It’s a game that, in 2021, has really got nothing going for it besides any nostalgia you may already have. It has character for sure, but it’s irritating. There are cutscenes, but they’re not funny. You’re wrestling with the mechanics throughout, munching brains in unskippable cod animations until you’re able to use one of the four powers (two of which are basically useless), then trying to figure out where to go next until the handy waypoint appears and directly shows you. It’s not prudishness – it simply isn’t funny enough.Īnd that’s all it is, really.
It’s the kind of decision that seems to inform the rest of the “comedy”. And not the funny kind of out-there gonzo unpleasantness you’d see in the likes of The House of the Dead: Overkill or No More Heroes just ugly, mean-spirited nastiness. The ghoulish horror of munching innocent peoples’ brains is amusingly vivid, but having the people scream “I HAVE A WIFE AND KIDS” as you murder them swings the proceedings sharply into unpleasantness. The attempts at comedy registered to us as wide misfires, but – say it with us – your mileage may vary. It’s a fractured, confusing game that feels more like a proof of concept than a complete entity of its own. We’d argue it’s not a great sign when the central concept of your game – being a zombie – is less entertaining than your bog-standard shooting, but Stubbs feels like a flawed premise to begin with. Blasting away with your possessed soldier or whoever makes the game into a more conventional third-person shooter, though not exactly a great one.
It’s here that Stubbs the Zombie is at its best – depressingly, whenever you’re not playing as Stubbs. You’ll later be able to throw “grenades” made out of exploding organs, roll your head along like a bowling ball and – most interestingly – possess other characters, allowing you to take control of them to help turn the tables. At the start you just have a ( ho, ho) flatulence ability that causes Stubbs to unleash an almighty Bronx cheer, stunning every human in the stench radius and making them easy fodder for a grey matter platter. Thought-noshing, you see, is the way you replenish your health and various zombie powers that are acquired as you make your way through the game. His initial attack is a single-press melee swipe that seems to do a random amount of damage and can occasionally dismember, but the main reason to use it is to stun enemies into a state where you can grab them with the X button and chow down on their brains. This forces you to play terribly conservatively, as you’re more or less defenceless without a meat shield of willing sacrifices and Stubbs moves extremely slowly. You can have your minions follow you around, but they’ll get hung up on the slightest little incline or seam in the environment, hovering uselessly until you double-back to collect them. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Fitting for zombie lore, not so great for enjoyable gameplay. “Being the zombie” is a compelling idea, and initially it seems like you’re going to have some almost Wonderful 101-esque fun recruiting the undead to your side and forming a groaning army of flesh-eaters, but it quickly becomes clear that these zombies are as dense as you’d probably expect.
Taking control of the titular Stubbs, you’ll journey through a 1950s Americana-inspired world engaging in rudimentary combat, possessing people and – of course – chowing down on lovely, buttery brains.
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