Originally released in 2019, a time when zombie apocalypse-themed games were on the rise both because of games like Days Gone that would be arriving in the same year, and for major cinematographic productions, World War Z arrived with the mission to show that it may be more than just a generic zombie apocalypse game, and now years after the release of the original game, Saber Interactive returns with World War Z: Aftermath, a next-gen port that brings all of the additional content released for the base game along with some graphical improvements for the new generation consoles, but is this enough to revive the unbridled killing that World War Z provided at its launch?
This review was written with the game’s code sent via Saber Interactive, to whom our most sincere thanks!
Platforms and year of release: PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in year 2019, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X in year 2023
Developer and Publisher: Saber Interactive
Genre: Action/Tactical Shooter
Number of players: 1-4
Inspired by the movie of the same name released in 2013, the game World War Z is an action game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that is full of hordes and more hordes of zombies, bringing as its main focus the multiplayer experience making matches of up to four players, where this team must carry out different missions in the most varied locations while facing the dangerous hordes of undead. Knowing this, the Aftermath version brings the various updates and new content that had been made available previously, in addition to also bringing some better unpublished ones.
Among the many improvements brought to World War Z: Aftermath is the possibility of playing with the first-person view, something that was already very requested in its original version and that, given the theme focused on terror, this option brings greater immersion providing more suspense and tension in the moments of confrontation. Along with this, another novelty is the new hand-to-hand combat system, which has several weapons to perform the most varied combos and a new exclusive mode called Horde XL that has hordes of zombies larger than what we could see in the game. original. In addition, this version has the expected update for the new generation consoles, where we see some technical improvements such as 4K resolutions and a frame rate of 60 fps.
World War Z: Aftermath is divided into episodes with each of them having at least three stages that tackle a different group of survivors somewhere in the world. In these episodes players will have small missions that usually involve dealing with zombie attacks in both giant hordes and smaller groups. Each episode in its entirety is usually fast depending on the chosen difficulty, but in general the matches don’t usually take much longer playing with friends, but the game does not bring a deep narrative about the events that involve the spread of the virus around the world making the film of 2013 much more important for those players who are much more excited about the story than the multiplayer itself.
Even without having such a deep history, World War Z shines with other qualities, among them its gameplay that brings several classes, namely: the shooter with a focus on firearms, the medic focused on supporting and healing his allies, the slasher focused entirely on melee attacks, the master of drones that is already self-explanatory in terms of its function, the vanguard that would be the most tanky class in the group due to its high defense, the repairman that offers the possibility of repairing and increasing the group’s arsenal , the Terminator who fights armed with Molotov cocktails and finally the Infernal who fights similarly to the Terminator but instead of using Molotov, he deals with the hordes using explosives. With each of these classes having their own style of gameplay, the game allows for greater customization for clashes.
Each of the classes has its own skill tree with different advantages from each other that can be upgraded using the money that is received as a reward at the end of the missions, as well as weapons that can also be upgraded using that money. Now if players are interested in cosmetic items, the currency that will be used is already different, for cosmetic items the currency used can only be obtained in varied challenges that appear before selecting missions.
As we mentioned earlier, the Aftermath version brings some improvements both graphically and in performance, mainly to make the game fit the standards of the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series generation with a resolution reaching 4K and a performance of 60 FPS maintained almost constantly, with With these improvements, we can see scenarios that were already beautiful before, such as Russia or the Vatican, becoming practically artistic paintings because they are so beautiful and thanks to its performance reaching 60 FPS, we can feel a better fluidity in the movements and actions of the characters, something else that underwent improvements with the release of the Aftermath version were the gigantic hordes of zombies that in the original version even brought down the performance on the old generation consoles, but now with the new generation the game is constantly maintained at 60 frames during these clashes that combined with the soundtrack that we see during these clashes create a real atmosphere of tension.
But as we haven’t found the perfect game in this life yet, World War Z: Aftermath has its problems too, even winning points with more beautiful graphics and a stable FPS Aftermath fails to correct problems that we had since the original version of the game, like some bugs and delay between firing the survivor’s weapon and the impact on the zombie that becomes more noticeable in moments of large hordes even on the new generation, in addition even bringing a new horde mode is not enough to keep players entertained for a long time , combined with the fact that for a better experience players should either team up with 3 more friends or else find random players through matchmaking, having the possibility of falling with players that may end up disturbing their experience due to the friendly fire, since as said earlier on higher difficulties the artificial intelligence doesn’t help as much as it should.
Finally, World War Z: Aftermath managed to maintain and even increase its fun as a multiplayer game, even with the story not being one of the most exquisite we’ve ever seen, it works well for the proposal that the game tries to deliver to us, the main focus his is the experience of playing multiplayer with friends and spending hours and hours having fun killing zombies. World War Z: Aftermath has its aspects that make it a good game and this combined with the improvements that may seem few but that make a difference in the final experience like the first person view and the technical improvements make it an interesting game to play even more so if you like games like Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood.
Remembering that World War Z: Aftermath was released on January 24, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X and PC.
This review was written with the game’s code sent via Saber Interactive, to whom our most sincere thanks!
20 anos, paulista, Redator do Evilhazard, amante de jogos indies (em especial jogos de terror indies) e oldshool gamer!
