Zomborg is a zombie twin stick shooter published by Ratalaika Games. I’ve played a lot of these in my day, especially when I did Xbox Indies years ago. There were so many zombie twin-stick shooters that I stopped reviewing them because they all seemed to blend together. So Zomborg does not exactly excite me going in, but I’ll review it anyway. So the game bills itself as featuring a great story:
A deadly virus outbreak has plagued the planet and the United Nations has set up quarantine zones around the globe.
Rumors have spread that there are survivors trapped inside the quarantine zones, along with footage of grotesque, reanimated corpses roaming the streets. As the world’s governments search for the origin of the infection, they’ve deploy highly skilled mercenaries as the last hope for humanity. The fate of humanity is in your hands. It’s your turn to fight the walking dead.
Frankly the story is meaningless in Zomborg. Sure it determines your objectives, but its mainly relayed through boring text screens like the following:
So on to the gameplay. You customize your character by choosing their appearance, but it has little effect on anything. Then you pick one of ten weapons. The first is free, the rest are bought and upgraded with money. Then you are dumped into a dark field with a flashlight and tasked to light fifteen corpses on fire and find some files. You basically follow map markers in your radar, and mow down the zombies that get in your way. The marketing description calls it “Strategic.” Its not really, just play it like you would any twin stick shooter and you’ll be fine. Zomborg throws lots of zombies your way, so you have to keep moving at all times to stay alive.
Honestly, I’m kinda like Meh about the whole thing. For those who like zombie twin stick shooters, you might enjoy Zomborg, but I was ambivalent. Maybe its because I’ve played better zombie twin-stick shooters, like Splatter, which was phenomenal. Things are king clunky and the game play just isn’t very fun I found. But other people may get more enjoyment out of this than I did. Maybe I’m just bored of zombie twin-stick shooters, I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too harsh on it. But what I will do after this is boot up Project Zomboid, one of the most exacting and difficult zombie games ever made. Dying in ten second excites there more than this game ever did. I’ll give this a YMMV.
Overall: Zomborg is a pedestrian zombie twin-stick shooter, which is just kind of there. It did nothing for me.
Verdict: YMMV
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Release Date | 12/1/23 |
| Cost | $4.99 |
| Publisher | Ratalaika Games |
| ESRB Rating | T |
