Me and @emuse recently finished up Left 4 Dead 2 and all its campaigns. We tried playing it some more on higher difficulties and through the versus mode but interest quickly died off for the both of us. While Left 4 Dead 2 is an all time classic it does fall short on a few things 15v years down the line. It's relatively static and the graphics are starting to become dated.
Just in time for this inevitable loss of interest World War Z went on a 50% sale. After some initial confusion as to which version to buy we decided to jump the gun. Pro tip: buy the Aftermath version if you're going to buy this game. It includes the base game and all DLC content and is even cheaper than the base game. It makes no sense but that's how it is.
The gameplay
World War Z plays pretty much just like Left 4 Dead. You're a team of four survivors who have to battle their way through hordes of zombies across different stages. In World War Z however there are more zombies. A lot more zombies. If you've seen the movie World War Z you'll know what I'm talking about. Huge swarms of zombies that stack on top of each other to scale buildings. It's an awesome thrill.
Gunplay and the general mechanics feel a lot better than they did in Left 4 Dead, but that's just to be expected of a modern game taking advantage of 12 years newer tech. It's also really refreshing to be playing a game like this with modern and updated graphics. The environments look fantastic and I'm really digging the vibrant color scheme that they went with.
A sense of progression
Another thing I was missing in Left 4 Dead that's present in most modern games these days was a sense of progression. World War Z has a few progression systems that makes you stronger over time. There's different classes you can play that you level up and unlock new perks for. You can then customize builds for each class which adds yet another level of fun. I've dabbled a little bit back and forth with classes and haven't really settles for a specific one yet.
Guns can also be leveled up. The more you use a specific gun during a game the more experience you get for it. When the gun levels up you can use the currency that you earn in-game to level up the gun to a higher and more efficient version. The effects depend on the weapon but some weapons get increased damage while others get increased ammo capacity, range or handling. This is really awesome in my opinion. Since there's so many guns it's going to take us a lot of time to see those top tier upgrades.
There's also two types of currency in the game. The standard currency is simply earned by playing normally while there's a more special currency that's earned by doing challenged and partaking in events. Looks like the game is hosting quite a few regular events which is really cool to see.
New York conquered
So far me and @emuse have only finished the New York campaign. It featured four very enjoyable levels to play with quite a decent length. It took us a little over two hours to get through this one campaign. If that time holds up for all campaigns we'll be looking at around 15 hours of gametime when all the campaigns are through.
We're now moving on to Jerusalem for the 2nd campaign. I'm excited to see the world design and challenges waiting for us there.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.