ZombiU recovers from rocky launch to gain world-wide acclaim
Nintendo’s first-ever high-definition console Wii U has been there for quite a while now, with a number of analysts and journalists getting a good look at it and the experience it offers.
One of the most interesting games on the dual-screen gaming console, ZombiU, has indeed gotten a fair of attention and that too for understandable reasons.
Developed and published exclusively for the Wii U, the survival horror first-person shooter has indeed added a bit of extra spice to the genre, making full use of the console tablet-inspired controller, GamePad.
Players not only find themselves with the convenience to use the touch-screen on the controller to manage the items in the inventory, but also get a mini-map right in palms, along with the view of items in the surroundings. The secondary screen also comes
into play to punch in codes to unlock doors or barricade doors.
ZombiU has been clearly defined keeping the hardcore gamers in mind, with the enemies coming on to human players with a strong determination to make them join the undead army.
To further add to the challenge, ZombiU makers have added a twist to the gameplay by keeping a human player dead if he succumbs to the enemies. The player then has to take on the role of another surviving human, who needs to get to the previous player to
reclaim whatever items were there in the inventory. This motivates the player to make a greater effort to stay alive.
With an innovative gameplay and plenty of features that not only served to make the game attractive, but also helped to showcase the capabilities of Nintendo’s next-generation console, ZombiU was expected to make waves.
The game did manage to do that, but things did not go as smoothly for it as the developers had expected.
Serving as the launch title for the console in the US, it was the journalists from the aforementioned region that were the first ones to post their opinion about the game and review it.
Much to the dismay of the team that were behind the survival horror first-person shooter, the game was not given very good scores, with the reviewers pointing out a number of issues that they just could not manage to ignore during their gaming sessions.
One of the most pressing issues that they came across in ZombiU was the game’s doubtful identity. According to some reviews, the game did not seem like it belonged to a first-person shooter genre, but in fact would have found itself more at home in the third-person
shooter, as that is how the gameplay worked out.
Some gamers pointed out that clunky control scheme and annoying melee combat was a huge turn-off for them and made the experience quite frustrating.
Such negative reviews in the US did not go down too well with the Ubisoft team, with the game’s producer Guillaume Brunier even stating during an interview with Nintendo Life earlier this year that, "we were really disappointed with the early US reviews.
We are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the experience we created but we did not expect so harsh a feedback."
How, much to the satisfaction of the team that had worked extremely hard on creating the Wii U exclusive title, the game attracted way more positive reviews once it got released world-wide, thus making the efforts of the team worthwhile and bringing the
game the recognition and appreciation that it truly deserved.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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