Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded Review (PSVR2) – Join Tallahassee and the gang as you seek to become the headshot king in the world of Zombieland.
Find out if the VR hit arcade-style shooter is as quick on the draw for PSVR2 with PlayStation Universe’s Zombieland: Headshot Fever Reloaded review.
Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded Review (PSVR2) – Arcade-Style Shooter Brings the Zombie-Slaying Up Close and Personal
Zombie Killing In VR
The PSVR2 launch window certainly isn’t short of zombie shooters. Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded is probably one of the most distinct. It’s essentially a back-to-basics arcade score attack shooter.
It may not have the bells and whistles that the more technically impressive PSVR2 offerings can give us, but its focus is clearly on delivering a throwback experience in a slightly fresher way.
VR games replicating the wonderful days of arcade light gun shooters is especially thrilling for folks of a certain age.
Mainly because it’s long been difficult to properly translate the exact appeal of those classics such as Virtua Cop, House of the Dead, and Time Crisis. Frankly, this was because home versions were missing vital components of the experience.
Now, Zombie Headshot Fever Reloaded isn’t exactly replicating arcade shooters, but with VR, you regain a large slab of that feeling because everything feels larger than the confines of a console and television.
VR has many qualities that come back to that feeling, but with a game like this, you can rebirth the nostalgia in a new way.
There’s a story of sorts. The gang from the movies enlists you, the player, into training for a zombie-slaying competition. It’s hosted by a bored rich guy called Milo. To do this, the player needs to complete a number of bite-sized stages.
There, killing the undead as quickly and smartly as possible yields high scores. Yes, there are upgrades and loadouts to be tinkered with, but these stages are the heart of what makes Zombieland Heashot Fever a modern approximation of an arcade shooter.
Gore and Score Attacks
During stages, you move from point-to-point by looking in the direction of the target that triggers the next area. When you come to a zombie-infested area, you must clear it out before progressing to the next.
So not much thumbstick movement here, just your eyes and your guns will generally be enough to inflict the titular Headshot Fever on the ungrateful dead.
The gunplay is a largely simple point-and-shoot affair. Yet it still allows for a bit of extra player involvement with the physical reloading of weapons. For your main weapon (which has infinite ammo), you flick the thumbstick down to empty a clip.
Then, a new one magically appears below the gun and you simply slot over the top of it to reload. It’s much the same for the offhand weapon (a double-barreled shotgun to begin with). The difference being it’s laid at your side until you bring it up by holding the L trigger and lifting your arm to aim.
You use these guns in combination to keep the horde at bay (one zombie bite and you’re done).
It becomes something of a fun ballet of bullets as you learn to time shots from each for certain enemy types, looking for that most crucial ingredient for continuing success in Zombieland Headshot Fever…the headshot.
Pulling off headshots slows time, allowing you more time to compose yourself and keep the zombies at a distance. Maybe even keep the chain going with more headshots.
Like any good arcade game, understanding the rhythm and flow of the action can make your good runs feel godlike. It’s less about survival, and more about achieving the best possible flow for the maximum amount of points.
Each stage is a gauntlet, with unique modifiers and challenges to be found.
Wiping Up(grades)
Doing well rewards you with a bounty of the most precious commodity in the zombie apocalypse; toilet paper.
You use all toilet paper you collect from stages to help upgrade and unlock weapons. Making your undead head-popping even more stylish and gory.
The art style goes for a sort of animated approximation of the characters and the world. While I do think it helps Zombieland Headshot Fever keep things simple when the action boils over, it looks a little too basic.
It’s not a game designed for kids. The sweary nature of the cast and the fact it’s an arcade-style shooter with Headshot Fever in the name says that.
The art style gives it the air of one of those second-rate Netflix tie-in animated kids’ shows. Not terrible, but slightly ‘off’.
Even so, it matters little when you’re in the thick of the action. Zombieland: Headshot Fever Reloaded has plenty of that on offer. It’s in the lulls of the hub area that you can really see the problem. It’s good to have a neat 3D space for the menu in VR games, but I’d have been perfectly fine with not having to hang out in it beyond selecting what I need.
An Arcade Resurrection
While it may not be the greatest showcase of what PSVR 2 can do. I really appreciate what Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded brings to the platform.
By capturing the essence of what made classic arcade shooters such a thrill, it inarguably does a better job of making a seemingly dead sub-genre feel alive once more.
Zombieland Headshot Fever Reloaded is now available on PS5 and PSVR2.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.