Screenshot: Sniper Elite 3
I’ve always had a soft spot for Rebellion’s
Sniper Elite series for some reason. I always found their particular brand of sniping and stealthing to be satisfying. Imagine my surprise then when I first played
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army and loved it. It was a stroke of brilliance. The combination of
Sniper Elite’s rifle mechanics and hordes of slow moving zombies pressing in on your position as you run out of ammunition hit all the right notes for me. It was
Left 4 Dead meets a George Romero inspired nightmare, all backed by an electronic soundtrack that sounds like it was inspired by John Carpenter’s work. When Rebellion released the
Zombie Army Trilogy, it balanced out some of the difficulty spikes, and refined the
Nazi Zombie Army gameplay into one of my favorite co-op games—ever. And now the
Zombie Army Trilogy has made its way to Nintendo Switch.
For those unaware,
Zombie Army Trilogy is a third person action game. It takes place in an alternate World War II where Hitler, knowing his defeat was imminent, used occult powers to unleash a zombie scourge across Europe. You play as one of eight characters who are fighting to find the source of the zombie army and wipe it out. And that source happens to be zombie Hitler, who is aided by his hordes of Nazi Zombies. And like I’ve always said, there’s no more satisfying an enemy to kill than Nazis or zombies, and their combination leads to some sublime zombie eradication.
Screenshot: Sniper Elite 3
Most zombie types in
Zombie Army Trilogy will be slow and shambling, unlike
Left 4 Dead’s fast zombies. That isn’t to say there aren’t “special infected” in
Zombie Army. Armored zombies, zombies with guns, exploding zombies and more await you and your team as you fight through various war torn World War II settings. The
Zombie Army Trilogy uses
Sniper Elite’s brand of semi-realistic bullet physics, so shooting feels a little more precise than some arcade shooters, and even the arcadier feeling
Zombie Army 4 that recently released. Bullets alone won’t stop the hordes, but teamwork and smart implementation of explosives will.
Rebellion has had success porting some of their other
Sniper Elite games to the Nintendo Switch.
I’ve even covered them previously.
Zombie Army Trilogy is no exception: it somehow managed a great transition to the Switch. It has obvious graphical compromises, but the overall effect is completely workable. It’s great to have the option to take
Zombie Army Trilogy on the go so you can enjoy slow motion, bone crunching x-ray kill shots in handheld form—even if you can’t leave the house right now.
Screenshot: Sniper Elite 3
Zombie Army Trilogy gives you the first two
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army games, along with the third game made specifically for the trilogy. That’s three episodes with five sections each, and that’s a lot of zombie killing. If you get tired of playing through the main campaign (even with the adjustable difficulty setting) then you can try out horde mode. It’s exactly as it sounds, as you have to survive against increasingly difficult waves of zombies.
I originally played the
Zombie Army Trilogy, as well as the other
Sniper Elite series games on my PC. While I’m not new to playing shooters on a controller, the precise aiming involved for
Zombie Army Trilogy was a bit of a struggle for me, even though the implementation was sound. If you find yourself similarly struggling, and are used to motion controls for aiming,
Zombie Army Trilogy allows you to use the built-in motion control for more precise aiming. That doesn’t really help me, as I’m terrible with that, too. But I know that’s the standard for
Splatoon 2 and other similar games, so if you possess such skills, you’ll be able to employ them here.
Screenshot: Sniper Elite 3
Multiplayer is not essential, but teaming up with three other friends makes zombie killing all the more fun. You can either use online multiplayer functionality, or use the Switch’s built-in local multiplayer ability to team up even in absence of the internet.
The
Zombie Army Trilogy is one of my favorite co-op experiences, and it’s amazingly well ported to the Nintendo Switch. If you’ve been interested before, but never had a an excuse to pick it up, the Nintendo Switch version is a great excuse to stop Hitler’s undead army.
Zombie Army Trilogy is available now on Nintendo Switch
If you like the video game, tabletop, or other technology content that Third Coast Review has to offer, consider donating to our Patreon. We are the only publication in Chicago that regularly reviews video games, and we cover lots of local Chicago-based events and more. If you want to contribute to our coverage of Chicago’s video game scene (and more) please consider becoming a patron. Your support enables us to continue to provide this type of content and more. Patreon.com/3CR
