Developer: EXOR Studios
Publisher: EXOR Studios
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Zombie Driver Immortal Edition – Review
When we think back at the start of the GTA series, how it all began with a top-down view, we can only be astonished at how the series evolved. Of course, the top-down perspective was a different style of gameplay altogether and it also had its merits. It’s quite fun to see that developers are still using the format of games such as the first two installments of GTA to make their own cool and unique game. Zombie Driver Immortal Edition is the spruced-up version of the original Zombie Driver by EXOR Studios. The game also uses a top-down perspective, and while you can’t step out of the car or run over humans, you can do as you like with the many zombies trying to eat your brains.
Story
The world has gone to shit, zombies are a common occurrence now, and you’re one of the few survivors. You do have some skills behind the wheel, and you don’t shy away from some violence, so you are a fairly strong survivor. While there’s a military base really close to your location, the commanding officer can’t take you in, but he can slide you some upgrades now and then if you help them out with errands. The story is quite basic, but you get properly voiced mission descriptions before each mission, and a few dialogues during said missions.
Graphics
Zombie Driver Immortal Edition actually looks quite impressive. Of course, watching things from a zoomed-out perspective always helps to cover up tiny flaws, but the zombie models look decent, the effects are spot-on, and the different cars spice up what is going on. The game also has very different backdrops and sceneries for you to whack zombies in, which is always a plus. EXOR Studios already showed their expertise in making nice-looking games in the past, and this rerelease/revamp op Zombie Driver is nothing shy of a good-looking game.
Sound
The sound design in the Immortal Edition of Zombie Driver is quite impressive. You’ll have a decent backdrop, which is accompanied by the sounds of blood gurgling and guts flying, in the midst of explosions, gunfire, the crackling of fire and lightning and so on. We are most impressed with the abundant display of voice acting, as each mission is properly introduced by your contact, and often during the missions, you’ll have even more dialogues. Kudos to the developers, as EXOR studios is still for the most part an indie studio.
Gameplay
Zombie Driver Immortal Edition is an action arcade game where you’ll have three modes to choose from. You have the story mode, in which you complete missions for the army, ranging from saving civilians and taking out gigantic zombie monsters. The other modes are more for free play, where you can either race against other survivors, or kill as many zombies as possible to get a high score.
The basics of the game are quite simple. You start out with one vehicle, and you view the game from a top-down perspective, very much like the first GTA games. From here on out you’ll drive in different areas, running over zombies, collecting money and picking up weapons as you go. All weapons have a limited amount of ammo, making it so that you’ll constantly have to look for new weapons to slaughter the horde of zombies.
In the game, you’ll have to grind a fair bit to unlock cars, buy upgrades, etc. While a lot can be unlocked by playing the story, it’s a shame that the currency you collect isn’t available to you in the three different modes. In the Slaughter mode, for example, money isn’t of any value and is just the denominator for the score. Racing also allows you to unlock items, and so on. It just feels like a very rinse and repeat type of game, which you either love or hate.
Conclusion
Zombie Driver Immortal Edition is a great pastime if you’re looking for something like the original GTA with a lot of gore and action in it. The game has its strengths, but the grind becomes old really fast, as progress goes quite slow, and there isn’t all that much gameplay to go around. Nonetheless, for an action game, the game does deliver and it’s still a lot of fun to play in short bursts. We don’t expect this to become your next main title though.
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