NOMBZ is about killing zombies. The developer, newcomer PowerUp Studios, knows this; eschewing story in favor of immediate hands-on time with protagonist “Mot.” We know he’s the protagonist because his character description says “Mot is the man. All other characters you pick up are expendable, but if Mot dies you will have to restart the level.” These “expendables” you later meet have much more colorful descriptions. The burly lumberjack Jacques Dubois apparently “enjoys putting on women’s clothing, hanging around in bars.” Cute. Three more characters can be eventually unlocked including a cop, a nurse, and a postal worker aptly named Postal Pete, by far the game’s most destructive character armed with a sub-machine gun and a “mail bomb.”
 |
 |
|
| This will knock your hopes back down. |
This is a part of level 11. Look familiar? |
Let’s back up. Until you get these characters the game is boring. Running through the same drab labyrinthine city levels, increasing in complexity and length as they progress; presumably with David Bowie observing, cackling maniacally, while attempting to unearth some mystical tradeoff between zombies killed and time spent will only end in tears. The only way to destroy these undead speedbumps is by shooting them in the head, a completely random occurrence. Sometimes Mot, or whoever you have in your posse, lands one and you want to give the emotionless bastard/s a hug, only you remember it would be like showing affection for your toaster every time it did what it’s supposed to do. As you progress you’ll find a few more ways of dispatching them, but for most of the game a bullet to the brain is the primary method. To keep the metaphor express running on full steam and into the tunnel of unrealized potential, the only thing separating the characters are their appearances and weapons. Seeing a postman, a lumberjack and a cop simultaneously repeatedly shoot a wall to eliminate the dirty brain eater on the other side really makes you wonder if your toaster might have a bit more personality than these little armed hobgoblins.
If the walking dead aren’t shot in the head and instead absorb a particular number of bullets (a number this reviewer is apologetically not privy to) they’ll simply fall down, only to rise again and engage in their five foot damage dash. This wouldn’t be so bad if Mot had a weapon he wasn’t afraid to fire more than once every two to three seconds. Herein lies the games greatest problem. The game is obviously about having fun killing scores of zombies with wacky characters but the tools provided are so limited and with such low firing rates level progression becomes dependent on ones ability to be patient and advance at a crawling pace. This style of play is completely counter-inducive to the mood and pacing set forth by the wonderful music, sounding like Danny Elfman’s work on Beetlejuice, and comic book style art.
 |
 |
|
| This is a part of level 2. |
This will get your hopes up. |
NOMBZ: NIGHT OF A MILLION BILLION ZOMBIES VERDICT
If NOMBZ had gameplay to match the artistic style it would be an above average third-person shooter, but it doesn’t. The gameplay improves as the levels progress, but even at its best it doesn’t become more than a sub-par third person shooter with a lot of missed opportunities. With a price tag of $14.99 you might want to steer clear until this thing gets spanked repeatedly with the patch stick.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Choosing the correct path in the labyrinthine levels which are devoid of any noticeable landmarks. Choosing the correct path means not having to backtrack for any number of minutes after hitting a dead end.
