ZombiU

Did You Know?

• A webcomic prequel titled Z-14 was published on November 12, 2012, to promote the game.
• European players could initially only purchase the game from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. due to a Nintendo-imposed restriction related to German law.
• The port to other platforms, handled by Straight Right, added new melee weapons and removed the multiplayer feature.

Plot

Four hundred years before the outbreak, scientist John Dee made the Black Prophecy. The Prepper, an ex-army man, prepares for the apocalypse, while the secret society Ravens of Dee researches Dee's predictions to prevent them. In November 2012, the prophecy manifests as a zombie outbreak in London. The player character is led to the Prepper's bunker, receiving weapons, a bug-out bag, and the Prepper Pad with a scanner and radar.

The Prepper, a former Raven of Dee, left due to a disagreement over Dee's prophecy: Dee wrote that Black Angels would save the world; the Ravens believed this referred to their organization, but the Prepper thought it meant something worse. The player goes underground at Buckingham Palace and is contacted by Dr. Knight, a physician seeking a cure. He tasks the player with finding Dee's diaries and notes in exchange for scanner upgrades and a virucide, without the Prepper's knowledge.

After leaving the palace, Sondra leads the player to the Ravens of Dee remnants and attempts escape via helicopter from the Tower of London, but a supernatural force drives ravens into the propeller, crashing it. The player returns to the bunker, where the generator is low on fuel. The Prepper sends the player to get petrol from Vikram, who has gone mad; the player retrieves antibiotics from a nursery for Vikram's wife, but returns to find Vikram infected and having eaten his family, and the player kills him at his request.

Development

ZombiU was developed by an 80-person team at Ubisoft Montpellier, with assistance from Ubisoft Bucharest. Development ran parallel to Rayman Legends. Guillaume Brunier produced the game, with Gabrielle Shrager as director and lead writer; both had worked on From Dust. Nintendo approached the team to create a mature game for the Wii U. The team used the proprietary LyN game engine. Originally conceived as a tie-in for Raving Rabbids, the game was announced at E3 2011 as Killer Freaks from Outer Space, an arcade first-person shooter with small monsters. The Rabbids association was dropped by Ubisoft, as they felt turning Rabbids into monsters did not suit the franchise. The game was retooled as ZombiU after the team found the Wii U GamePad better suited to slower-paced games.

Reception

ZombiU received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic, with scores ranging from 4/10 by GameSpot to 92% by Official Nintendo Magazine. Critics praised the survival horror emphasis, atmosphere, and permadeath system. Destructoid's James Stephanie Sterling found the zombies intimidating and the experience oppressive due to GamePad use during real-time gameplay. Eurogamer's Rich Stanton called it one of the few zombie titles that lived up to 'survival horror'.

GamesRadar's Hollander Cooper said it focused on survival better than recent releases. Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek noted very scary moments. Joystiq's Richard Mitchell praised the atmosphere, comparing it favorably to Condemned: Criminal Origins. VideoGamer.com's Chris Schilling called the atmosphere authentic and rich, but found later stages less frightening with more powerful weapons.

Mixed opinions were given on gameplay, multiplayer, story, and GamePad use. Technical problems like glitches and load times were criticized. The game was unprofitable for Ubisoft, leading to Rayman Legends becoming multiplatform. A sequel prototype was canceled due to financial failure.