All of a sudden, an ugly green hand appears out of the ground and a strange looking man crawls out after it. On the day of the city’s opening ceremony, two college students are necking in a park when something stirs beneath them. Despite all of this, Punchbowl still retains a fifties look and charm, complete with black and white video screens, suits and fedoras and a lot of politeness.
The billionaire behind it all went so far as to build robots, floating vehicles, futuristic housing and what someone from the 50s would think an urban downtown would look like in the year 2000s. It all takes place in a futuristic and supposedly idyllic American city called Punchbowl, which was made to look and feel futuristic despite it being the 1950s. If you’ve never heard or of played it, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse is a quirky and unique game in which you actually get to play as the shambling corpse. A lot of the old jank remains, and things have merely been touched up just about enough. Don’t get it confused with a remake, or a very intensive remastering, because it’s not. Now, more than fifteen years later, the flatulent undead and his fifties themed adventure are back in remastered form. I did, however, try to play the games I was most interested in (and jealous of), including one particular exclusive: Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse. Thus, a lot of time wasn’t spent with it. I eventually bought a GameCube later on but didn’t acquire an original Xbox until right about when the Xbox 360 was due to come out. The only wish I have is that the game be remastered, so that the style and textures of the city can be fully realised instead of being held back by the limited technology of its time.Most of the gaming I did during the PlayStation 2/GameCube/Xbox generation came from the former system, as it’s all I had for most of those years. I personally enjoyed the setting of this game, a neo-1950's metropolis with hover cars, laser guns and a mind numbed populace that fail to stop a single zombie from causing the entire cities downfall and inevitable nuclear destruction. It failed to keep my attention for prolonged periods of time which is a shame for what I consider to be one of the best zombie games available. There are a few moments throughout where you may possess an enemy and turn their conventional weaponry against the living, small reminders that although this game was good for its time it could have been even better. The formula falls down to move to an area, eat some brains and gain some followers, fight the police to win and move to a new area. The battles consisted of simply striking your opponent, throwing your explosive body parts at them to kill them or alternatively, eating their brains to turn them into a member of your growing zombie horde. After I crested the 60 minute mark I found the action to be repetitive and grating. Stubbs has unique and interesting 3rd person action melee combat that is funny and interesting for about an hour. However with Cryptosporidium’s sundry arsenal of interesting weapons and abilities that truly reached for the stars, it turned out to be a far more engaging adventure overall. Though, due to the lack of diversity in its gameplay, Stubbs couldn’t hold up against titles like Destroy All Humans, which had a similar premise of a monster attacking civilisation. The biggest thing that keeps this game fresh is the take on 'being the monster.' A premise that breaks a certain mould found in stories and something a lot of game companies don't often have the brains to pull off. Although at the beginning you root for Stubbs, the gratuitous cranial crunching slowly turns us away from his cause and causes the player to wonder whether they are anything close to the good guy or simply the monster munching on him.
0 kommentar(er)
