Zombies! One of the most tried and tested tropes not only for horror movies but video games as well. It’s no wonder why the Resident Evil series have proved to be so popular. Developers Mass Creation obviously thought so too when they created Corridor Z, a somewhat novel take on the rather tired endless runner genre…
Corridor Z – The Plot
Unlike most endless runners that I’ve played over the years – including Thunderbirds Are Go: Team Rush that I reviewed a while ago – Corridor Z has a plot that actually makes a degree of sense and fits within the framework of the game. Massville High School has been overrun by zombies. The only survivors are a high school jock, a cheerleader, and one of the remaining soldiers sent in to try to rescue the students. The school has been put on lockdown, but the soldier is insistent that there’s a way out through one of the locked doors – if you’re brave enough to make it through all the zombies to get there.
Gameplay
Taking the form of an endless runner, Corridor Z is presented in third person 3D with your character running towards the screen away from the oncoming zombies. Before starting each run, you can choose which character to play out of the ones you have available and then the run begins. Your character runs in a straight line, and controls are designed to pull down obstacles from the left and right hand sides of the corridor or the ceiling to slow the zombies down.
Weapons can be picked up from the floor and fired with the X button, and cash can be found on some of the obstacles which you can use between games. At random points the corridor will turn left and right and you’ll need to use the left stick to push in that direction quickly or you’ll collide with the wall and become the latest snack for the zombies behind you. You’ll also be able to pick up bonus diary pieces left behind by other students scattered throughout the game, progressing the story further.
Fight For Survival
While you have three characters at your disposal at the start (more can be unlocked later on), they’re not indestructable. Each starts with three units of health, but get caught by the zombies during a run and you lose one of these. They do replenish slowly over time, but if you run out completely then you’re unable to use that character until they’ve rested. I’ve played endless runners before that use multiple characters and I have to be honest and say that I’ve never seen this gameplay mechanic used before. While the characters themselves don’t seem to offer anything different to the gameplay beyond cosmetic appeal, it’s a nice touch.
You can restore health quicker using first aids (if you have any), but you have to collect all of the necessary items to be able to craft them later on in the game…
Going Deeper…
All of that is just scratching the surface of what Corridor Z has to offer to the player though. The game is split up into a series of days that you have to survive. To progress from one to the next you have to complete a series of challenges. These can vary from managing to travel a set distance in a single run, take out a specific number of zombies and so on. Complete them all and you move on to the next day, collecting a reward in the process. Many of these are large cash bonuses, but every few days it will add new elements to the gameplay.
First up are the perks you can activate before each run. While each has a cash value to use for each run, they make a huge difference to your chances of survival. The first you unlock allows you to start each run with a random weapon, but later ones include mines, increased weapon ammunition and so on.
Later levels also add further new gameplay elements including the ability to destroy fire extinguishers that are attached to the walls, creating diversions to slow down the zombies and if you are fortunate enough to get to the end of each run, new stages to run through in new areas with bigger and tougher creatures in pursuit!
Spend! Spend! Spend!
But what about the cash that you’re collecting along the way? As well as using it to activate the perks it can be used to act as a “continue” function during the game if you find yourself caught by any of the zombies in a run. If you’d rather save the cash and use it for something more productive, it can be spent to upgrade any of the weapons that you have unlocked (there are six in total to collect), or even buy new costumes for the characters.
Playability
This is all well and good, but it doesn’t matter if the game itself isn’t fun to play. And truthfully Corridor Z just oozes playability right from the start. While it takes a while to get used to the controls, especially as you have to concentrate on everything going on all over the screen, even more so when corners approach and zombies are right behind you, you’re quickly sucked in to it’s addictive gameplay.
Even though the endless runner format is normally the sort of game you pick up for a quick 5-10 minute gaming session before you move on to something more substantial, there’s something about Corridor Z that kept me hooked for so much longer. I genuinely lost track of time while playing, no doubt helped by the story progression that kept the game interesting throughout without it feeling as if I was playing with no real goal in sight.
Zombies Have Never Looked So Good!
I have to be honest and say that I was really impressed with the visual side of things when it comes to Corridor Z. I first played the PS4 version of this and while that wasn’t up to the same visual standards set by the likes of Resident Evil and other survival horror games, it still looked good enough but most importantly the 3D is fast, smooth and well defined. As for the PS Vita port it holds its own remarkably well and apart from the obvious drop in resolution, it performs admirably in comparison, especially on the PlayStation TV. And despite most endless runners adopting a 2D or 2.5D approach, the 3D aspect works really well here and adds to the atmosphere of the game.
The sound effects and speech enhance the game further, with plenty of gruesome effects throughout. The collectable diary entries are all spoken as well as displayed on screen so there’s been plenty of care and attention put into that side of the game. The only real disappointment I found with the sound was the background music, which was just a few bars repeated of the type of score that you’d expect to hear in any zombie movie or TV show.
Controls
Controlling Corridor Z is incredibly straightforward. With the exception of shooting, everything is handled using the left analogue stick and just requires a push of the stick up, down, left or right. The only thing you need to rely on is quick reactions and timing as you would with any other endless runner so it’s easy to pick up and play, but as with any other in the genre its tough to master. To help ease you in to the game first time around there’s a brief tutorial that will get you used to the controls.
The only difficult part are the corners but this is more a case of having to watch every part of the screen and being observant of everything going on rather than being a problem with the game so it just adds to the challenge!
Overall
While the endless runner genre has been used countless times, Corridor Z is arguably one of the best I’ve played on any system. It looks great, has a solid story that builds up while you play and has that all-important “one more go” factor that makes it difficult to put down. And if that wasn’t enough, the icing on the cake has to be full Cross Buy support between the PS Vita and PS4. Not to mention Cross Save allowing you to continue progress between both systems, and finally a shared set of Trophies making it all the easier to get the full set whether you play on the big screen or on the go.
Leave a Reply