THE zombie game has always been a success. And Nacon has come up with a title that smacks of the likes of zomboid and the like. A dangerous gamble, but well worth it.
Zombies are our friends.
Nacon is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. And if the publisher has already offered us caviar. They’ve also managed to offer us games that are just passable. After all, Nacon doesn’t develop AAA games, it develops AA games. And with that in mind, it’s easy to see that the games are pretty good, given their background.
Welcom To Paradize is a game from Eko Software. Yes, the studio responsible for Abidou, Warhammer, Handball and Rugby. Yes, a studio that’s a bit too much of a jack-of-all-trades. But let’s put our trust in the Parisian studio.
The pitch, however, is original. It’s a classic hack-and-slash game. And we’re going to have to beat up hordes of zombies. But the strength here is that you can get help from other zombies. Also known as Zombot, these are zombies with mind-control helmets. If at first you’re only allowed one Zombot, you can soon be accompanied by a second or third.
As well as beating things up, you’ll have to manage your little base, your crafts… But you’ll also have to deal with heat and cold, which will be your greatest enemies. The great thing is that you can place your base wherever you want. And then set up resource collection zones further away, where zombots will automatically bring them back to your camp. Yes, everything has been thought out so that your infrastructure can evolve as you progress and as your needs change.
Watch out for the night.
The problem with all this is that the title loses its way by offering too many mixes of other games. You’ll find yourself managing resources for a while, then doing some construction before really setting off on an adventure and completing the tone of quests the game has to offer. Because yes, if there’s a main storyline. There’s also a ton of secondary content to do. Many of the survivors will ask you to help them with tasks that can be a bit tricky… Like walking 5m to bring back a person in a wheelchair…
What’s more, each time you level up, you’ll be able to place points in a talent tree. This will improve both you and your Zombots. And while it’s not easy at first, you’ll soon get the hang of creating your own archetype.
Not forgetting the stuff… Yes, the game lets you loot a lot of weapons and armor that you can equip on yourself or your zombots. See also the improvers. Suffice to say, it’s a real thrill to be able to grab whatever your enemies use against you… On them.
All in all, Welcome to Paradize is a lot of fun. While it’s not without its faults, the title is pretty good and can only get better with various updates. But all in all, everything is there to keep you going for many hours. We hope the studio won’t leave it at that, and will learn from this launch to offer us a sequel that goes even deeper in its mechanics. In any case, we had a great time with this one.
