Last year, I had a wonderful time playing through Zoink’s first PS4 game: Stick It To The Man. Thus when PlayStation announced the Vote for Play games for the month of September I immediately knew which game could count on my vote. Check out my review & giveaway of Zombie Vikings for PS4.

Zombie Vikings review

Zombie Vikings is brought to life largely by the same group of people behind Stick It To The Man. The latter if you haven’t played it is a funny point and click style adventure filled with crazy characters and light platform elements. Boot it up next time you need a laugh! But let’s commence with the review of Zombie Vikings.

Story

You play as a group of ragtag undead Vikings, each with their own unique strengths and abilities. Summoned by Odin and sent on a quest of grave importance. Not to save the world but “simply” to find and get back his eye. You see Odin’s eye, filled… well up to his eyeball with magical prowess has been stolen by dastardly Loki. Catching up to Loki isn’t the problem but this guy is as devious as the myths make him out to be.

Gameplay & how I got beat up by my girlfriend.

In classic beat em up style enemies can be slashed, thrown, charged, barfed on etc. not only for comedic effect but also to charge through the levels or to get to treasure in otherwise out of reach places. Basic attacks can be charged up by holding down the corresponding button and the same goes for each Zombie Viking’s unique special ability. For example, my favorite Zombie Viking, Seagurd’s special shoots poisonous ink, effectively making enemies slower. When charged this move turns into a massive throw leaving opponents wide open to a flurry of my sword slashes.

Talking about swords, before embarking on a mission the player chooses which Viking he will play the mission with. Next is selecting one of a myriad of outlandishly named swords each with special attributes. Lastly a rune can be chosen which can modify moves or offer health regeneration etc.

Almost each level houses a side quest, and completing this mission often grants you a new special weapon. Obtaining this weapon is easy enough when playing through the game solo but Zombie Vikings is most fun when played with friends. During multiplayer your former co-op partner(s) temporarily becomes a foe and you need to duke it out to receive the newly granted stab stuff. It is during these moments that Zombie Vikings shines the most. Hilarity ensued when I lost multiple times to my girlfriend, even though I undoubtedly was the better player 😉  and had to save her many times during the main missions (sorry babe, just saying).

Side Quest

One of the most mesmerizing moments I had in Zombie Vikings comes by the way of an Easter egg. As a reward for completing a side quest I was given a butt mushroom. Yes, you read that right and believe me when I say this *** shroom is the ***. Brave Viking warrior as I am, I took the hallucination inducing fungi and experienced Zoink’s upcoming game: Fé.

It isn’t exactly clear to me what Fé is but Loki be dammed I wants it!

Fé plays as a 3D platformer with sneak em up elements. You control an unnamed elven fox creature whose race is threatened by these large sentinel like beings. With abilities like climbing up into the threes, gliding, throwing glowing flowers to distract and misdirect the sentinels and lastly camouflage yourself by sprouting branches and going into a three-form you guide this creature on his quest to assumedly put an end to this forest menace. The feeling and serene tone in the forest are truly magical and this description can’t capture that magic. So instead I thought it would be best to show you a snippet of my experience it in the video below.

Final thoughts

My girlfriend likes gaming, not as much as I do but she likes it nevertheless. She mostly plays AAA games like Uncharted and the Arkham Knight series. So when we first started playing Zombie Vikings the game’s graphics didn’t overwhelm her. I can understand this and the game clearly isn’t trying to be a realistic looking AAA game. Instead it went with a cartoony 2D art style like the Paper Mario series did. Luckily she warmed up to the artistic design in a matter of levels and soon started pointing out many of the quirky little details.

Overall the game isn’t that difficult and we both feel like Zombie Vikings becomes more fun and challenging during the later levels.

After a few much needed patches the game looks and runs a lot better than the review build. I’m sad to report that I encountered some glitches that hampered my enjoyment of the game. The levels aren’t that big but rebooting the game so a level can be completed shouldn’t be a necessity. For those of you who’ve already bought or looking to buy Zombie Vikings rest assured, the developers are dedicated and continue to work hard to solve the last few problems so the game can be enjoyed like intended (edit: a new patch has gone live as I write this).

Zombie Vikings is one of the few PS4 games that offers online and local Co-op multiplayer with up to 4 players. The game is best enjoyed with friends and more fun than you might initially think. I haven’t even touched upon the additional the arena mode. Where players can beat each other up in head to head or team based minigames like Söcker a Viking pastime resembling Blood Bowl.

Zombie Vikings PS4 Giveaway (US)

This beat em up is a game easy to understand and enjoy but you don’t have to take my word for it. I am giving away a digital copy of Zombie Vikings for PS4 (US).

Zoink games has been nice enough to grant me two US PSN codes of Zombie Vikings for giveaway purposes. Here is how you can opt in for a chance to win the first code. In the embedded video “Zombie Vikings PS4 part 1” I battle against a maggot prince, after his defeat I “give” the king more children. How many new children do I give the King?

1. Send me the correct answer  via Twitter @italkgame in a tweet with @zoinkgames #ZombieVikings #giveaway (on twitter give me a follow so I can DM the winner the US PSN redeem code)

The deadline for entries will be closed on Friday 25^th of September 01:00 AM PDT. The winner of the first digital copy will be announced on Saturday 26^th via an article on wololo.net & via my Twitter account.

Lastly it helps to give Zoink Games a follow on Twitter and/or  Facebook. When given the chance I do giveaways like this and sometimes I randomly via my Twitter account @italkgame or I announce in articles like this time. Many thanks for your continued support and sharing of the article on social media.