[Review] World War Z - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By: Saber Interactive
Categories: Shooter, Co-Op
Release Date: 11.02.21

What comes to mind when you see the title World War Z? If it’s huge hoards of zombies, you’re in luck. This game is full of it. No Brad Pitt though…

You can play World War Z alone, but please please please do not. This is a team, squad based co-op shooter. The AI works, but it just works well enough, and you’ll always have a full party of four. Do yourself a favor and play online with randoms or friends. Now that that is out of the way…

You know the drill. The world is really in dire straights from this zombie infestation. There are around half a dozen locations with their own levels to play. New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, Tokyo, and Marseille. Each area has their own cast of characters, a diverse lot. I suppose the characters only matter as a doll for you to play with though, as the classes you work on leveling up mean much, much more. How do you play? More of a up close and personal player? Sharpshooter? Want to be an expect on crowd control? Some people even like to just be a medic. This is part third person shooter, part RPG in a way.

By that, I mean you level up, you get new skills. Just play the way you wanna play, though you will get experience for everything you do, the weapons you use. It’s much better than just getting locked into one thing. This can mean lots of grinding, but again, if you play with friends, it’s not a task. Speaking of weapons though, there’s a lot.

Your main weapons, side arms, even heavy weapons. It’s a lot of standard stuff at first. Rifles, shotguns, SMGs. The Heavy weapons are the real fun stuff. Flamethrowers, grenade launchers, A CHAINSAW. Man do those heavy weapons feel good to use. To be honest, everything feels good to use, even melee attacks, which even the game says “cut through zombies like butter”. You also get stuff like grenades, which are great when you can see a big group coming. As well as defensive, more distraction weapons. Stuff like barbed wire fences, electrical flooring, a turret even. These are for those hoard sections.

The real big gimmick so to say is the hoard segments. You can and will see a LOT of zombies. It’s impressive to see so many, even if you can tell the game is really pushing the Switch. It can get a tad overwhelming by yourself as the AI is not the brightest for your squadmates. It helps to be prepared and they do give you apt time and resources. The first hoard was practically telegraphed.

I did mention this game was impressive right? Lots of enemies, pretty decent looking models too. For zombies and characters. Something that surprised me was the gore. I noticed while aiming for headshots, sometimes I would just shoot a chunk of the zombie’s head or face. A good zombie game has good gore. The game can look a little muddy and chug a bit in gameplay when the going get tough, but it’s still a pretty impressive showcase on Switch.

There’s a lot of customization whether it be your characters, loadout, weapons. It’s pretty indepth and is a good way to incentivise repeat plays. This however showcases one of the biggest issues I have with World War Z. The DLC. I don’t have an issue with there being DLC in games like this. I do have an issue when a game on Switch is a port of a years old game with DLC and it’s not included, and since it’s newer, it’s bound to be on sale less or more expensive.

Outside of that, I enjoyed World War Z. Just be sure to play it with friends and you’ll have a great time.