The Walking Dead convinced me that I should pay a little more attention to the Zombie genre. That's not why I bought Dead Island; that was because it was 10 bucks on Steam but it is why I watched Berlin Undead (Rammbock) on Netflix. Netflix has some weird stuff. Like that French zombie movie The Horde I wrote about a while ago. This German movie, sort of like that one, is only so-so.
We've got Michi (Michael) going to return a key to his girlfriend of seven years who recently left him and moved to Berlin. It's basically a McGuffin, I can't remember what it's for. She's not at home although the plumber is, angrily banging away at a radiator and it's quite obvious he's going to turn into a zombie. His assistant Harper shows up, the plumber goes apeshit and Michi and Harper end up locking him out in the hallway. Then the raging horde invades the apartment courtyard.
Technically we aren't dealing with zombies per se but rather people infected through bites with a disease that makes them foaming mad with an urge to bite (though not eat) anyone in sight.Their eyeballs go milky white and their skin gets all veiny, so, sort of zombies.
The tenants of the apartments can confab across the courtyard through their windows. Let's do endtime rollcall, shall we? We have Michi and Harper. We have a muscled, tattooed guy named Manfred who has obviously been bit. (He never says a word and he dies halfway through. He is my favorite character.) A weaselly dude who has "I am going to betray you as soon as you give me a chance" stamped on his forehead. Metaphorically, of course. A man who's wife has been bit. ( He's been keeping her sedated to stop the change.) Thorsten and his sister. (Of these two, if you think the named character is the one who makes it out alive, nice guess, but no.)
Thorsten foolishly wades into a horde of not-zombies in an attempt to close the courtyard gates. He fails and they have a zombie infestation.
Harper immediately starts planning to kill some bitches (I love that his first response to the zombiepocalypse is to fashion medieval death implements from cutlery) and Michi frets about the phone he dropped on the hall stairs. Someone has been attempting to call him and he worries it might be his ex Gabi. The two make a foray out to get it, Harper's homemade weapon turns out to not be zombie deterrent (seriously, there needs to be a spray), and they lose ground when they're forced to retreat to the bedroom. It is not Gabi on the phone.
Bit-Wife_Man offers them food (they lost the kitchen) if they get him sedatives from the crazy lady's apartment next door. Michi looks at a picture of Gabi and remembers her wearing a bear suit. He continues to fret and Harper falls asleep. When the next morning dawns Harper wakes up to Michi lying next to him wearing the bear suit complete with head. I am honestly unsure if this is an attempt at humor or sentimentality. Either way, if I were Harper I'd find that more terrifying than the zombies.
They break the wall so they can get into crazy druggie lady's apartment to scavenge sedatives but who should be there but crazy druggie lady herself. And guess what? She's now a not-zombie. More not-zombies rush in and Michi hides Harper on top of a wall and then scrambles into the attic. Who should he find up there but Gabi and her new man, son of crazy druggie lady. Michi throws a hissy fit because it turns out Gabi was probably cheating on him and Gabi and friend freak out because they mistake a scratch on Michi's arm for a bite. In the end they hand him sedatives and shove him out onto the roof. Michi briefly contemplates suicide before noticing a rowboat on the river. He can hear a horn out on the harbor and realizes there might be safety close by. Meanwhile, Harper has discovered that his camera flash is not-zombie kryptonite. An accidental discovery right up there with Pasteur's and Newton's I'm sure.
Michi makes his way to Bit-Wife-Man's place to give him the sedatives. Bit-Wife goes bonkers regardless and Michi immediately offers to brain her with a candlestick. Bit-Wife-Man declines and instead tricks his wife into tackling him off the balcony where they plummet to their death. Harper shows up driving all the not-zombies before him with his camera flash and locks them out of the courtyard.
The survivors gather. They only have a few scraps of food from Bit-Wife-Man's apartment because in the last day and a half everyone ran out apparently. They plan to use flashing lights to get to the river to use the boat Michi saw. Predictably, weaselly guy makes off with their supplies in the night. Michi goes after him and returns with a few lights and a fresh arm wound in the shape of teeth-marks. Sucks. He rigs a bicycle with lights so Harper and Thorsten's sister can make their getaway.
Michi stays in the courtyard to contemplate his future as a cuckolded not-zombie. He isn't alone for long because crazy druggie lady's son runs screaming in with crazy druggie lady attached by the teeth.Not-zombie Gabi shows up soon after and Michi hugs her to him while she paws at his back looking perplexed. Harper and Thorsten's sister make it out to the harbor where a ship honks at them, signifying rescue.
Showing posts with label Zombies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zombies. Show all posts
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Dead Island
So. Dead Island. Bad accents and bad character modeling galore, but that's okay. I'm also seeing elements of Bioshock but that could just be me. Lots of searchable containers and drinks and snacks for health lying around that are consumed as soon as they're picked up. A voice over the intercom that tells you what to do. Crazy attack mobs. Steam has a surprisingly heartbreaking trailer for the game that shows the deaths of a vacationing family. You can see the couple in their room in-game.
The action takes place at a resort on the island of Banoi in Papua New Guinea so the scenery is quite pretty and relaxing, only spoiled somewhat by the ravening undead. You can play as one of four characters, two male and two female. Their stats don't seem to differ much though and even if you play a woman the NPCs still refer to you as "him".
The game opens with a cutscene where your character barrels their way, drunk, through a party, completely oblivious to the signs of the impending zombiepocalypse. Somehow your character manages to stumble into all four of the playable characters which would suggest this is actually someone else but when you wake up it's in the same hotel room with the spilled bottle of Jack Daniels from the end of the opening cutscene.
Let's see who we have to play. First we crash into a failed American football star named Logan. Next we attempt to take the stage from one-hit rapper Sam B from New Orleans who is apparently used to this kind of behavior from his audience because pushing you back into the crowd doesn't break his stride in the least. This is where you meet Officer Purna, from Australia, in difficulties due to her shooting of a child molester. She offers her sneering take on your state of affairs before two helpful security officers attempt to take you back to your room. They, however, are unceremoniously jumped by the undead and, unfazed (or just plastered) we trundle off to the ladies to wash the blood off the camera lens that passes for our eyes. There we find Xian Mei, a Chinese spy (obviously) working undercover as hotel staff, trying to rouse a blood spattered woman. She scolds us for being in the women's restroom (which is seriously confusing if you've decided to play as a woman) so you swipe some pills off the floor to wash down with your JD and head on to bed.
I decided to play as Xian Mei because I like quick, agile characters and I was intrigued by her skirt which looks sort of like a sarong with an extremely ineffectual belt. I ultimately chose her because when you get to her character selection screen she narrates her entire life story at you and you can't scroll ahead and there was no way I was listening to another three sorry sack tales.
You wake up to the sweet sounds of chaos. It's the same room you passed out in which means you met yourself last night and not in a lifetime movie sort of way. I'd say it was the pills but you didn't down those until right before you blacked out which seems sort of a waste because they were a pretty red color. Once, when I was little, I took pills of my mother's because they were a pretty blue color but then she freaked and called the doctor. Anyway, maybe the zombiepocalypse is your fault by way of a time paradox, so it makes sense you get stuck doing the other survivors' scut work because you know you will.
Your first instinct in an emergency is apparently to loot everyone else's luggage for cash, soap, deodorant, and alcohol which I know I would be doing only I'd also pull candy and porn. Your second move is to follow the instructions of a disembodied voice as it guides you through the hotel with its endless supply of abandoned bags.
I still might be imagining the resemblance to Bioshock. I mean, in that game you're led through a luxurious ruin piled with loot able containers and enough snacks to feed a soccer team by a man who can miraculously track you wherever you go but in this game he's Australian.
This particular disembodied voice isn't as helpful as Atlas because almost immediately he nearly gets you killed by both an elevator and a horde or zombies. A group of survivors saves you and drags you to their safe house on the beach. You have to assume you've been bitten because a seriously hysterical man purposes to do devastating things to your head with a boat oar. Another man, this time with a wicked facial tattoo and his very own terrifying accent, gives you the zombie or not-a-zombie test which you pass with flying colors by nodding your head whereupon the threat of having your anatomy re-arranged is removed and, indeed, everyone seems to lose interest in you completely. You learn that this means you're immune to the zombie-virus and everyone expects you to put yourself back in the way of anatomy-rearrangement to do their errands. They do have a bottomless supply of cash with which to reward you.
The action takes place at a resort on the island of Banoi in Papua New Guinea so the scenery is quite pretty and relaxing, only spoiled somewhat by the ravening undead. You can play as one of four characters, two male and two female. Their stats don't seem to differ much though and even if you play a woman the NPCs still refer to you as "him".
The game opens with a cutscene where your character barrels their way, drunk, through a party, completely oblivious to the signs of the impending zombiepocalypse. Somehow your character manages to stumble into all four of the playable characters which would suggest this is actually someone else but when you wake up it's in the same hotel room with the spilled bottle of Jack Daniels from the end of the opening cutscene.
Let's see who we have to play. First we crash into a failed American football star named Logan. Next we attempt to take the stage from one-hit rapper Sam B from New Orleans who is apparently used to this kind of behavior from his audience because pushing you back into the crowd doesn't break his stride in the least. This is where you meet Officer Purna, from Australia, in difficulties due to her shooting of a child molester. She offers her sneering take on your state of affairs before two helpful security officers attempt to take you back to your room. They, however, are unceremoniously jumped by the undead and, unfazed (or just plastered) we trundle off to the ladies to wash the blood off the camera lens that passes for our eyes. There we find Xian Mei, a Chinese spy (obviously) working undercover as hotel staff, trying to rouse a blood spattered woman. She scolds us for being in the women's restroom (which is seriously confusing if you've decided to play as a woman) so you swipe some pills off the floor to wash down with your JD and head on to bed.
I decided to play as Xian Mei because I like quick, agile characters and I was intrigued by her skirt which looks sort of like a sarong with an extremely ineffectual belt. I ultimately chose her because when you get to her character selection screen she narrates her entire life story at you and you can't scroll ahead and there was no way I was listening to another three sorry sack tales.
You wake up to the sweet sounds of chaos. It's the same room you passed out in which means you met yourself last night and not in a lifetime movie sort of way. I'd say it was the pills but you didn't down those until right before you blacked out which seems sort of a waste because they were a pretty red color. Once, when I was little, I took pills of my mother's because they were a pretty blue color but then she freaked and called the doctor. Anyway, maybe the zombiepocalypse is your fault by way of a time paradox, so it makes sense you get stuck doing the other survivors' scut work because you know you will.
Your first instinct in an emergency is apparently to loot everyone else's luggage for cash, soap, deodorant, and alcohol which I know I would be doing only I'd also pull candy and porn. Your second move is to follow the instructions of a disembodied voice as it guides you through the hotel with its endless supply of abandoned bags.
I still might be imagining the resemblance to Bioshock. I mean, in that game you're led through a luxurious ruin piled with loot able containers and enough snacks to feed a soccer team by a man who can miraculously track you wherever you go but in this game he's Australian.
This particular disembodied voice isn't as helpful as Atlas because almost immediately he nearly gets you killed by both an elevator and a horde or zombies. A group of survivors saves you and drags you to their safe house on the beach. You have to assume you've been bitten because a seriously hysterical man purposes to do devastating things to your head with a boat oar. Another man, this time with a wicked facial tattoo and his very own terrifying accent, gives you the zombie or not-a-zombie test which you pass with flying colors by nodding your head whereupon the threat of having your anatomy re-arranged is removed and, indeed, everyone seems to lose interest in you completely. You learn that this means you're immune to the zombie-virus and everyone expects you to put yourself back in the way of anatomy-rearrangement to do their errands. They do have a bottomless supply of cash with which to reward you.
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