Overkill's The Walking Dead

Overkill's The Walking Dead is a cooperative first-person shooter for four players with elements of survival, stealth, and RPG. It is based on the comics by Robert Kirkman. Each player's task during the game is to survive, but teamwork is very important as each squad member has abilities that enhance the squad.

Overkill's The Walking Dead is tightly tied to the plot, which involves repeatedly completing game levels with main and side quests.

The premise is this: after most of Washington's population turned into zombies, the few remaining humans split into two camps. Some joined the "Georgetown Survivors," while others joined the bandit group "The Family." The writers immediately explain why the former are good and the latter are bad.

Players are then treated to a straightforward revenge story. Another attack by the bad guys fills the good guys' cup of patience, forcing them to administer justice by stealing, killing, and robbing. There are no plot twists, unexpected stories, changes of plans, intrigue, or even character development.

After breaks for gameplay, the plot is often forgotten as it is shown in short clips, and the declared story arc for each character lacks a well-thought-out narrative. Even the dialogues are few.

Despite early statements from the developers, there is no open world in Overkill's The Walking Dead. Instead, there are six large, handcrafted levels that resemble a real city after the apocalypse – many destroyed buildings, abandoned cars and debris, as well as barricades and fences.

You can enter every building, even multi-story ones, explore them, or set up a firing or observation position. The buildings have proper proportions and human layouts, and if necessary, you can board up a doorway to slow down the enemy's advance.

The levels feature small puzzles – sometimes you need to find a battery and start a mechanism, turn gears, and so on. They are solved through the efforts of the entire team. All this creates an excellent atmosphere of a zombie apocalypse.

Locations transform with the change of day and night. During the day, you can fight your way through, while at night, you need to use stealth, avoiding lit areas and resorting to silent kills.

The game mechanics of Overkill's The Walking Dead borrow a lot from Payday 2 (mutual assistance, joint actions) and Left 4 Dead (zombies standing idly on the location, as well as triggering a horde when a loud noise attracts a huge crowd). Additionally, each level features two types of enemies – zombies and people from "The Family."

During the game, players are forced to change tactics, as zombies add an element of unpredictability that disrupts plans. The team can move stealthily together along a distant route, fight their way through the shortest path, or split into pairs to simultaneously complete different tasks in different ways.

The gameplay encourages stealth since zombies can overwhelm players with their numbers, and in some situations, they arrive endlessly while ammo is scarce. A key component of survival is the constant search for useful supplies scattered in various places on the level.

Механика боя обширна – стрельба из оружия 5 видов с разной физикой и шумностью; бой с битами и арматурой на кинжальной дистанции, наносящий увечья сообразно «толщине» зомби, но не убивающий сразу; фаталити в ближнем бою с ножом и QTE, когда зомби хватают игрока.

Чтобы выжить в зомби-апокалипсисе, игроки могут выбрать одного из четырех героев:

Каждый персонаж обладает тремя разными уникальными способностями (маркировка целей на карте, лечение и так далее), бронированием и запасом силы, расходуемым во время физических атак. Поскольку персонажей мало, то можно брать одних и тех же.

Сетевая игра страдает от нехватки режимов и карт. Миссии разделены на исследование локации по квесту (нужно искать предмет и вход в комнату, где он находится), нападение на базу «Семьи» и режим защиты лагеря (игроки защищают убежище, которое штурмуют орды зомби).

Поскольку локаций всего 6, то разработчикам ничего не оставалось, как заставить игроков постоянно их перепроходить, выполняя разные побочные и сюжетные миссии, либо ради сбора ресурсов, прокачки персонажа и его базы. Сложность не регулируется, поэтому для победы нужна команда из четырех игроков.