'Bloody Zombies' Brawler Heads To Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, And PSVR This Year

Sometimes you just want to grab some friends, enjoy a few age-appropriate beverages, and beat up a bunch of zombies. Or at least that's the idea behind Bloody Zombies, a one-to-four-player brawler debuting on the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, PS4, Xbox One, and PC later this year.

Bloody Zombies tasks "four rough-and-tough cockney misfits" with fighting their way through "rotting hordes" that have overtaken London. It's being developed by Paw Print Games and published by nDreams, which said in a press release that the game was "designed to be played with any combination of TV and VR players, online or on the couch." Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it supports cross-platform play. NDreams told us that the game "is not cross-compatible with other platforms." Instead, "when playing on your selected platform, you can invite up-to 3 friends to play co-op either in VR or non-VR, local or online play."

That's pretty much par for the course. Games are often restricted to specific online services that make it hard for PS4 owners to play with PC gamers, for example, which means supporting a large number of platforms can actually make it harder for groups of friends to play together. Consider the Dark Souls series: Playing through those games with friends requires everyone to decide as a group if they want to play on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. Bloody Zombies will suffer the same problem.

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That aside, apparently playing in VR will offer some advantages over playing on traditional platforms--nDreams said VR players get a "unique diorama view" that "means you can also find in-game secrets, provide tactical support, and conquer obstacles." A mixed group, then, might fare better than a homogeneous one.

NDreams said Bloody Zombies combines "easily accessible moves" with "deep freeform combat and brutal chainable combos" that will allow you to "unlock special moves and discover melee weapons" to help in your fight against the undead. The game's art style, which revels in comic book aesthetics and over-the-top violence in equal measure, seems to complement the post-apocalyptic power fantasy enabled by the mechanics.

You'll be able to find out how well Bloody Zombies delivers on its promises when it's released later this year. NDreams didn't offer a specific release date, nor did it say how much the game will cost.