35%

I'm going to be honest with you. I sat down to write this review for Dead Horde the top down, run and gun shooter from DNS development, but I had a tough timeplaying this game for the 18 hours I put in to get 100% completion. Iit's not that the game has complex themes of survival that are hard to sum up or anything like that, it's just that it's such a boring paint by the numbers experience that I often had trouble remembering just what happened during my time with the game.

From blockbusters like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead to indie darlings like I made a game with zomb1es 1n it!!!, there are a lot of zombie games on the market, and you're going to have a hard time finding one as bad as Dead Horde. It's predictable, has no personality and does nothing that the...excuse the term...hordes of zombie games has done before it.

Dead Horde places you as one of the lone survivors of a zombie apocalypse and your job; your only job is to shoot and blow up as many zombies as you can to survive. Sound familiar? Dead Horde employs a top down view that finds you holding down one button to shoot and another to move forward and that's it. Sound familiar? It should. It's all been done before in games like Zombie Apocalypse and I made a game with zomb1es 1n it!!!, but the key is that those games did something to inject the formula with a novel feeling. Zombie Apocalypse for example featured four player co-op (as opposed to 2 player here) and I made a game with zomb1es 1n it!!! was just plain silly, here we get none of that.

And there we have the key problem with Dead Horde. It's obvious that the developers have played the key zombie shooters of this generation and have lumped all of their key features into their game. For instance there's an almost carbon copy of Left 4 Dead's Boomer in the game. It's a pretty widely accepted fact in the gaming industry that the zombie shooter is a dated and stale genre and it's titles like these that offer absolutely no new ideas that are the perfect example of that.

Throughout Dead Horde you'll gain the option to upgrade weapons at certain points and while it's a cool addition, in reality it does nothing for the gameplay. All of the weapons feel the same and lead to the feeling of merely grinding through each section from beginning to end. There's no real reason to explore, and you'll find yourself holding down two buttons and moving in one straightforward direction (well, except when you'll have to back pedal from enemies). You know, it's funny - I never thought that the zombie apocalypse would be this boring.

If Dead Horde had a saving factor it would be the vehicle sections which do tend to offer a break from the monotony of the game. It's quite fun to mow down the undead in a jeep or utility truck - the first few times, but when it happens again and again, it loses its appeal quickly. It's also important to note that the vehicle controls never really feel as tight as they should, and they often feel like you can't get control no matter what you do.

You've already played Dead Horde, even if you've never touched the game - it's all of your favorite parts from all of your favorite zombie games, only here they aren't done as well and have no personality. Dead Horde is an obvious attempt to grab a piece of a large yet dwindling audience. There are a ton of great zombie shooters on the market; hell there are a lot of competent zombie shooters on the market, why choose this one?

A most marvelous mixture of BLAND, TERRIBLE, and POOR CRAFTSMANSHIP.

The game is a sorry excuse for an isometric twin-stick shooter: the controls are sluggish, the guns offer no gratification, movement is awkward and it's SUPER EXCITING to trundle through levels such as TOWN, HARBOR, and FACTORY that are right out of a Blender tutorial.

The graphics are the absolute bare minimum: every single enemy is dark grey, the game takes place at night and there's barely any light. Also, trees cover about half of the screen whenever you run into one.

Among the sea of regular zombie gray, you'll occasionally run into big fast gray, barfing fat gray and leaping gray. That's it.

And it's so well optimized, you'll find yourself enjoying the 4-5 frame animations in glorious 10-30 frames-per-second.

tl;dr: You've been warned - this game is a heap of dried up dung.

When I first reviewed this game a year ago with a negative rating, I had not beaten it. Now that I have beaten it, I would like to still give it a negative rating but thoroughly explain why.

First off, the price tag is wrong. This game should be in the $5 bin. I don't say that because the lack of story (you don't play a game like this for story), or for the graphics (I don't mind the old look, I rather like it.). This game is literally a one trick pony. In each level you fight zombie runners. Lots of them. Mobs. Oh, and they are just as fast as you. A zombie is as fast as a living trained soldier. Yeah, makes no sense, but it sure makes the game unforgiving and just plain stressful to play.

The look of the game is rather dark. The levels are huge, and within each level you work your way from checkpoint to checkpoint, clearing zombies until you reach the end of the level. One of the major issues is that the levels are fairly long, and there is no save option. Even though the game saves the checkpoint, it only saves it while you are in game. If you leave the game, you will have to restart the whole level over again.

The controls are very simple and I had no trouble playing the game. The dodge button is your friend, since you cannot outrrun the zombies. The sound effects and soundtrack left something to be desired, since only one song plays briefly when a horde rushes you. I really wish they could have come up with a few more tracks to change it up, but oh well.

Now to fight zombies you need good guns. You start off with an Assault Rifle with unlimited ammo. This serves to be your primary gun. There are stores scattered amongst the levels so you can buy upgrades for your gun and buy new guns, such as a Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, a Lightning Gun, and a Minigun. There are also different kinds of grenades to purchase. The major damage weapons don't appear until near the end of the game. This game is so difficult that honestly the upgrades are not too noticeable.

The "mutants" of this game are identical to the ones from Left 4 Dead, with the exception that there are no witches. So imagine the runners of Left 4 Dead with the mutants and thats who you fight, with little to no variance. Just zombie mobs. For every walker, there are at least 100 runners coming at you. I'm honestly scared to see how this plays on Normal difficulty. As you kill zombies, you earn money and sometimes health packs are dropped if you need healing.

Honestly, the whole time I was playing this game, I kept thinking about how great the games Zombie Shooter and Zombie Shooter 2 are. They are basic zombie shooters (soldier trying to stop a zombie virus), but it has RPG elements, like choosing stats for your hero (male of female). Not only that but you can pick fun perks that enhance your character. You get to buy guns and equipment to help in your missions. The soundtrack is great, a pumping techno/rock mix that is just great for killing zombies. The games definitely have more of an arcade look to them, but the level design is a lot more interesting then Dead Horde. Plus, you can get Zombie Shooter 1 and 2 for the price of Dead Horde (if you buy the two pack). Seriously, check those game out instead. There are even free demos so check it out. I wish Dead Horde would have had a demo, because that would have saved a lot of people's money.

Do not waste ten bucks on this horrible game.
I think I have never seen a game performing this poorly before.

You might think: "Oh what´s going to be THAT bad about a Coop top-down zombie game?"
Do not underestimate the terrible development of this game.

Nearly nothing works as it should, in this game.
I don´t even understand how this game got into the Steam store. I guess they don´t check for quality.

Right now. 5/10

Fun, cool, and has a challenge.

But some stuff makes no sense. All zombies go faster than your character and take tons of bullets to kill.

The fat zombies can some reason move 3x the speed of anything in the game and takes like a quarter of your health out if it touchs you.

Plus I noticed pushing dive or shoot, it takes some time to respond.

This game is one of those rare instances where you can tell the developer didn't quite understand(or care) about the engine. You don't have to play for more than five minutes to see that the physics of this game were probably moddled from a racing game of some kind. All characters "drift" instead of making proper turns, enabling you to get some cheeky circle moves in, completely defeating the AI, which seems to be the "run diectly at the player" variety... which is fine for a zombie game.

The Good:
-This is a Zombie Shooter, and is fun in small bursts.
-Once you adapt, the controll is very good.
-It dosen't look that bad on lower settings, and runs fine on my toaster of a computer.
-Enviroments are very well crafted, and some simple but nice puzzles

The Bad:
-Seemingly little variety in enemies.
-Game flips back and forth from mind-nummingly linear to "where the heck do I go now".
-Small, repetitive selection of sound effects.
-Some sound effects are played in ambiance, and then used to trigger doors and such.
-Devoid of story,

I love zombie games, but I wouldn't recommend this one. For a quick multiplayer it seems good, but as a singleplayer experience it's not, and that's my drawing point. If you're looking for a story, pass this one by.

The game is OK but is repetitive. Go forward, if zombies appear keep shooting going backwards so they get in line and kill them all in the same spot, then continue move forward. You'll get bored quickly.

As a zombie fan craving for zombie games I would say Dead Horde is a huge disappointment. Not quite the Dead Nation that I was expecting! Maybe I was expecting too much... maybe not since Dead Nation is also an indie game...

Aside from the poor graphics and art style, my main concern with the game is the gameplay itself. The shooting kinda feels tedious as the weapons sound bland and have a low rate of fire. Also, killing bullet sponge zombies is just unsatisfying even when the weapons are upgraded to their fullest.

The most satisfying parts of the game are when you get the opportunity to drive armored vehicule as they allow you to take down hordes of zombies with a mounted machinegun. Unfortunately, the horde setup feels terribly uninspired as pack of zombies always appear after picking up ammo, money and health boxes laying on the ground.

Overall, Dead Horde offers no sense of danger and terror that would come with a zombie outbreak setup. The lack of work on the environment makes every level generic at best. Not to mention the poor storyline which give no sense of progression.

If you want to play this game because you can't play Dead Nation on PS3 then restrain yourself and do everything you can to get a hold on Dead Nation. I'm dead serious.

Rating :
4.0

I hate giving bad reviews, but this game is pretty bad. Repetitive, lackluster, and clunky.