{"id":102080,"date":"2019-10-18T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/into_the_dead_2_nintendo-switch"},"modified":"2019-10-18T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T17:00:00","slug":"review-into-the-dead-2-an-overpriced-zombie-shooter-that-should-have-stayed-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/18\/review-into-the-dead-2-an-overpriced-zombie-shooter-that-should-have-stayed-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Into the Dead 2 &#8211; An Overpriced Zombie Shooter That Should Have Stayed Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/68d8121262482\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/68d8121262482\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100248\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100248\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 1 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/into_the_dead_2\">Into the Dead 2<\/a><\/strong> is an auto-run zombie survival game which originally launched back in 2017 on iOS and Android as a free-to-play title laden with the usual mobile microtransactions. The aim of proceedings here is to make your way through gauntlet after gauntlet of shambling, braindead zombie attackers as your player character moves ever-forwards, your controls limited to shifting from left to right to avoid incoming attacks whilst desperately trying to conserve ammo for your weapons. You can also unlock a selection of animal sidekicks who\u2019ll attack incoming zeds and grant you little boons to help you out here and there. <em>And that\u2019s about it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Gameplay is pretty simple and repetitive, as you might expect from an auto-runner, but it all looks very nice and plays smoothly \u2013 except for the odd occasion where you find yourself getting caught out even though you were <em>sure<\/em> you made a successful dodge or shotgun headshot. There\u2019s a story to follow in the main campaign, with each of the sixty levels bookended by some pretty hackneyed radio banter between your character James and his sister who\u2019s on the run and trying to survive the zombie invasion with what\u2019s left of her family. It\u2019s predictable stuff that runs through a checklist of pretty tired zombie movie tropes, but it does at least provide some sort of basic narrative framing for all the running and, <em>really<\/em>, we weren\u2019t expecting some subversive zombie horror masterpiece here.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100255\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100255\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 2 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s a slim state of affairs in terms of what it offers gameplay-wise, and if you\u2019ve played a handful of levels you\u2019ve pretty much seen everything in terms of actual mechanics \u2013 apart from a couple of novelty weapons and turret gun sequences that add momentary variety later on. The main drive of Into the Dead 2 is really the constant unlocking and upgrading of new weapons, boons and doggy partners rather than what&#8217;s going on with its gameplay. It\u2019s an expected situation in a game that was a microtransaction-heavy FTP title to begin with, but it doesn\u2019t do anything to change the fact that it all becomes a pretty mindless grind very, very quickly. Its levels almost feel eager to shuttle you through as quickly as possible and get you to the XP screen so you can see what you\u2019re on the verge of gaining access to next \u2013 access that is doled out <em>incredibly<\/em> slowly.<\/p>\n<p>Granted, there <em>are<\/em> a ton of weapons to unlock. They all look very nice and are well-detailed in the game\u2019s armoury; we&#8217;ve got everything from dual-wield pistols to riot shotguns, bazookas, old western-style rifles, machine guns and some fancy compound bows, but the mechanics of actually shooting are so simplified \u2013 without any way to pick out individual body parts, maybe blow the legs off an enemy to leave them crawling towards you \u2013 that we\u2019re not sure all of this variety in gun types really makes a big difference. It\u2019s just more stuff to unlock; padding to an endless grind of collecting in-game currency to reach the next power boost. Sure, a bazooka is gonna make shorter work of a zombie than a pistol, and you&#8217;ll certainly be treated to more giblets as they explode all over you, but you&#8217;re still just auto-running forward, moving left to right to avoid things and shooting every now and again; nothing changes that.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100239\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100239\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 3 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>There are lots of stat boosts you can add to your guns to make things easier as you dash through the undead \u2013 explosive ammo, faster firing rates, piercing ammo that takes bigger zombies down in one shot and more ammo for the crates that you constantly run towards to ensure you don\u2019t end a level weaponless \u2013 but again, it just doesn\u2019t feel like it matters all that much beyond having something to make the gameplay seem like it\u2019s got a point in continuing for as long as it does&#8230; and it continues for <em>ages<\/em>. The main campaign has sixty levels, every one of them virtually the same, save for a few novelty moments here and there. There&#8217;s also a bit of a nonsensical difficulty gradient at work, with some later levels seemingly giving up the ghost and letting you blaze through without much challenge, making them much easier experiences than some earlier encounters.<\/p>\n<p>More variety <em>does<\/em> eventually appear in a handful of extra side missions that slowly unlock as you progress through the main story campaign. These mini-adventures see you take on a few different character roles in new locations and also introduce some human partners who you can direct to attack enemies as you charge forwards. The first one of these, set in the aftermath of a military plane crash in a zombie-infested warzone, was actually much more interesting to play than the main adventure, in our opinion. Having said that, and at the risk of becoming as repetitive as a free to play mobile game, it\u2019s <em>still<\/em> exactly the same gameplay and there\u2019s never any getting away from this fact.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100240\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/100240\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Into the Dead 2 Review - Screenshot 4 of 4\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Rounding out the different play modes on offer here is a standard arcade mode that ramps up the difficulty and charges you with blasting as many zeds as you can in order to progress to the next mission map. Of course, being repetitive would be all well and good at a certain price point, for a reasonable fee these things can be overlooked, but perhaps Into the Dead 2\u2019s biggest problem as it arrives on Switch \u2013 and certainly the reason we&#8217;re judging it so harshly \u2013 is that it costs <em>over thirty-five pounds<\/em>, which is just astoundingly expensive for an auto-run game of this type. We should also mention that there are two licensed DLC packs scheduled to arrive on launch day, one <strong>Ghostbusters<\/strong>, the other based on <strong>Night of the Living Dead<\/strong>, which of course both sound fantastic and could be really cool little additions to what&#8217;s contained within the game. However, if you&#8217;ve picked up the digital version of the game, you&#8217;ll have to fork out a further \u00a34.49 for each of these reskins, adding further cost to something that has no business whatsoever costing what it already does.<\/p>\n<p>It has got very nice graphics, it\u2019s well made and certainly looks the part of a more expensive game, but there\u2019s just no way the core gameplay experience on offer here \u2013 no matter how many modes and unlockables you pack around it \u2013 is worth that kind of money. This is a completely inoffensive, occasionally mildly-exciting little zombie survival game that is built around an endless trudge of unlocking boosts and guns whilst providing very little in the way of gameplay variety (or even enemy variety). It\u2019s something we\u2019d more than happily dip into for free on our phones whilst trying our hardest to avoid paying for any of its microtransactions, but there\u2019s just no way we can honestly recommend getting involved on Switch for this price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Into the Dead 2 is a pretty fun, well-made auto-run zombie survival game that arrives on Switch at a ludicrous price point that makes it very hard to justify picking up. The central gameplay loop is satisfying enough for a few minutes but it\u2019s as deep as you\u2019d expect to find in a game that originated as a free-to-play mobile experience. It\u2019s been padded out with a bunch of extra modes, and they\u2019re all perfectly serviceable, but you can never escape the core truth that it\u2019s just the same thing over and over again in slightly different settings. If you\u2019re an absolutely massive fan of running through endless waves of zombies whilst very slowly unlocking weapons to make it seem as though you\u2019re somehow changing that experience, fill your boots, but everyone else should maybe check this out for free on a mobile device first instead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Into the Dead 2 is an auto-run zombie survival game which originally launched back in 2017 on iOS and Android as a free-to-play title laden with the usual mobile microtransactions. The aim of proceedings here is to make your way through gauntlet after gauntlet of shambling, braindead zombie attackers as your player character moves ever-forwards, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}