City of the Dead

Written by Chris Reiter  on April 25, 2005

First Impressions: Brainiac human is to an intelligent dolphin, as a full-figured blonde model is to what? That's right: the common zombie.

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You're running and your heart is rapidly pounding against your chest. You're definitely out of breath as you find yourself at a dead end in a darkened alleyway. There's a ladder along the wall, but it's too high up. There's a dumpster nearby, but you're not strong enough to push. There's a door leading inside the building, but it's boarded up. The manhole is too heavy. The alleyway has no escape routes but a chained fence. But then as you begin your ascension, the claws dig into your insides. The razor sharp teeth sink into your tender flesh. All the crying and all the panicking will be for naught. For, soon you will become one of them. Another horrid, decaying figure that you fear the most. The very undead creature that seems to be part of some warped imagination, and yet could possibly be one of the most realistic delusions. I'm talking about zombies of course. Once people, zombies are often referred to as the living dead. For several decades now, zombies have been one of the most feared and revered beings of the unnatural order of monstrosities all thanks in no small part to the man who popularized these ravenous life forms through the silver screen, George Romero. In a period when the zombie genre is regaining a foothold in both movie and video game categories, George Romero is not just directing a fourth movie in his "Dead" series, but now is signing on to help create his first project into the video game foray. Published by Hip Games, developed by Kuju Entertainment: here's a look at City of the Dead.

Most zombie movies are the same. The patented George Romero formula is to stick a group of survivors in some desolate location where zombies are out to rip these people apart. I'd like to tell you that City of the Dead would be different...but then, where would the fun be in that? That's what zombies are all about. Hundreds of them, little of us, and deaths coming from all directions. What's interestingly unique about Hip's City of the Dead, though, is that unlike a regular horror-based Resident Evil, this game will pile onto players zombie after zombie after zombie. Rather than being the type of zombie game where you're investigating a creepy mansion, a police station, or the like, City of the Dead will stand in the vein of a First Person Shooter rather than a slower-paced horror adventure. With that in mind, the ultimate goal in City of the Dead will be to survive. No intricate puzzle solving. No mutated dogs and Nemesis creatures. Here it's going to be just you, a small percentage of the living, and the brain-draining dead.

Though downing zombies will take over the majority of City of the Dead's innards, there are some specific missions involved -- such as finding locations around a city and protecting other people within the hazardous metropolis you're stationed in. But mostly, there's just going to be killing and lots of it. While that may sound to be redundant, it's the way in which you'll be able to deal with the undead that'll be the interesting aspect to interact with. For one thing, City of the Dead will embody a bit more of a scientific feel than the usual present day cliche. Weapon types will range from your average shotgun, handgun, machine-gun and the like. But, your arsenal will also be set to implement stuff like a grenade that sucks in everything around it as well as a mine that'll cork out a massive amount of spikes all around its proximity -- just like in the movie Eraser. Surviving for several hours also entails the inclusion of segments where you'll be able to grow as a character and gain more accurate firing methods. You'll get to team up with others via split-screen and turn into one of the undead (like in Resident Evil: Outbreak, the more infection means the more liable you'll become the enemy). And inevitably, there'll be parts too where you'll get to barricade entrances to buildings and set up traps so those zombies who are able to find ways around such devices will at least have time to brush their teeth before dinner.

I don't mean to complain about City of the Dead visually, but compared to Capcom's latest in the Resident Evil franchise, this zombieish game isn't going to wow you as much as that one did. Not to say that Resident Evil 4 is a zombie game...but, well, I'll just say that City of the Dead won't look as impressive. Still, from the information and screens presented so far, City of the Dead will feature some interesting graphical portions. Namely, rag doll physics. Lots of technically organic components will be represented in this game on the whole. Zombie arms and legs can be shot off cleanly. If an explosion occurs, shrapnel will injure those around it. You'll be able to push boxes on top of zombies below ledges and squish the whole lot of them like the slowwitted creeps they are. There'll even be zombie police officers who'll come packing heat on them, which when the pistol is held, will allow for their accuracy to be far less than perfect. The zombie cops will fire random shots at the ground, into thin air, into fellow zombies, and strike you sometimes just the same. So far the game screens revealing cartoony looking PCish zombies don't look to set the bar for graphical feats, but at least all the physical properties should be an interesting statistic to look forward to.