Zombies Again

If there is one thing that VR doesn’t need, it’s yet another zombie shooter. While I totally get the appeal (zombies are dull creatures, easy to make them just targets) it’s been dome to *ahem* death. But, sometimes in the sea of similarity there can be one that stands just tall enough to noticed; in this case that one is After the Fall. Developed by Vertigo Games, themselves no stranger to creating worlds in VR or even zombie infested ones for that matter. Vertigo is the developer behind the game Arizona Sunshine which is probably the first big VR zombie apocalypse game, and it was met with success. So here we are some years, and a few other games later that Vertigo is back to bring its version of an icy, zombie apocalypse; a stark contrast between the sunny vistas of Arizona but is it any good?

MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99

Well yes, it is actually quite good; the issues with After the Fall aren’t in the level of enjoyment to be had, but the lack of content and how quickly a player con finish the current game. But let’s back up a bit, After the Fall is a 4-player co-op VR shooter/survival game that takes place in a frozen, zombie invested Los Angeles after the fall (Ha!) of civilization. Players are tasked with becoming one of many “Runners”, who are individuals who are tasked with being sent out to harvest zones in search of “juice” which is used to make a serum to keep people from freezing. (Listen… I didn’t write this story… just bear with me here) While players are harvesting the “juice” by eliminating the frozen undead zombies they will also find ammo caches and floppy discs. Like the old school from the 80’s floppy disc, and that is because see ‘the fall’ happened in the 80’s so systems are all DOS based. (Which younger folk will have no idea to what I am referring)

Nostalgia aside, these discs are able to be decrypted back at base into various weapon/armor upgrade parts. Guns can be fitted with any number of attachments such as larger capacity magazines, scopes, and even a counter that will display how many bullets are left in the current magazine. Not all of these things will give you buffs though, some like the ammo counter might keep the player from having to count their shots but it comes at the cost of some recoil. As progress is made and you begin to level up players can purchase various upgrades like carrying a gun on their back, or holding more of a certain type of ammo etc. from the store located at base, The Line. Players will need to tweak their various builds for their playstyles if they want to find success in the frozen streets of LA. I thought this was a nice way to keep people replaying levels, what I didn’t realize is that the game only has 5 levels to begin with.

Each ‘level’ is pretty familiar as far as content, sure the locations will change but players will be shooting zombies, looking for gear/loot and it will end with a boss fight vs a hulking “Smasher” zombie type. These behemoth monsters have glowing armored bits that are the indicators of where players should direct their bullets, but they are quicker than they look and players will have to be on the move because if the Smasher grabs them, they are most certainly dead. Unlike Left 4 Dead and even the newly released Back 4 Blood when one of your teammates goes down, they can be revived on the spot and resume shooting the hordes of undead. This is a nice way of handling having to penalize a player for getting killed but not making them wait in inordinate amount of time to get back into the game, and as someone whose aim is poor in VR, I appreciated it very much.

Like I said at the outset, After the Fall is a fun game albeit a very short one. Yes, there is an extra PvP Team-Deathmatch mode that is moderately fun if you like VR multiplayer shooters. I found it very passable, no real issue other than I just want a fan; but if you like the VR shooters like Pavlov among many others then you may have some fun in the deathmatch. The story for the game is really just an excuse to team up with friends, and that’s ok because whether you play with friends or random folks like me After the Fall does enough to make your time spent with it feel enjoyable; and really isn’t that all we really want from our video games?

Review copy of game provided by publisher.