Stubbs the Zombie- PC, Mac, Xbox, 2005.
Developed by Wideload Games
Published by Aspyr Media
Story- 9.5/10
Gameplay- 9.0/10
Design- 9.5/10
Control- 8.7/10
Sound- 9.5/10
Fun Factor- 8.9/10
Overall- 9.0/10
Hungry for brains? I know I am… all the time. Kick back, get out your best zuit-suit, call some of your undead friends over, and get ready for a rompin’ good 1950′s time with Stubbs the Zombie.
Story- 9.5/10
Stubbs the Zombie gets a 9.5 for originality. Stubbs was a traveling salesman who was murdered back in 1933. Since his death, Punchbowl, a city with technology centuries ahead of its time was built on top his grave. The year is now 1959, and Stubbs figures it’s about time to resurrect himself and take out some long overdue revenge on the man who murdered him, as well as any inhabitant of Punchbowl who happens to stand in his way. The game’s plot isn’t just based off of revenge; there’s a bit of a long lost love interest fueling it as well….
Gameplay- 9.0/10
Survival is based off of one thing- eating brains. By eating the brains of enemies, not only do you replenish health and weapons, but you end up creating an entourage of zombies to do your bidding.
Stubbs isn’t your typical “George A. Romero” zombie; lumbering about helplessly as easy target-practice. Stubbs himself is a weapon of many sorts.
Stubbs has a basic combo attack, but you’re also introduced to other, outlandish maneuvers. Your first special attack, is toxic flatulence, stunning everyone within a certain radius of you. It doesn’t last long, and you can only use it once in a while, but it makes for either a good escape or a chance to go nuts on surrounding enemies. Stubbs’s left hand is practically a revamped version of Thing, from The Addams Family. “The Hand”, as we’ll call it, is a great stealth tool for scoping out potentially dangerous areas. The Hand can cling to just about any surface, but if seen, enemies will gladly shoot it down. When close to enemies, The Hand can possess and gain complete control over them, as seen in the above picture. Stubbs can also reach into that bizarre gap in his side (it deals with the story) and pull out what I believe is his stomach to use as a grenade. While it doesn’t have the same damage radius as the flatulence, stomach grenades will cause considerable damage to objects, and turn surrounding enemies into zombies. The most devastating attack just happens to be… Stubbs’s head. Go figure. Usage is just as sparse as flatulence, but Stubbs can use his head as a bowling ball, knocking down enemies in its path, and will eventually explode.
Some enemies that you’ll encounter, like S.W.A.T., wear headgear that prevents you from getting to their heads. In this case, you can simply rip off their arm and use it as a club against them.
Design- 9.5/10
At first glance, Stubbs the Zombie looks like an early sandbox-style game. The fact of the matter is, it’s not. Levels are huge; close to scale if Punchbowl actually existed.
Visualize the scene in Back to the Future where Marty first enters 1955 Hill Valley. Replace Marty with a zombie and you essentially have the setting of this game. Stubbs the Zombie does an outstanding job of recreating a film-noir version of the 1950′s, from character design to music, complete with film-grain. What I really appreciated about this game is that the designers did an excellent job of making Punchbowl an actual “city”. Allow me to explain:
Many city-esque video games have NPC’s that move along a set path. They only serve to fill space- no talking whatsoever, no change of motion other than forward. In Stubbs the Zombie, EVERYTHING has personality. Civilians are all over the place, talking about anything from the stock market to what was playing at the drive-in last night. Some people will approach you with pitchforks and shovels, accusing you of cannibalism, others will flee and cower. Some even act like zombies in hopes that you won’t eat them.
Given Punchbowl is “the city of the future”, it’s only fitting that robots would be scattered all over the place, and not just in laboratories. Robots vary from the excessively cheerful Guidebot to brute security. There’s even a robot at Punchbowl Gas who makes filling your car his, uh… “pleasure”.
The game takes you everywhere, and I mean everywhere, within Punchbowl County. You spend plenty of time wreaking havoc in the streets, but you also get to destroy Punchbowl Dam, raise cain on the Monday Farm, hijack a sod-shooting hovercraft at The Fertile Crescent, engage in a shootout in the Punchbowl Police Station… and I’m just getting started. Although you spend a decent amount of time on the streets, you never repeat an area (except once, but it’s a spoiler), adding to the size of downtown Punchbowl.
Control- 8.7/10
What do you mean “there’s no auto-run….” Whatever, I guess it makes sense. The stereotypical zombie can’t just break off into a spontaneous sprint.
The above statement will cause you to get into many unwanted situations. Many times, you will be forced to flee from a mob of attackers. The problem you will encounter is that you can’t flee fast enough, resulting in your unwanted death, which will happen more than plenty more than you need. Luckily, there are plenty of auto-saves points.
Jumping takes some getting used to; Stubbs is very “floaty”. If he’s knocked into the air at all, it’s the same thing.
Something to note: Stubbs the Zombie, if you can believe it, was created off the same engine used to create Halo, so the control scheme is somewhat the same, minus a few alterations to make the jump from FPS to 3rd-person platformer. It becomes clear when you jump into your first vehicle; “cut-and-paste” controls. The special attacks have self-explanatory keys: F-key for flatulence, H-key for The Hand, and Right-Click is for stomach grenades. The X-key is used for your head, which I don’t really understand. I suppose in a vague roundabout way…. Stubbs uses his head as a bowling ball, where in bowling, X signifies a strike…. Nope, still don’t get it.
Sound- 9.5/10
Once again, the voice acting is superb. Throughout the game, characters are always talking, even when it has nothing to do with your presence. Enemies will shout cries for help or of agony when overcome, or shout in accomplishment at your disposal. (ex. “Yeah! Ya see that? I did it! Ah did it sir!” This, after you’ve been shot by a tank.) Voice acting is diverse as it gets: Andrew and Maggie Monday have an elegant, high class dialect, Otis Monday’s rebel militia speaks with a heavy southern drawl, the military talks with boastful, confident eagerness.
The soundtrack for Stubbs the Zombie could quite possibly be one of my new favorites (Super Metroid and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift hold the top spots). The game features covers of songs from the reflected era, like “Mr. Sandman“, “Lolipop“, and “My Boyfriend’s Back“. Where else would you here “Earth Angel” by The Penguins… done by Death Cab for Cutie? Thankfully, the game actually released a soundtrack for purchase, but it isn’t available in the US iTunes Store. Another setback, aside from the country issue; Andrew Monday’s elite forces of barbershop quartets (yeah, I know) sing a handful of catchy full-length songs, but they aren’t on the soundtrack, nor are they on the internet.
Fun Factor- 8.9/10
The game as a whole is incredibly fun, but it has its tedious moments. By no means is Stubbs the Zombie an easy game; I still died countless times on my third play-through. There will be plenty of times where you’ll die from a hidden shooter, or you can’t run away from a tank fast enough. The difficulty curve is…well there isn’t one. I say this because some levels require stealth, and others require sheer dumb luck. There’s an area near the end of the game, where you walk through a door and die right on the spot. On the first encounter, you’re completely unaware that there’s about 30 guards in the next room, 8 with jet-packs, all with guns and plasma bazookas pointed at the door. I have yet to figure out a “correct” way to get through there, and I’m now on my fourth play-through.
Overall- 9.0/10
Stubbs the Zombie is severely underrated (this is probably the first time you’ve heard of it), but a great game nonetheless. Unfortunately, the game takes around 8-10 hours to beat, but you’re having fun during every minute of it. Stubbs the Zombie is rated M, for obvious reasons, and caused quite a bit of controversy when it came out. Good ol’ Joe Lieberman, overreacting to a game, like usual…
If you ever tire of shooting zombies, and you feel like switching perspectives for a while, go ahead and pick this one up. It’s filled with plenty of laughs and is excellent from start to finish.
