We often hear that Ubisoft does not take enough creative risks, and that the French video game giant would only apply a well-oiled formula to almost all of its video game works. But when Rayman’s parents dare to think outside the box, they are not rewarded. This is what happened more than 11 years ago with this survival horror which still deserves your full attention today.
A point of view story
This article is an opinion post, it is inherently subjective. The author’s opinion is personal and is not representative of that of the rest of the JV editorial staff.
Summary
- The living dead for a stillborn console
- Black is black
- Total survival horror
- Wii U & I
The living dead for a stillborn console
Announced at the Ubisoft E3 conference in June 2012, ZombiU was originally planned to be a game with Rabbids, then with little beings from outer space (Killer Freaks From Outer Space). . The project was nevertheless revised in depth so that the “bwaaah!” transform into “argh!” through the dark alleys of a London invaded by zombies. An unusual thing for the Japanese manufacturer with the reputation of being a true “control freak”, Nintendo entrusted the task of proving the hardcore gamer-oriented concept of its Wii U to the Ubisoft Montpellier teams. The Rabbid/Freaks game – originally designed for the Xbox 360 and PS3 – evolved to become ZombiU – a Wii U exclusive – at the end of 2011. Despite complicated production, the fault lies in a change of direction less than a year before the planned release, the team managed to create an event at E3 2012. Yet posed in front of the Capcom stand which offered to discover Resident Evil 6, it was ZombiU which attracted the most curious (according to IG Magazine, HS 5, p.183).
What happened between E3 2012, where the press loved ZombiU, and the game’s release in November of the same year, where the title averaged 77/100 on Metacritic? Difficult to say, but Ubisoft’s software generally disappoints when it arrives in the editorial offices. IGN describes it as a title “having good ideas”, “but none of them result in a great game. The controls are clunky, the melee combat is boring, and the game doesn’t look good”. The site gives it a 6.2/10. EGM and Game Informer give it average, while GameSpot punishes it with a 4.5/10. “With an uninteresting universe and boring combat, ZombiU is the weak link of the Wii U launch games” we can read. The Mass is said: the biggest American sites bury Ubisoft’s survival horror while Nintendo’s new console misses its launch.
Whether in the United States, the United Kingdom or France, the first months of the Wii U’s existence are sluggish. What is questioned by observers is Nintendo’s communication around its machine. The name “Wii U” suggests that it is a new model of this good old Wii that everyone already owns, while the Gamepad, this large controller equipped with a screen, has not managed to show how it would change the daily lives of players. In other words, the console is not establishing itself as quickly as the Japanese manufacturer would have liked.
Black is black
It couldn’t have started worse for ZombiU. Ubisoft’s new license is taken down by some of the press and released on new hardware which is struggling to take off in the charts. In December 2012, Guillaume Brunier, the game’s producer, said he was disappointed with the first reviews. “We are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the experience we created, but we did not expect such harsh feedback” he declares at Nintendolife. We blame the game “a lack of melee army“, but also “too many back and forth”. Among other things.
Finally, from March 2013, Ubisoft sold the title. In July 2013, while the development team suggested that a prototype of ZombiU 2 was already in the works, the boss of Ubisoft threw a chill by announcing that the software “is far from profitable”. Furthermore, Yves Guillemot says “wait until Christmas to see if Wii U sales will finally take off”. This will unfortunately not happen. In 2015, the French firm will release its survival horror on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Versions obviously deprived of what makes the real strength of the concept: the clever use of the Gamepad.
Total survival horror
In our ZombiU review, we said that Ubisoft’s survival horror was not for everyone. In reality, Ubisoft’s software is the very expression of survival horror. Most of the faults that have been criticized for it are based on daring game design choices, in total agreement with the primary objective of the game: that of making us anxious like never before.
Is melee combat slow? As with Silent Hill, it is to put us in constant discomfort and favor escape. The inventory lacks responsiveness and does not pause the game? This is to force us to deal with it once all precautions are taken. Are there trips back and forth to the city of London? Like a Resident Evil, it is to better scare us with a (bad) surprise during a nocturnal escapade.
ZombiU strives to create tension where there was none before. Opening a door triggers a mini-game to be performed on the Gamepad, but the player must keep an eye on the TV screen to ensure that no creatures approach them. Some players/testers at the time felt that these elements weighed down the gameplay, already scalded by the multiplication of buttons to press frantically to open doors in many productions. Except that in ZombiU, it’s not free. This serves both immersion and the feeling of insecurity.
Building on the foundations of the genre, ZombiU strives to make the player uncomfortable with very limited resources and dangerous zombies even when alone. Once the first blow is inflicted by a walker, the second can already be the one that defeats us for good. Inspired by a mechanic proven in Demon Souls, Ubisoft’s survival horror punishes death by forcing the player to reappear in a shelter with a new protagonist. In the shoes of the latter, he then has the opportunity to find the former zombified hero in order to recover the backpack filled with food from the previous part. If he dies on the way, he loses everything. And don’t even think about turning off the console when the zombie knocks you down before killing you: the game saves when the creature launches its deadly attack. Even if you turn off the Wii U before the game over screen, you’ll start over with a new survivor.
It’s demanding, even discouraging for some, but this tip definitively solves the problem of game over in classic survival horror… which is not very impressive when you just have to reload a save to try your luck with everything his gear. The only real problem with this mechanic”hardcore“is to prevent any attachment to a character. Generally speaking, ZombiU’s storyline is clearly not one of its strengths. The software focuses everything on its sensations, rather than on the construction of the characters or its story. This is both a quality and a fault, depending on your point of view.
Wii U & I
ZombiU perfectly uses what made the Wii U so different from other consoles. Gyroscope, touch screen, new window on the virtual world around us… even Nintendo hasn’t done better in the months following the machine’s release!
Using the Gamepad is great in two particular ways. The first comes from the motion detector. As in Alien, you have to constantly keep an eye on the screen so as not to be surprised by a creature (or a harmless small animal). Except that actually holding this detector in our hands gives it a more concrete importance, especially when the detection sound comes out of the tablet’s speakers. The good idea is that during the first chapters of the game, you have to manually press a button on the screen for the scanning to be carried out, which increases the fun time a little more during the exploration phases.
The other point is that the device also serves as a scanner/targeter : by raising the GamePad facing the screen, we can mark the monsters, giving us the impression of playing the fine strategists before executing a desperate plan. This other window which opens onto this virtual world can also serve as a viewfinder for the rifle with glasses. If you don’t want to raise your arms, you can still do everything using the stick, but it’s immediately less immersive.
Personally, I would have preferred that we couldn’t improve the tablet as we progress. Certainly, the upgrade has been part of the workings of video games for a long time, but the stress caused by this cursed motion detector to be triggered manually had a big impact on me during my journey. Fortunately, despite the improvements and more powerful weapons, we never reach the stage of the latest Resident Evil where we go from prey to hunter during the last chapters. No cathartic release, ZombiU mistreats us from start to finish with his extremely rare resources.
I continue to consider ZombiU (in its Wii U version) as one of the best survival horrors of recent years. It succeeded, more than others released before and after it, in mixing with a certain brilliance gameplay based on escape, infiltration, planning, but also action. Thanks to its inventive use of the Gamepad and its particularly demanding mechanics, it easily enters my top 10 of the best horror video game experiences, ahead of Alien Isolation, and behind Resident Evil 7 in VR. If you still can, give it a chance on Wii U: with a little luck, it will fill you with bonhe…terror!