There's somewhat of a zombie craze doing the rounds, what with the recently released Left 4 Dead DLC in Crash Course, and of course the latest brain-munching, non-stop shooting and chainsawing action that is Zombie Apocalypse, which just so happens to be the latest zombie infested game to hit the Xbox Live Arcade at 800MSP.

With a heavy emphasis on co-operative play, either locally or on Xbox Live for up to 4 players, does Zombie Apocalypse hit the sweet spot for being mindless fun to drop in on or is it repetitive to the point of extinction?

Gameplay:

The best way to describe Zombie Apocalypse is Left 4 Dead meets SmashTV, it's basically zombies in a rather large arena and you essentially must kill them all to proceed to the next level or 'day' as it's known in the game. It's that top-down old school classic that we all have fond memories of, but it's bang up to date with visual flair, and of course plenty of zombies, guns and chainsaw action which naturally means there's plenty of blood filling the screen; you know you love it, really.

Playing the lone gunmen is certainly not all its cracked up to be, much like Left 4 Dead then, it's more enjoyable with a few co-op buddies by your side. When you think about it, as good as Left 4 Dead is, for those who played solo you can certainly guarantee the game does not deliver that quality and amusing experience that you get from playing with your friends and hearing them crying for help, whether they're sat next to you on the couch or screaming over their Xbox Live headset. Zombie Apocalypse is absolutely no different in this regard.

There's four characters to choose from in Hartan, Natalie, Jimmy and ED, nearly all of whom have an uncanny resemblance to those found in the aforementioned Left 4 Dead; even the game's name, Zombie Apocalypse, is referenced in large text on the back of the L4D box. It's certainly clear that the developers not only have a love for classic games, but Valve's Left 4 Dead in particular. This approach certainly offers up some hectic co-operative moments with unimaginable amounts of varying zombies littering the screen, trying to grasp at your skulls to chomp down onto. Certainly a good thing then, the only thing that would have spruced things up further would be if there was some sort of campaign or story to speak of, where you move from point A to B eliminating zombies along the way. Although from the top down perspective, it looks like Sony's upcoming PSN exclusive in Dead Nation is going to deliver on that front, although bearing in mind we'll also soon have Left 4 Dead 2 to battle through the horde of zombies once more.

Zombie Apocalypse has a total of seven different game modes to play through, the main ones being Default and 7 Days of Hell, other modes include things such as chainsaws-only, faster gameplay and a pitch-black environment where you can only see a small area around your character. Where players are sure to initially spend the bulk of their time will be in Default, which is essentially the main campaign. There's a total of 55 days to survive through, with only a total of 7 arenas being available, including the likes of an amusement park, airport, and vehicle scrapyard. While there is annoyingly very few environments to battle in, there is plenty of different types of zombies, whom you'll end up with vast combinations of during the later days of the campaign, including a knife-throwing Granny, some tubby and seriously annoying council workers who instantly kill you should they lay their hands on you, as well as pregnant zombies who just so happen to give birth to some mutated flying things that want to try and rip your head off, and of course the shotgun-wielding Sheriff and Kamikaze dynamite-holding run into you suicidal zombie. All in a nights work, eh?

Of course with all these zombies, you'll be packing some fire power with a machine gun as your primary weapon which magically never needs to be reloaded, as well as picking up more powerful weapons which spawn in the arena, although these only last for a short time and include the likes of a flame-thrower and Gatling-gun, with plenty more to boot, our favourite though is the fluffy and pink teddy bear which is “stuffed with love, and C4 (boom)”, and naturally there's always the trusty chainsaw to help get you out of a messy situation. Essentially the teddynade acts as you might have guessed, a grenade, although you can only hold one of these at a time and they are extremely useful against the larger hordes of zombies, as nearly everything runs up to it (think the L4D pipe bomb). Fortunately you can gain an extra teddy by saving a survivor, albeit the same survivor every single-bloody time, the blonde-haired woman in blue often screams for help, and if she appears and you ensure her survival as she gets lifted away by helicopter, she thanks you by throwing down a cute teddynade.

The 7 Days of Hell mode however will soon become the 'go-to' mode, it's simply just unrelentingly hectic, it's the mode of choice when you've got your pals on and fancy laying waste to zombies, although you're still going to die, loads of times, but will love every minute of it – in moderation, anyway. After all, the game clearly has a repetitive pattern.

Graphics:

The bar has been raised much higher with visual expectations from XBLA recently, what with Chair and Epic's visually stunning Shadow Complex being 'the' stand out title, fortunately the trend continues as while Zombie Apocalypse may certainly be a 'simple' game, it is no way a slouch with the visuals. Naturally, explosions are what stand out particularly well, as does the extremely life saving flame-thrower and chainsaw executions, the latter of which is very reminiscent of Epic's Gears of War, even down to the 'squirty-squirty' gore.

Sound:

The audio sets the tone for the game perfectly, while the main theme music may get on your nerves after a while, you won't be hearing it for long over all the gun-fire and “errm!!” noises coming from the various zombies. Perhaps the only real gripe with the audio comes with the primary weapon, the machine gun, as it's what you have in your hands for the most part, and as you and your team are likely to be constantly firing, in most cases non-stop, it would have been nice to have had some variation to that sound in particular; perhaps altering the speed or volume slightly the longer the gun continues pumping out rounds for. That might sound insignificant, but after an hour or so of playing it's one of the stand out things that quickly wears thin.

Absolutely the most amusing thing, as mentioned further up, is the teddy bear and the amusing sayings that go along with it to catch the attention of the living dead. For some strange reason, it only has like two sayings, but it just never seems to get old.

Longevity:

The Default campaign of 55 days will take a few hours of play in co-op, so much to the point that later on you may even think the game has glitched and are on a never ending wave of zombies. If you're reading this, and buy the game, then you'll know what I'm talking about and remember not to quit out.

Ultimately once the initial play-through is complete and out of your system, it is a game that is worth coming back to with your friends, on those odd days when you have a bad day on Gears or are growing tiresome of Halo, then this is that new 'go-to' game for those occasions, especially on the insane 7 Days of Hell game mode.

Overall:

Repetitive? Absolutely, although initially it's insanely addictive as the challenge grows and you try to survive with your co-op partners. While we would have liked to have seen a few more arenas to fight off the dead in, the price-tag of 800MSP is justified by its simple pick-up and play gameplay, and the fact that it's just a gory, or rather, just a bloody good laugh - albeit in small doses. A must-buy for anyone who loves shooters and fighting off hordes of the dead with squeamish friends. Play co-operatively or not at all.