Zombie Hobby is a unique and innovative VR shooter for Oculus Rift and HTC VIve. The game first caught my attention due to its interesting stylized atmospheric visuals. Sometimes all this is needed to make a game stand out from the rest, is to come up with unique visuals and incorporate interesting and fun gameplay mechanics ideas. This is exactly what Pointlight Games did with their new VR title.
Zombie Hobby VR features simplistic low-poly stylized visuals. Only a few colors and shades are used for each level and it works really well for this type of game. First of all, the developer used a yellow color for the zombies to make them stand out from the environment, so it's very easy to locate the enemies. I think this design might even appeal better to those who are new to VR and searching for, let's say, a more relaxed visual experience. It can also appeal to the younger crowd because the game the game doesn't use guns to shoot out zombies, but rather casual objects from our daily life.
The developer categorized the game under the shooter category (I also did it as well on our website), but unlike a regular shooter in which you just use guns to eliminate your opponents, in this game you'll be using affordable objects from daily life to throw and kill your enemies. Everything you can put your hands on can serve as a weapons in this game. You can both throw stuff or grab and use some items to hit enemies.
The game also boasts some really artistic particle effects which are obviously more prominent against a plain and not complex background environment. I really liked how a hit is polymorphed into a numerical hit score above the zombie's head. Also when a zombie dies, it changes colors and what looks like a stylized particles are morphed into a number that represents a score for killing that zombie.
The character's animations are well made. The low-poly character design seemed like it was inspired by the character design from Superhot. However, the zombies in Zombie Hobby don't use weapons at all, they just crawl or walk towards you with their hands held high trying to get a bite out of you.
The game is built around a survival gameplay element. You need to try to kill as many zombies as you can. At the end of the round you get to see you score. There is also a special Hardcore Night mode that was designed to test your skills against a much more frightful zombie invasion. In that mode, the lights ar turned off and you need to try to kill at least one zombies with just the light of your little flashlight.
Zombie Hobby VR brings a fresh and unique gameplay experience to the shooter genre. The game was developed by Pointlight Games, which according to the official website,consists of a couple of game developers who work on this game for about a year.
The end results are really quite impressive, and you can clearly see the effort that Pointlight Games put out to make this game stand out from the rest both in terms of visuals and gameplay mechanics aspects. I admire game companies who strive to innovate and take risks, rather choosing a safer path.
Zombie Hobby VR is available for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive via Steam. I recommend checking out the game trailer below to get a glimpse what this game is all about—Have fun!
Image credit: Pointlight Games