ZombiU is easily one of the best games available for the new Nintendo Wii U console and best of all, it targets the adult gamer. This isn't a game to collect gold coins and play fair in some wondrous rainbow world but rather it's a survival horror that requires you to annihilate zombies in some truly hideous ways.

With an MA15+ rating, this is one game that kids shouldn't find under the Christmas tree as the hero caves in skulls, smashes zombies until they no longer move and shoots them head to end their pain. It's definitely violent!

With the last blight predicted in 2012, you play a survivor of a zombie plague as you explore the ravaged streets of Britain. As you use the Underground to navigate around this zombie infested world, you navigate this first person shooter with your GamePad controller.

The beauty about the GamePad is that it enhances a rather generic zombie game as you can use this item to access your radar, weapons, health and interact with the gaming environment in a wide variety of ways. From shooting to scanning the environment, this is your Holy Bible.

Fortunately you are not alone and an anonymous voice guides through the streets and underground of London. His role is to help you find the Royal doctor who happens to be working on a cure for the zombie plague. Once you find the doctor, you basically need to find items to help his cure.

At times, ZombiU is reminiscent of Dark Souls, especially if you play the game on the highest difficulty. If you play on normal difficulty and should you die, you basically re-spawn as another character where you can pick-up the story from where your last character died. You do respawn at the safe house however but it's easy to make your way around the game via sewer tunnels.

Unfortunately if this happens, your new character only has the basics so it's a good idea to hunt down your former zombiefied character to kill and retrieve their valuable items. As this game is a survival horror, you need as much weapons and equipment as possible as it is quite scarce to find in the game.

Combat is the highlight of ZombiU. Even though you have a radar on your GamePad which you need to continually update, the zombies in the game can hide in a variety of places and I don't think I've jumped this much since the original Half Life. There are a variety of zombies that you encounter, some easy and some difficult to kill such as former riot police.

I remember one area, a meat cooler to be precise had a zombie hiding somewhere in the mist and before I knew it, this crawling zombie was attacking me. Then I was swarmed by a group of them. The game is truly intense and combat can be quite serious at times, especially when you are overwhelmed by zombies. At the start of the game, you only have a cricket bat to take on the zombies but as you progress, additional weapons are given to the player.

I actually found the cricket bat to be one of the most useful weapon in the game as bullets rarely do that much damage to zombies, unless you can shoot them in the head a few times. Accessing your weapons is also done through your GamePad and when you look through your backpack, this makes your character vulnerable. It also makes you vulnerable because you are no longer looking at the TV but rather the GamePad.

In order to protect your character, you need to ensure that doors are locked and at times boarded or nailed shut. Your radar is invaluable to your character and before you open your backpack to use medication to heal, you need to ensure that the level is safe. To complicate things, the radar is also set off by non-infected creatures such as rats and crows.

However as you progress, you will find some useful weapons like Molotov cocktails and my favourite, the AK-47 but once again, ammunition is a premium. Like a certain non Wii U zombie game, you can even upgrade your weapons via workbenches. Compared to the other launch games on the Wii U, ZombiU is up there with the best of them.

The game also supports a really fun multiplayer game where one person plays the zombies via the GamePad and the other player as the hero who must exterminate the zombies via the classic controller or the Wiimote/Nunchuck. It's quite fun to play and is a unique spin on classic multiplayer fun.

Graphics/Audio

Graphically, ZombiU isn't the prettiest game available on a high end console and does look a little bland, especially the backgrounds. Nonetheless the ambience of the game more than makes up for the graphics and the game is really quite claustrophobic as you explore the underground. One issue with the graphics is that there are lengthy load times between levels. Audio is great, especially the sounds of the zombies and the voice acting is at times a little bland.

Final Level

Ubisoft have definitely hit a home run with their Wii U exclusive, ZombiU that provides more scares than Resident Evil and some great use of the GamePad for this console. Add in decent gameplay and make sure your doors are locked because the realism of these zombies is quite unparalleled. It's a well designed game from start to finish.

Highly Recommended!