Hands-on with The War Z

24.09.2012

During my demo we ran from building to building, flashlights (which double as a melee weapon) in hand, searching for a real weapon. We found nothing but a hammer, some painkillers and a pack of bandages. Titoy didn't seem surprised, reiterating how difficult it is to find weapons and ammunition; when you do manage to find an item it will respawn some time later, but in a different location. There are hundreds of locations for the items to spawn at, making it pointless to camp one area in hopes of that powerful weapon you saw there once. After a bit more fruitless searching, he manually spawned in some weapons and attachments with his god-like server commands.

I got my semi-automatic assault rifle and opened a menu to attach a silencer, ACOG sight and laser aiming. I was informed that we were the equivalent of millionaires in terms of gear. The military grade weapons and especially the attachments would not be easy to find or get to, so don't expect to see some serious firepower without some dedication. We headed into a small town, surveying the zombies and building locations. We spotted a post office where weapons could be found, a grocery store where medical supplies and food could be found and a church that could be used as a survivor holdout.

We slowly moved into the town, crouching and going prone for optimum stealth. Switching to third person was a little easier to navigate. I take my first shots, landing hits to the stomach and arms. The zombie stumbles back but doesn't go down. A few of its "colleagues" start to take notice and stumble towards us. "Aim for the head, that's the only way to kill them. Otherwise they will just keep getting back up," says Titov. As you might expect, The War Z encourages the classic "destroy the brain" approach. A few well placed shots to the brain-pan drops our pursuers.

We made it to the town square, and though our ammo was starting to run dry there are still a couple dozen walkers converging from all sides. The buildings were barren except for some basic medical supplies. It was becoming obvious we were not welcome in the small town and high-tailed it out of there. Luckily, these are the George Romero type zombies, unable to sprint or climb, and we easily outran the horde.