Ground Zero Hero Review
Ground Zero Hero brings goofy mutations and radioactive mayhem to the increasingly crowded bullet heaven genre.
Ground Zero Hero. Credit: Rowan Edmondson / Acclaim
Ground Zero Hero from solo developer Rowan Edmondson and publisher Acclaim is a goofy, likeable take on the Vampire Survivors formula. It has some fun ideas, but not enough to stick out in the crowded genre. It’s forgettable despite some highlights.
Your guy pops out of a bunker into a radioactive wasteland. To beat each level, you must kill 9,999 beasties and then a mutant boss. Following the standard bullet heaven level-up cycle, the game rewards you with a choice of mutations that serve as your weapons.
Your mutations have a chance to randomly enter Bonkers mode for a limited time, with upgrades increasing those odds. These trigger far more powerful attacks, sometimes helping murder large hordes of monsters and clear the screen. My favorite of these is probably the egg-laying mutation. Usually, you just drop eggs that explode like landmines. The Bonkers version has you lay a large egg, and when it bursts, a man in a chicken costume hatches and helps you beat up enemies.
Ground Zero Hero. Credit: Rowan Edmondson / Acclaim
The game runs on a day-night cycle, a detail I quite liked. Powerful enemies appear at night, making survival harder while offering greater rewards. You can retreat to a bunker instead, opting to heal and emerge in the morning. Ground Zero Hero also adds creatures and vehicles you can ride to mow over large crowds. It feels novel for the genre, but is a bit underused.
The hand-drawn graphics have a lot of charm, resembling drawings in a talented, Simpsons-obsessed high schooler’s sketchbook. The game is bright and colorful, but flat, and the deform-based 2D animations do little to prevent the visuals from feeling static. The enemy designs have plenty of personality, and the goofy sensibility is one of the game’s greatest strengths.
I was really bothered by the feel of some of the weapons. Some, like the tentacle arm, only attack to the left and right, whichever direction you’re facing, rather than in the 360° range I expect from twin-stick shooters and the bullet heaven games that evolved from them. It makes for some awkward play at the start of a run until you get more weapons, and reduces the viability of some builds. The limited weapon variety makes this worse. Mutations don’t combine or synergize with each other through upgrades, either. Each weapon has its own upgrade path, and that’s it.
Ground Zero Hero. Credit: Rowan Edmondson / Acclaim
Ground Zero Hero is visually memorable and features a few mechanics that caught my attention. However, the game is still essentially more of the same: a rote, simplistic Vampire Survivors clone. It was addictive at first, but I began to get bored around four hours into its six-hour playtime.
Ground Zero Hero
Ground Zero Hero is addictive at first, but its goofy vibes can’t keep the simplistic bullet heaven action interesting for long.
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