Soup du jour. Scorching hors d’oeuvres. Why, we solely dwell 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 recreation by a more moderen developer I wasn’t beforehand conscious of. This recreation evokes a method and nostalgia for early 2000s 3D cartoons, paying homage to the considerably off placing fashion of exhibits 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 allure and elements of it are compelling, however finally it’s a bit tough across the edges.
Zombie Soup has a reasonably easy premise. You play as Ricky, a backpacker who will get caught up in a zombie infestation and wishes to save lots of the lady. It’s fairly naked bones so far as tales go, and whereas there are some humorous moments, quite a lot of the humor appears to get misplaced on this recreation. Sure plot beats fall far flatter than they must, as nicely. Early on, you run right into a skeleton often called MC Cranium, who then travels with you as a cranium and gives the backwards and forwards with Ricky. It feels fairly clear that AeonSparks Interactive needed to make MC Cranium a form of mascot however nothing he says is especially humorous or stands out.
The gameplay may be very stable: it’s an isometric twin-stick shooter with a wide range of weapon courses to mess around with. The primary courses are fairly customary shooter fare, with pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles among the many weapon sorts, however there are additionally particular weapons you’ll 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 a lot of the arsenal. There’s no constant option to get these weapons in order that they’re much less of a technique and extra of a novelty, however they do job of shaking issues up and making the second to second gameplay extra enjoyable.
The precise gameplay entails shifting by means of a number of completely different environments (a membership, a hospital, a cemetery, and so on.) whereas in search of the subsequent boss to defeat to be able to transfer ahead. Often there are aspect missions, like discovering an merchandise for another person, however they’re principally backtracking by means of earlier areas. The structure of those range from both unobtrusive to annoying, however are for essentially the most half stable. There appears to be little or no incentive to struggle the common mob of zombies, except you’re trying to find a selected particular weapon or want the foreign money for upgrades (which I not often didn’t have sufficient of) so at a sure level I began dodging enemies fairly than combating my manner by means of them. I simply want there was perhaps extra incentive to combating the common zombies. The improve system may be very fundamental (a handful of tiers you’ll be able to select one perk from) so perhaps supplementing or augmenting that may very well be a option to make the grind really feel price it. There are some challenges you’ll be able to strategy, resembling replaying boss fights with completely different objects and timed challenges to get completely different weapons, however nothing specifically that personally me to maintain enjoying past the ten or so hour runtime.
A part of the explanation I counsel tweaking the improve system is that Zombie Soup will get onerous, quick. The problem 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 elements of the mechanics I discovered irritating, resembling how slowly the stamina meter recharged and the way unforgiving the invincibility frames may very well be, I cherished that feeling of satisfaction when taking down a very tough boss. I believe your enjoyment of Zombie Soup goes to be based mostly fully on how you are feeling with tough encounters like this.
Sadly, the problem spike in boss fights results in extra frustration with sure elements of Zombie Soup. Often there are some glitches, and whereas they’re uncommon they are often fairly annoying. I used to be notably annoyed by a struggle towards two bosses on the identical time the place one someway despawned mid-fight, which pressured me to reload though that had been my finest try to date. One other glitch was within the pre-fight cutscene, which confirmed Ricky operating right into a door and never by means of it for a number of seconds earlier than loading within the struggle. Boss fights with any form of animated cutscene may be skipped but when it’s carried out within the recreation engine, it could actually’t be skipped, which makes attempting a tough encounter again and again much more grating. The music for Zombie Soup is first rate, however every boss struggle has the identical music which received monotonous quick with how repetitive it may very well be.
Zombie Soup is a flawed however attention-grabbing twin-stick shooter. I actually loved my time with it however there have been numerous frustrations that made it onerous to be an instantaneous advice. It doesn’t add something notably new to the style whereas additionally not being polished sufficient to good the style. That mentioned, it’s a stable recreation that makes me wish to see extra from this studio, and one I might advocate to followers of those shooters who need that welcome satisfaction of triumphing over a stiff problem.