t present and it clearly shows that the game wasn’t made for this.
  • My one and only real complain about Zombie Vikings is the lack of any challenge, I have to be honest and say that I didn’t really test the single player that much so I’m not sure if it’s the same for that but playing with a friend we never had issues with the enemies. You have an achievement for getting revived 50 times.. I’m sure that EVERYONE will have to farm this one if they want the 15 Gamerscore.

Score: 88% | Zombie Vikings is one tremendous game, one of the main pillars is the visual design and perfectly made characters. Everything is overflown by incredible humor, making it a funny and fun experience for all players. Zombie Vikings is a must have game for co-op players, you simply need it in your game collection!

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