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Corpses of the III Reich

Published by TotallyGame
Price $14.50
Download
Primary Genre Secondary Genre

Once again I am drawn to a game for review by a bizarre yet promising title. This one instantly led to thoughts of zombies, Nazis, action and excitement. In truth I encountered only one of the above, which goes to show that titles can be misleading. There are zombies. Nazis, however, did not appear, and action...? Well now...

Our heroine finds a chainsaw, guaranteed to bring a buzz to anyone's day. Zombies patrol the upper walkway.

How best to describe Corpses (to truncate the name slightly)? To call it Doom as a platform game would be too simplistic, and suggests the same adrenaline rush that the iconic FPS embodied. There are platforms, there are zombies and there are some deadly traps straight out of the factory in "Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey". There are a number of selectable weapons. But while Doom gave you plenty of weapons and ammo, then released hordes of nasties in your direction, in Corpses ammo is always scarce. I missed the starting Pistol the first time through and the Chainsaw is more of a novelty.

Corpses is a Flash game, playing in your web browser instead of the more usual download, install, run. Or at least, the demo version does - the full version was not made available to us. This has advantages - the game will play fairly universally - but playing as it does in a window there is the risk of losing the focus, or not fitting on the screen with lower screen resolutions.

Some zombies carry guns. With bullets in them.

Graphically the game is quite impressive. The single-screen levels are gore-splattered and gloomy, the zombies shuffle along (or crawl if they lack legs...!) as realistically as zombies can be presupposed to do, yet despite the attention to detail the result is remarkably soulless and bland. The bizarre rotting faces that occasionally fill the screen are more annoying than shocking (especially when about to perform a tricky manoeuvre) if you don't count the screams.

Sound is... strange. The "music" consists of repeating background noise best described as "weird ambient horror" and the sound effects are a typical collection of bullet and zombie type noises. The occasional zombie head filling the screen does so accompanied by a VERY loud scream. Don't fall off your chair!

What one is left with is a mediocre platformer which looks visually quite impressive yet lacks any solid gameplay. It will appeal to the pre-teen market due to the gore and promise of weapons but the lack of ammunition makes these weapons something to use sparingly. Even the chainsaw needs fuel! It is this inability to decide what kind of game it is that ultimately damages Corpses - it doesn't know whether to be stealth and tactics or blood and bullets.

Certainly try out the demo - this game is so strange it must be seen to be believed. There's a great idea in here somewhere but I think it needs further development to be a big hit.

Graphics 80%
Sound 70%
Playability 65%
Longevity 65%
Overall Score 70%
Bronze Star

Published on 13 Oct 2006
Reviewed by Andrew Williams

Keywords: corpses of the iii reich review, totallygame reviews, totallygame games, corpses of the iii reich scores, pc game reviews, indie game reviews, independent gaming.