#DEAD NATION PS VITA REVIEW UPGRADE#

The story between missions is paper-thin.

And that default rifle is the only gun with unlimited ammo, so you tend to rely on it a lot-but it's a single-shot-single-button-press weapon, so my index finger felt like it was just about ready to fall off by the end of the game. The aiming is a little squirrelly anyway, combining with the small targets to make the game feel less precise than the great dual-joystick shooters of the last few years. The camera is pulled further out from the action than I would have liked, making your targets small and relatively hard to aim at (especially since only the default rifle gets a laser sight). From the get-go, Dead Nation's shooting felt off to me, and even as I upgraded my gear, it never got more enjoyable as the overly long campaign wore on. Everyone with me so far? The core problem is the way the game plays. You can play those 10 levels by yourself, or with a friend in local or online co-op.

#DEAD NATION PS VITA REVIEW UPGRADE#

Your 15 bucks gets you 10 mildly story-driven levels full of monsters to shoot, and there's a light progression mechanic where your performance earns you gold that you can cash in to upgrade weapons ranging from a shotgun and rocket launcher to a flamethrower, blade-hurler, and electro-zap something or other.

The disappointing part is that Dead Nation sounded like it should have been great. If anyone knows dual-joystick shooting, it's them, right? But Dead Nation's awkward mechanics and dim visual style feel at odds with the twitchy, fast-paced gameplay inherent to the genre, and the lackluster online mode leaves an awful lot to be desired too.

After all, these are the guys behind Super Stardust HD. Despite having a strong feeling that the zombie video game had already been more or less perfected over a year ago, I was ready to jump into and enjoy Housemarque's new dual-joystick PSN zombie shooter Dead Nation. This is atypically bright for Dead Nation.

Dead nation ps vita review