As someone who has been playing virtual reality games since the first consumer Oculus headset came out, I have seen and played many zombie games on VR. Some were mediocre and some were quite fun. For The Walking Dead Onslaught though, this game’s main attraction is the familiarity of the characters brought to life in virtual reality, but in the actual gameplay department, it falls short of exceptional.
Stay for The Walking Dead, Not the Game
What really attracted me to this game is The Walking Dead itself. Seeing a lot of people’s fan-favorite characters Rick and Daryl on the front cover really made me curious about trying this game. As someone who used to be a huge fan of The Walking Dead back in the day, I wanted to try out the game, but this time in VR.
To be honest, when I was first introduced to this game, the first thought that came to mind was a “tie-in” game. You know those mediocre video games that were just a tie-in for the franchise? Unsurprisingly, this was the case for The Walking Dead Onslaught. I was really hoping that this wouldn’t be the case considering the success of the hit zombie game The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, but unfortunately it was.
When I first started the campaign for The Walking Dead Onslaught, it had such a great start. I was pulled into the world and was happy to see my favorite characters come to life in VR. Unfortunately, this only lasted for about 20 minutes. After this initial “wow factor,” the game started to become this “upgrade your camp,” explore and survive type game which got very repetitive and boring as time went on. Really, it was more like you would pick a mission and try to gather as many supplies and possible.
Honestly, I feel this game would have been better suited as a full-on campaign reliving the story of The Walking Dead, but instead in VR. How cool would it have been to experience season one of The Walking Dead, but instead in VR? Unfortunately, it was just numerous missions that have you fetching resources. Think of it as those repetitive fetch quests, but it being the main focal point of the game.
Great Visuals, but Not-so Piercing Combat
Combat without a doubt was repetitive and average. The game introduces a lot of familiar mechanics that were previously used in other zombie games, but really does nothing new with them. For example, grabbing a zombie’s head and stabbing your knife through them. In the beginning, this was pretty cool, but as you play it starts getting samey-samey. On the other end, gunplay was also average. Just hold your gun and shoot. Nothing spectacular. Rinse and repeat.
The problem with the combat is that as you progress through the game, it starts to become less of having that interaction and immersion with the game and more of just trying to slog through it trying to finish it. Like I said before, it doesn’t really introduce many new things to keep things fresh.
There were moments that I certainly had a lot of fun seeing a horde of zombies and stabbing them down or shooting them, but after a while, it get’s repetitive so I’d catch myself doing the same thing over and over. Combine this with the lackluster missions and combat and you’ve got yourself a pretty mediocre game that doesn’t have much going for it aside from the franchise itself.
With that said, one thing I have to give the game credit for is in the visuals department. The Walking Dead Onslaught has an awesome crafted world and great graphics considering I played this on a PSVR. They aren’t the most amazing, but it is pretty. You can see the environments were created with detail and care, so it definitely does add a lot to The Walking Dead‘s world and characters.
Great Franchise, Just Poorly Executed
Really, the only thing the game had going for it is the universe and its characters. I ain’t going to lie — I really loved this aspect of the game. The game did a great job of capturing the essence of the series, but what it was lacking is the gameplay that makes you want to keep on playing.
If you are a big fan of The Walking Dead and would love to see the characters come to life in VR, I would most definitely say to pick up this game and enjoy it, but if you really aren’t and are just looking for another zombie VR game to play, you aren’t really missing out. If you really want to play this though, just wait for a sale.
To put my sentiment all together, was the game really that terrible? No, it has its fun moments; just badly executed.
WAIT FOR SALE ON THE WALKING DEAD ONSLAUGHT
If you enjoy virtual reality, perhaps you’d like to take a look at In Death: Unchained?
Many thanks goes to AMC and Survios for a PlayStation 4 review code for this title.
Ryan only has one goal in mind — to spread the joy of video games. He also loves a variety of games, especially those that have major plot twists. Ryan loves rice and can cook a killer scrambled egg.
Follow @ryanjfabian or email him at [email protected]
