Welcome To Paradize Review

Everyone loves a great game with zombies involved, don’t they? After the huge influx of them around a decade ago, the zombie-infused scene has died down a little over recent years but there is still a trickle of experiences shining through now and again. Welcome To Paradize is a game I’ve had my eyes on for some time since it was revealed as I loved the look of the top-down perspective. It reminded me of the game How to Survive and its sequel How To Survive 2 and then I quickly realised that it is from the same development team. Developed by Eko Software and published by Nacon, the game is now available on Xbox Series X|S and sadly skips the Xbox One generation. For the co-op lovers out there you’ll be glad to hear it supports between 2 to 4 players both local and online.

Zombies Can Be Your Friends

There are some unique moments in Welcome To Paradize and taming zombies with a device you place on their heads is one of them. You can then get them on side to fight alongside you, disperse the hordes, and even give you a piggyback to traverse the open world map quicker! What I especially liked was the inventory system. Unlike other games that have you constantly managing what you can carry, there doesn’t appear to be much of a limit here. It is super easy to break down the gear you don’t require and managing what your zombie ally is possessing is also a breeze.

As you progress a little deeper into the game, it isn’t long until you’re crafting your settlement and getting the zombies to do the hard graft for you. Whilst you’re out exploring, they will be out gathering resources and keeping base camp protected. I’d like to say the game works like a well-oiled machine but the behaviour of zombies is erratic. Whilst this may sound realistic it becomes very frustrating when you’re in trouble and your zombie pal has wandered off or got themselves killed and this happens frequently.

Skill Trees & Plenty Of Quests

If you’re a fan of skill trees then there are three to gloss over here and whilst I’m not often the biggest fan of them, I enjoyed making my character, crafting and zombies stronger. The various quests encourage exploration, often gathering resources, damaging equipment or travelling to different areas of the map. You’ll encounter the undead scattered everywhere and I spent most of the time wishing my zombie mate had my back and could revive me. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen most of the time, so I would for sure say that playing with a co-op buddy would be better.

Visuals & Audio

In the visuals department things are very hit-and-miss with some visual bugs here and there but overall it does a great job despite all the chaos.  The cutscenes that introduced the game didn’t appear as crisp aesthetically as I’d have liked, but I could appreciate the art design and work that had gone into this area of the game. Overall it can look a little rough in patches but I liked this, it gives the game a gritty feel and suits the atmosphere.

I imagine the team working on this game was relatively small so it is a great leap from the previous How To Survive titles to the presentation here. I especially liked the menu design which wrapped well around the game itself and was simplistic to navigate and understand. It almost came across like flicking through the pages of a well-oiled comic book. Audio, voice acting and narration all shined through as well as you’d expect.

Final Thoughts

Welcome To Paradize isn’t the prettiest zombie experience out there by any means, but there is a whole heap of fun to be had here. It takes the characteristics from the How to Survive games and has built on the foundations to make it a fairly strong outing. I loved the fact that there are unique elements to the gameplay here that have never been done or seen in any other undead-based titles. Getting your tamed zombie to transport you faster around the map by piggyback just tickled me from the beginning. From that moment on, there is always a sense of intrigue to just keep going and see what you can discover and dig out as you play through.

For this review, I played through the entire run alone and it can sometimes become a little overwhelming, especially early game. Persistence pays off though as you create and craft more to become better equipped to deal with the hordes. Co-op would be the best way to play this since you can do so local co-op or online and at a price point that is at your standard AA cost, it is worth a punt.