Pre-order Zombie Army 4: Dead War

The Zombie Army series has come a long way since the first game's release. Zombie Army 4: Dead War is the upcoming entry into the series, which started as a spin-off from Sniper Elite. Like the previous games, it features four-player co-op and utilizes the same X-ray death cam if you land a particularly well-placed sniper round on a zombie foe. More important is that the game has a high degree of polish to it, and you'll have to deal with a whole lot of zombies to progress.

At my E3 2019 appointment with Rebellion, I played with one other player in my squad on the PS4 version of the game. Wet set off after selecting our loadouts, each of us with a sniper rifle; we diversified in our secondary weapons with an SMG and a shotgun. Almost immediately, we find that the railyard we're in is absolutely swarmed with zombies, and even a speeding train is covered with them. There was barely enough time to get a handle on things before the first big wave of zombies arrived and the fight was on.

The zombies take a few forms. A bulk of them are the basic shamble type, slow-moving and essentially fodder for you to mow down. Some others hold an assault rifle loosely in their hand and occasionally fire it — sometimes haphazardly into the ground, and somethings roughly at one of the players. A more dangerous type is covered in what looked to be lit sticks of dynamite, and they have the singular goal of rushing toward a player and blowing themselves up.

Even in that first big skirmish, we found that you burn through tons of ammo very quickly. In each area of a level, there are ammo crates filled with an unlimited supply of ammo for one type of weapon (pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, etc.). Strategic use of different firearms for different situations is key, including the lowly pistol. Proper control and shot placement are also critical, so you aren't wasting ammo by spraying it into a group of zombies without any real effect. Zombies partially disintegrate as they take damage, with their arms flying off, etc., but they're still a threat if you don't drop them more efficiently with a shot to the head.

The fights can get hectic and at times downright desperate, especially when the number of zombies between you and more ammo is greater than your number of remaining bullets. You can also open crates in the level that have throwable weapons, such as grenades, and using them to clear out a group is a far greater idea than just using one of your firearms for everything. In the worst case, if you're taken down, a bleed-out timer starts; you can keep using your pistol during this time, but aiming is more difficult, and you must hope that a teammate can revive you before the timer runs out.

You'll sprint around while shooting, stabbing, and stomping zombies. Before too long, it starts to click, and my squadmate and I were ruthlessly taking down enemies — first at a distance with our rifles and then with our boots, pistols, shotguns, and just a dash of vulgarity. It wasn't long before we cleared the demo. We were told there is also a progression system, so that is something that players can engage with to keep playing the game. We'll know more when Zombie Army 4: Dead War comes out in early 2020.