Lately, many people have been declaring the zombie genre dead. Most of those people have been ignoring the fact that the zombie genre has been declared dead by many more people since George A. Romero made his original cult classic Night of the Living Dead, and that a large portion of the internet has declared the genre hopelessly stale and therefore dead since around the year 2006 (right around the time Max Brooks was finding fame with his beloved book The Zombie Survival Guide and his followup bestseller hit World War Z).
The irony of this, and to the chagrin of many a zombie critic, is that in spite of being a dead genre, it keeps persisting in pop culture and makes quite a bit of money doing so. Yes, the genre of the undead is indeed undead itself.
However, even though I just opened with a somewhat meta-critical analysis of a sub-genre of horror, I'm not here to talk about that today.
Today, I would like to focus on one single video game of the many, many games that claim the zombie genre. Today, I would like to talk about Stubbs the Zombie in: Rebel Without a Pulse.
Stubbs is what I would call an all around fun game. The gameplay is simple yet satisfying, and the story is entertaining to say the least.
You are Stubbs the Zombie, a brain craving dead man recently risen from the dead. In the time you've been dead (about 25 years) a futuristic utopian city founded by a rags to riches billionaire has been built on top of your 'final' resting place. Now the year is 1959, and as Stubbs you will consume the brains of as many citizens, officers, army personnel, and other humans as you can. Slowly building an army of the undead as you make your way through the city to the mayor (whom Stubbs believes was responsible for his death).
The jokes are funny if a little cliched and the graphics are decent for an Original Xbox game. What really makes the game are two things. First, the game doesn't take itself to seriously but isn't so campy that you can't enjoy it. Stubbs knows fun. Fun is a dance off between a zombie and a police commissioner to an awesome setlist. The best part though, hands down, is the soundtrack. The developers got together the likes of Cake, The Flaming Lips, Death Cab For Cutie, and other well liked bands to cover a variety of 60's era music. This adds an amazing atmosphere to the entire game, and the soundtrack by itself is one of the best cover albums of all time. I would highly recommend that you purchase and download both the soundtrack and the game. At the very least check out the soundtrack. It's terrific.
Have a happy New Year everyone! The future is going to be exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment