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Dead Nation

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition

The undead have made it over from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4. So what's different about Housemarque's twin stick zombie shooter?

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It's not hard to see why Sony picked Housemarque as one of their favourite playmates as far as digital goes on PlayStation 4. In spite of their being plenty of big hitters available at launch, many considered Housemarque's Resogun to be the best of the bunch. With that accomplishment in their back pockets they turned to updating their four year old PS3 title Dead Nation for PS4, adding one or two extras in the process.

It's no longer about spaceships and laser beams, this time we're dealing with an even more popular concept as we're tasked with dealing with yet another undead horde. A completely forgettable story tries to give us some context in between levels, but it's paper thin and you really have to focus hard just to remember the outlines.

All you really need to know about Dead Nation is that it's a twin stick shooter, where primary controls are placed on the analog sticks, the camera gives you a bird's eye view of the action, and your growing arsenal of somewhat ingenious weapons will prove to be your best friend.

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The hordes of zombies are nearly infinite, and luckily the same can be said of the ammunition for your standard gun. All the subsequent weapons such as SMGs, rocket launcher and something that looks like a portable tesla coil, have a limited supply of ammunition, unless you invest in them.

In spite of the apocalyptic setting and the world falling apart, there are some arms dealers that have somehow managed to barricade themselves and appear towards the end of each of the small chapters that make up a level. While we cannot see what use they'd have for money, they still crave it and collecting cash quickly becomes the main player motivation to explore every nook and cranny of the zombie infested areas you pass through.

Bags, abandoned vehicles and something that looks like the golden chests from Zelda games, are often full of cash, and every once in a while they contain some power-ups that make your character quicker, more durable or improves the damage dealing. The money can be spent on upgrading your weapons - and it's up to you whether you want to increase the damage of your machine guns or add a larger fuel tank to your flamethrower - as long as you have enough cash.

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It's far from an original formula, but once again Housemarque shows a great understanding of old school arcade action by implementing a competitive layer to the game that is focused around the multiplier. With each zombie you shoot the multiplier is raised, but as soon as one or more zombies touches your character, it drops just as quickly. You character's health suddenly becomes a secondary concern, as it hurts far more to take a hit on the score that you use to climb global leaderboards.

This element of competition is even more important in this port and something called Challenge Mode has been implemented. It allows you to send out a challenge to your friends after completing a certain level to see if they can do better than you.

The best new addition is the Broadcast+ mode where those who follow your stream on Twitch can reward you with upgrades or (more likely) make your progress all the more difficult by throwing groups of zombies your way. The idea is nice and partially original, but it holds way more potential than what is being demonstrated here, and it comes across as being a bit gimmicky.

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From a technical perspective there hasn't been a whole lot of change from PS3 to PS4. It seems as if the team responsible for the conversion (Climax Studios) has focused their attentions on implementing better and more dynamic lighting. To be fair it should be noted that Housemarque created a game with the original that even without tons of fancy effects looked good and was full of atmosphere - something that's naturally true for this version as well.

The shift of platforms has also brought with it a few small problems that we cannot recall seeing in the original game, and the many light sources will mesh together strangely at times especially when there is fog involved. In other places it appears as if someone forgot to tick the "invisibilty box" as you can see black borders around single particle effects. Last but not least we experienced a couple of occasions where zombies disappeared into walls only to reappear seconds later by running back through the wall as if nothing had happened.

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition is an excellent arcade shooter that delivers exactly what the box says; lots of zombies and lots of weapons to blow them to bits with. The inclusion of the DLC pack Road of Devastation adds some extra longevity. The new modes are more fun on paper than in reality, but the shooting remains solid and the hunt for cash and upgrades will be enough to keep aspiring zombie hunters glued to the screen until the last enemy has been sent to whatever comes after the afterlife.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Easily accessible, Solid zombie shooting, The hunt for money and upgrades, A copue of simple good ideas.
-
Sticks within the standard framework of the genre, The new ideas could have been put to better use.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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