For those yet to try out Call of Duty's interestingly
themed co-op addition to their main series,
the 'Zombies' titles represent a fun and frantic
distraction from an otherwise serious first
person shooter.
Its initial conversion to the iOS platform
was far from well received and its 'sequel'
was appreciated even less, but is the third
time a charm for Activision's Black Ops Zombies?
The game tasks you with the seemingly impossible
challenge of defending a map from its unholy
attackers for as long as possible - it's practically
a suicide mission, but at least you'll take
out plenty of the blighters before succumbing
to the final embrace of death.
The map in question (as there's only one available
at the time of this review) is the appropriately
named "Kino der Toten" (or 'Cinema of the
Dead'), one of the real standouts from the
console platform.
Whether you take on the task solo or join
a co-operative multiplayer match (local and
online options available), you'll find yourself
mowing down zombies, wracking up points in
the process, and repairing defenses to slow
down the inevitable tide of enemies.
These points can be used to open up new areas,
which in turn weakens your defenses by providing
more spawning areas for the zombies, but it
also means you can eventually activate defenses
or powerful upgrades designed to prolong your
current game.
Unfortunately it all falls flat once you've
overcome the initial difficulty of escaping
the first area.
Zombies only spawn in limited amounts, giving
you a chance to run around and funnel them
through choke-points for easy grenade blasts
(or trap kills) and the inclusion of a powerful
auto-aim ensures you're unlikely to run out
of ammunition any time soon even with the
rather poor 'tap to fire' control system that
should be banished from almost any FPS on
the platform.
It's a shame because so much of the experience
feels so perfectly replicated and having to
wait out wave after wave just to reach something
challenging gets monotonous on the same map.
Thankfully players can distract themselves
with an entirely separate top-down twin-stick
shooter mode that tries to emulate the Smash
TV formula, but aside from the initial amusement
it gives it also plateaus in its difficulty
all too soon.
As such, other concerns such as poor netcode
for the co-op feel slightly irrelevant if
the basic game doesn't chalk up a worthwhile
challenge, making Call of Duty: Black Ops
Zombies a disappointing third entry for the
series.
Hopefully updates address these concerns quickly
as the excellent game mode deserves a solid
mobile counterpart.
