ApocZ

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Game Information
Release Date: 3/25/2014
Developers: Sick Kreations
Publishers: Sick Kreations
Platforms: Xbox 360
Genre: Survival / FPS
Players: 1-16
Rating: 4.8/10

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Synopsis

ApocZ is an open world sandbox First Person and Third Person view shooter, centered around the zombie apocalypse and survival. Set in 4 square miles of land in the Ukraine on the Black Sea, and bordered by deadly radiation zones. As a survivor you awaken shortly after the apocalyptic event surrounded by zombie infested towns and villages. Your first goal, find food and water to stay alive!

This area also has military facilities where a survivor can find high grade rifles and ammunition. These weapons will aid in eliminating the zombie infestation and confrontations with other survivors. The always online state of this world makes for intense and desperate game play in up to 16 player PvP and PvE.

You'll find many things to help in your survival, from backpacks to carry supplies, to tents that can be used to mass and save loot from one excursion into this world to the next. There are also vehicles that can be repaired and fueled to aid in scavenging. The 2000 zombies only spawn once when a server is created, making it possible to clear areas and scavenge free of their threat.

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Gameplay

ApocZ is an opened world first/third person survival zombie game that is sort of like the dayz of xbox 360. The game is currently selling for $1, but you can get the free trial and still play for hours. You start out by spawning in various areas around the map with only a flashlight and axe. Travel around the map to find supplies in order to survive for weeks and try to avoid zombies and enemy players. When I first spawned I was in an urban area with many zombies roaming the streets. Most zombies that I have seen spawn in groups rather than being alone. Sadly though, there are many problems that I had while playing the game that sort of made the game less interesting for me. Now, before I start off this game is still being updated frequently so hopefully overtime these bugs will be updated to enhance the gameplay. Now, when playing ApocZ and encountering zombies I found that the axe is very over powered and I used it way more then the shotgun and pistol that I was carrying in my inventory. Basically any part of the body that you hit with the axe kills a zombie in one hit. I found myself clearing out groups of zombies without having to worry about taking damage which kind of defeats the point of playing this game when you can easily get out of crazy situations like that. Weapons like the pistol take 3 shots to kill a zombie and shotguns are 1 shot kills. Though when shooting my pistol from medium distances the shots would never actually register unless I was very close to them. Zombies are very glitchy and tend to never really be a huge problem unless there are groups of them. Animations for both zombies and players aren't great. For example, zombies tend to walk in place and both walking and attacking animations are choppy. Throughout the game you will scavenge for supplies that are scattered around buildings. It's pretty easy to find items such as bandages, pain killers, food, and water so it's pretty easy to survive. You cannot go into buildings which kind of disappointed me because it would make scavenging so much better. There are vehicles that you can use to get to areas around the map faster, but they are rare to find. Vehicles are glitchy when it comes to running over zombies as they tend to not take damage when running them over. Driving off road with vehicles such as cop cars and trucks are a bad idea as you drive fairly slow. There are also many items in this game as well, some range from car repair parts to military backpacks. Also, if you jump in the game zombies never seem to hit you and or catch up to you which helps when you need to get pass hordes of zombies. Multiplayer seems to work sometimes and most lobbies are never full. I had a hard time joining into lobbies with 10+ players as I couldn't connect so I had to join many servers with around 1-5 players. You are also able to create your own servers and local custom matches to play alone. I slightly enjoyed my time playing this game, I just hope they update this game to make it worth while.

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Graphics

While playing there were many things I did and didn't like about the graphics. What I didn't like was that when shooting zombies there were no blood effects that occured indicating that they took damage. So I never really knew if the shot I took was a waste of ammo or if I was able to successfully shoot the zombie. The FOV was off at times making buildings, people, hills, etc to look all smudgy. Buildings and other objects look dis-proportioned at times and some buildings looked cartoony. Also, when looking up at the sky you are able to see the skybox and all of the pictures that they put together in order to create the look of the sky, which I did not like. What I did like about the graphics were the lighting and shadow effects. Throughout the day while playing lighting and shadows look somewhat realistic and it looks amazing at times. When it turns night the whole game feels different as you have to rely only on your flashlight in order to see. Zombies and other players are hard to see at night making it intense and very fun to play. Many cool effects are in the game from smoke particles from cars to gun shot effects. Overall I hope they add a better engine and hopefully change up the looks of certain objects. Once they do this the game will look amazing on the 360.

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Controls

While playing Apocz I had some difficulty with the controls. When in cars looking from left to right with the right analogue stick was inverted making it very hard to get used to. Attacking zombies and players are very hard as moving around is glitchy. I never got used to the sensitivity in the game as it wasn't fast enough for me so looking around was complicated. Steering cars with the left analogue stick seemed too sensitive and it made driving a disaster for me. Getting used to the inventory was fairly easy, but moving items to certain places were hard to do. I found myself dropping many items instead of selecting them while going through my inventory. They do have a button guides to help you understand the layout better, but I just never could get used to it. Some buttons seem to be out of place and I think they could have done a better job creating easy to use controls. Overall I think the controls need improving and an easier interface to get used to.

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Ratings (Personal)
Game play: 4/10
Graphics: 5.5/10
Controls: 4.5/10
Overall: 4.8/10