Zombie Army Trilogy – Nintendo Switch Review

Zombie Army has always been a pretty good spinoff of the Sniper Elite series, using all the same mechanics and fantastic kill cams, and switching out modern war mechanics for, well, zombies in Nazi outfits. The Sniper Elite series has always done a pretty good job of creating a sniper heavy first person shooting experience that fans really enjoy, but is moving it over to a zombie apocalypse enough to justify buying the same game with a different skin? Let’s dive in!

Near the end of the Second World War, your character is sent on a number of missions – either alone or with up to three companions – to help finally close this chapter of world history. The opening cinematic before the first mission shows Hitler sitting at his desk, surrounded by some of his top advisers. As one adviser urges Hitler to give up and end the war, it’s obvious that the German dictator has other ideas, After shooting the fella providing the (obviously) poor advice, he calls on his men to unleash a zombie horde on the allied forces.

To create this trilogy, the development team grabbed some DLC that was added to a previous Sniper Elite title, added a third chapter, and created this trilogy that feeds nicely into Zombie Army 4 – our review of that can be read here. All together, it brings a number of different close looped chapters together to create a pretty decent package on Nintendo Switch, and whether you play in handheld, or docked and on the TV, the experience is surprisingly solid, with a good look and a fairly consistent frame rate.

While the first two parts of the trilogy play as very streamlined, linear experience, the third part – consisting of a few final missions – gives players a bit more freedom. For this type of experience, I actually found myself preferring the linear paths of the early levels, as opposed to the more open experience near the end. While there are things to collect, my sole focus was getting through the story  – this was a game I wanted ot see the end of, but not one I wanted to drop hours into looking for collectibles. With the linear levels, I ultimately ended up doing both and enjoying it, but the experience  game play wise faltered near the end.

Keep in mind, the final portion of the trilogy is still very solid, and this is more a personal preference, than an actual problem with the title itself.

Each level begins with choosing your load out, and depending on the weapons, you’ll have different volicity, fire rate, etc. Your secondary load outs need to be chosen carefully as well, as your character has a weight limit that needs to be adhered to. It’s a bit of an odd mechanic, but one that keeps your load out choices balanced. Changing your weapons and accessing your various secondary items is easy, and mapped well to the control. You also can crouch and lie down, which has the chance of lowering your hear rate and providing you a better shot opportunity. Yes, your heart rate is monitored in-game, so you can see how your character is reacting in specific situations.

Playing alone in Zombie Army Trilogy is definitely passable, but like other games of this ilk, it’s much more enjoyable to play with others around you. The difficulty of the game can be tailored to the number of people you have playing, or can be set on auto, and it will change automatically, whether you play alone or have a few friends at your side.

The campaign in Zombie Army Trilogy is fun, and while the game does have it’s issues, the mindless hours you can sink into this experience are well worth it. I definitely prefer playing with friends over playing alone, but ended up beating the majority of the campaign solo. It works, but just doesn’t compare to what could be with friends.

What really ellevates the entire experience, however, is the horde mode included, where you mow down waves and waves of Nazi zombies, working as hard as possible to go as far as you can go. We will have more on that soon!

If you enjoy the Sniper Elite series, this is a no brainer. Still lots of fun to be had here!