It’s frustratingly laid out, and delays my reward enough that it doesn’t feel great. I have to level as the class, then leave the game, click “campaign,” select “customize,” and then pay in-game currency to unlock the abilities I’ve earned via leveling. Ultimately, though, I find myself uninterested in upgrading my character and advancing. One class, the Slasher, can get health boosts or extra attacks upon successfully killing a chain of enemies, while another, the Exterminator, unlocks boosts to explosive and area-of-effect damage. Instead of learning level layouts, enemy spawns, or strategies to deal with special infected, I focus on unlocking stat bonuses or upgrades. There’s a class system as well, adding a little bit of depth to progression. Other times, I just need to advance to my next destination, slaughtering the undead along the way. At times, I have to gather supplies or set up traps. Missions are straightforward point-A-to-point-B affairs. I’m offered a basic set of weapons, but I will find upgraded weapons throughout my adventure. I start a campaign and queue up with three other players, where I pick a survivor. Each city has four survivors, and up to three levels to fight through. There are four cities, where I play through linear slices of New York, Jerusalem, Moscow, and Tokyo. World War Z, the game, is probably the closest thing we’ll get to a Left 4 Dead 3 in 2019. They’re fast, cooperative, and able to swarm in massive numbers. Where so many much zombie fiction depicts small crowds of shambling undead, the World War Z fiction depicts zombies like ant colonies.
Both game and movie share one standout gimmick: astonishing, often hilarious zombie hordes.
World War Z is a patchwork of a game, much like the mixed bag of a movie it’s based on.