E3 2017 Hands-On: Bloody Zombies is a Bloody Good Time

During E3, I visited nDreams, who is publishing the latest title developed by Paw Print Games called Bloody Zombies. During my hands-on demo with the game, it quickly became evident that the thing about Bloody Zombies is that there are two different experiences for the game: one in VR and one in non-VR.

Bloody Zombies | Downtown fighting — Fighting in London with up to four people. (*Image courtesy of nDreams*).

The combat in this side-scrolling beat’em-up title is rather classic fare if you’ve ever played games out of the Streets of Rage or Final Fight series. You pick up weapons (in my demo I was able to use swords), you punch, you kick, you jump, and you throw zombies with up to four players at a time. As you progress, you earn special moves that you equip and then use certain button combos with to demolish your foes that much quicker. Bloody Zombies also starts in a dystopian London. During my time with the demo, I saw Westminster Palace (complete with a broken Elizabeth Tower), crossed the Tower Bridge, and saw the British Museum. The game is tied, at least initially, into real life places that people who have visited London will be able to point out and recognize.

Bloody Zombies | Fighting in another part of the game. — While couch co-op only supports one VR player at a time, you can have up to four VR players at once in online co-op mode. (*Image courtesy of nDreams*).

In non-VR, you have gorgeous cell-shade-like sprites crawling along, and being allowed to go to the next part of the area once all of the zombies are defeated. In VR though, the world suddenly expands and you’re able to see the entire level at one time. You can view the level from above, below, from either side, and see where enemies and power-ups are hidden as a result. Paw Print Games clearly designed this game to be fully functional with or without VR, but with VR, there are lots of little touches (such as higher buildings or off screen elements) that are fully realized and on display. While I was playing this game co-op with a developer from Paw Print Games with the VR headset on, it did not detract from the experience of just hanging out, chatting, and just gaming our way through the zombie hordes. It is also worth noticing that I did not develop any VR sickness while playing this game in VR for an extended period of time.

Bloody Zombies | Your character is equipped with a VR headset in the game when you play with one irl. — If you’re playing in VR mode, your character in-game comes equipped with a VR headset. (*Image courtesy of nDreams*).

In short: Bloody Zombies is game that makes couch co-op with VR gaming fun and possible in a way that I can tell actually works, just from my short time with it at E3 2017. nDreams has Bloody Zombies coming to PlayStation 4 (with PlayStation VR support), Oculus Rift, Xbox One, HTC Vive, and Steam VR in 2017.

Are you planning on picking up Bloody Zombies? What do you think of VR? Let us know in the comments below!