Game: Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without A Pulse
Console: Microsoft Xbox
Developer: Wideload Games Inc.
Release Date: 18th October 2005
Recently we've had an overload of zombie games; Dead Island, Dead Rising, The Walking Dead and other titles based on survival and reanimated corpses have flooded the marketplace and made slashing hordes of green undead somewhat less exciting than it used to be. In 2005 though, there was a game that turned the zombie fighting model on its head, and challenged players to cause mayhem as the leader of a zombie invasion in the retro-futuristic town of Punchbowl.
The game's main character, Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield was a poor travelling salesman from the Great Depression era, who met an unfortunate end when his young lover's father shoots him dead in the wilderness. Rising from his grave, years later in 1959, the city of Punchbowl has been built on top of Stubbs' final resting place, as he becomes a zombie and begins to eat the brains of local residents leading to a full scale zombie army by the end of the game.
Players control Stubbs as he roams the various locations of the game, and are able to eat brains with the press of a button, and attack with melee strikes as Stubbs is unable to wield a conventional weapon. Instead once a certain amount of brains have been eaten, Stubbs refills the ability to use his special moves. The first is a fart bomb which stuns nearby citizens, allowing their brains to be easily munched, the next is a guts bomb, which explodes, kills and transforms nearby citizens into zombies within the blast radius. Stubbs is also able to detach an arm which moves freely and can possess citizens (which really helps in levels with gun wielding enemies), and lastly there's the head bomb where Stubbs detaches his head before rolling it towards a group of enemies; players can steer the head to guide it and cause as much damage as possible.
The levels in the game are based all around Punchbowl and allow players to visit the Police Station, Mall, Dam and a farm which is home to Stubbs' original killer. Most levels involve making your way through to a certain point, with a few objectives to complete in some levels. Converting citizens to zombies is optional in many places, but helps as they will also attack any citizens that may be trying to take Stubbs down. Occasionally there's a level which has a different style of gameplay; notable examples include a dance showdown with the chief of police, driving levels and Stubbs relieving himself into the town's water supply whilst fighting off police and scientists.
While the game's plot may well be fairly transparent, and there's little variety within the game's main levels, causing mayhem as a zombie is a lot of fun, and its certainly a nice change from slaughtering hordes of undead. In particular, detaching Stubbs' arm to possess other citizens and strategically take down armed officers is a major selling point. Trial and error is a big part of the later gameplay as progress is saved fairly often, leaving players to experiment with all out an all out offensive strategy compared to gathering a horde of undead and using them as protection.
The overall difficulty level is manageable, as with enough time any level can be beaten. While the levels which change up the formula tend to be a little easier than more strategic levels, the most difficulty I had whilst playing was in finding where Stubbs needed to go to continue levels. Past the initial tutorial, players aren't given much guidance as to where to go, so some experimentation is necessary.
Graphically the game looks great on the Xbox; there's tons of uncensored gore and gross-out moments, even if the humour can be a little "fart-based". The retro-futuristic town of Punchbowl is interesting to explore and discover, as fantasy mixes with historic ideas. The musical soundtrack of the game is also impressive, as it features many songs in the style of the era and really contributes to the feel of the time.
Overall Stubbs the Zombie isn't your traditional zombie game; I'm sure there's other games like it where players control the zombies instead of someone looking to survive, but it's nice to have a light hearted and comedic portrayal of a zombie invasion after so many gritty and serious survival stories. For a game that's almost 10 years old, it's aged pretty well, and I'd recommend trying it out if you can find a copy!
Rating: 79/100
Grade: B
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