Review: Stubbs the Zombie by Aspyr Media
For those of you who like short reviews, I have three words “Buy
this game.” For those willing to read a bit more, continue
on…
You crave the taste of brains, specifically
the brains of the living.You’ve just found yourself in a strange city
which combines the 1950’s with futuristic technology (the cars look like
old 57 Chevy coupes, but hover, and there are robots around).There is
(or rather was, until you came along) virtually no crime.It’s a sort of
utopian society.
In typical
zombie-horror-film style, when you eat someone’s brains, they become a
zombie and crave brains themselves.Thus, the more people whose brains
you consume, the more underlings you have at your disposal.And you’ll
need them, since this society believes in defending its way of life at
all cost.
Early on, Stubbs sees an image of Maggie Monday (the city founder’s
mother) on a TV screen and his face becomes surrounded by floating
hearts, indicating that he’s in love with her. Getting to Maggie becomes
the focus of Stubbs? journey from this point on in the
game.
Stubbs will fight his way through city
streets:
…accumulate a posse of zombies
wherever he goes:
…drive a sod-o-mobile,
running over people:
…or shooting them with sod
and sending them flying:
Attacking an underground
facility:
Gaining entrance to the scientific
facility:
Getting captured by the
police:
Breaking
free:
Exchanging dance moves with the Police
Chief in a DDR-style
game:
Landing
on the parking garage:
(and then on the
ground) where Stubbs works his way back INTO the
garage:
Then a trip through a shopping
mall:
A corn farm controlled by a
militia:
A huge
farmhouse:
A water treatment facility and
hydroelectric dam:
…where Stubbs pollutes the
water supply:
…and bursts the
dam:
Carried back to the city on flood
waters:
Visiting the professor’s
lab:
Meeting the
professor:
Stopping for some flowers and
candy…
…mission
accomplished:
Driving a tank to City
Hall:
Going inside:
The
final showdown with Andrew Monday:
Maggie doesn’t
want him dead:
Our love story
concludes:
In addition to his own assortment of
weapons, Stubbs has access to a variety of others if he uses his
disembodied hand to control the person wielding them. These include
pistols, ray-guns, machine guns, shotguns, and more.
There are a number of interesting puzzles in the
game. Some of these are typical FPS-style “how do I unlock that door”
puzzles. Some are a bit more threatening, like “how do I stop the
chainsaw wielding lunatics who seem impervious to harm?” (answer: timing
and/or a lot of other zombies to distract them while you attack), how to
destroy the hydroelectric dam, etc.
Humor is
hidden throughout the game. For example, at one point in the game,
Stubbs is fighting soldiers. Under certain circumstances, he can rip off
one of their arms and use it as a club to beat others to death with
using the wet end (but he only gets two hits with it before he loses
it).
When I ripped one soldier’s arm off, he
said “Hey! You just ripped off my penis—I mean, my ARM!” When you
confront the evil scientist, he starts on a long monologue in cutscene.
The camera pans to Stubbs, whose hand is making a “letter O” shape and
bouncing up and down in front of his fly (i.e., “jerking off”) as he
looks at the professor (who becomes annoyed and starts his
attack):
At one point, Stubbs pollutes the
city’s water supply by relieving himself in it (see the screencap
earlier).
The game isn’t without its flaws, however. For one
thing, some of the later levels are insanely tough, even on “normal”
mode. They often overwhelm you with both the number of enemies and their
firepower. Some of the weaponry used by the enemies is really tough
and/or annoying. The tough weaponry (the chainsaw, for example) will cut
Stubbs’ “health” down extremely fast. The annoying weaponry includes a
gun that will push you about 10-15 feet away when it shoots you, in
addition to doing damage. Without cheat codes, I made it through about
60-70% of the game in a couple of sittings. I probably would have
stopped after that simply because of the overwhelming advantages given
to the enemy at that point (superior numbers, superior firepower, and
the ability to fly). With cheat codes,
you can’t get past the water reservoir part without locking the game
into an infinite loop on a black screen.
The developers should be
praised for keeping the controls to a very limited number. The “W” key
moves you forward. The “s” key moves you backward. The mouse changes
your camera angle and turns the character in the direction of movement.
The “G” key throws an internal organ (grenade). The “F” key releases
flatulence. The “X” key rolls your exploding head, and “H” releases your
disembodied hand. “R” attacks the enemy with your hands. The “E” key is
sort of context-sensitive. Most often it’s the “eat victim’s brain” key,
but sometimes is used to smash down doors, get into the driver’s seat of
various hover vehicles, activate machinery, rip off an enemy’s arm,
whistle for your zombie posse to join you, and probably some more things
I’m forgetting (just look at the screencaps above and note how many
“hit the E key” lines you see). This is both good and bad.
There were times in battle that I’d have liked to summon the other
zombies to protect me but couldn’t because the “context” of my situation
at that point was an attack. Other times the context changed
inconveniently from “eat victim’s brain” to “smash down the door”. For
the most part, this was a minor annoyance and something you could
bypass. But it WAS annoying in a game that otherwise really wasn’t
annoying.
Sound in the game is as good as any. Positional audio
helps you locate enemies. Some enemies (the guys in the barbershop
quartet outfits who provide “security” for the politicians) sing in
harmony when they’re not busy attacking. The soundtrack consists of
songs that sound like a cross between today’s alternative music and
1950’s music. It includes a song by Death Cab for Cutie and some others
you might (or might not) recognize. I also give the developers
credit for making a barbershop quartet’s singing sound really creepy
(during the last bit before entering city hall).
All things
considered, it was a lot of silly, campy, gross, and satirical fun.
Definitely recommended. On a 1-10 scale, I’d give it about an 8. With a
bit of refinement or remapping of the “E” key functions to
separate out uses you might want constant access to (such as
“whistle”) it would get a 9. With some slightly less
overwhelming odds against you in the major fights, maybe a
10.
