World War Z VR - A Stumble Into Virtual Reality

Ever since World War Z launched in 2019, it’s filled in the void that only a Left 4 Dead threequel could fill. Mind you, that void is pretty big. However with various locations, weapon and class progression, and a never-ending horde mode, there’s plenty to keep anyone happily distracted for hours on end. Hearing that a VR version was on the horizon, I will happily take any excuse to kill zombies around the planet once again.

I love VR titles and I love World War Z. Combining the two should be an easy slam dunk, killing hundreds of zombies with the power of your own two hands. What should have been a match in heaven is instead diminished by technical issues abound as well as uninspired level design dulling what can still be a fun shooter at its core.

For starters, World War Z VR refused to launch correctly when launched through my Steam library via the Meta Quest Link software (for reference, I am using an Oculus Quest 2). If I were to open the game through my library, the window would open but be unfocused, draining resources from my computer and even freezing it completely. The solution was to open the SteamVR software first and then launch the game from there. A small issue that was a sign of things yet to come.

Next, I was able to load into the main menu, and get a feel for the weapons with the firing range. However, there’s only a select few that can be tried with most of them seemingly locked. The guns feel great to use, the sights are very clear and the guns have nice feedback through the controllers. The problem is, none of the controls can be changed. I play a lot of Pavlov where I use the Trigger button to grab my magazines and the Grip button to steady my weapon. The buttons are inverted in WWZ VR. I can’t change any of the controls which go against my muscle memory, which became a personal annoyance I simply couldn’t waver from.

Arguably the biggest caveat for this version of World War Z is that this is not a port of the base game, this is a specifically curated single player experience, only. One of the biggest appeals to World War Z was the cooperative aspect, harking back to the aforementioned days of Left 4 Dead. Facing hundreds of zombies at once and feeling that claustrophobia as they get closer with your friends never gets old, but that doesn’t translate well solo even with a new perspective.

See, this is fun, but nowhere near as fun by yourself.

Unfortunately the experience didn’t get much better when selecting a chapter. Due to the single player nature, you are forced to progress through the levels in order. A change from the console version that I can understand, but don’t think is necessary.  Then when selecting a character from the game’s New York chapter, Bunko was just missing entirely. So there are less weapons to pick from, less characters to play as, and considering that the progression of classes has been adapted into a traditional campaign, it’s already hurting replayability, before I even got to play.

Then I load into the game, and the game works! Until it doesn’t. After I killed my third zombie, the entire game locked up. The image in my headset began to duplicate and tear across my entire vision. This genuinely gave me a headache due to the rapid flickering lights. I had to remove the headset and wait for my computer to catch up to my inputs.

Mind you, I have an RTX 3070 TI in my PC and the minimum GPU requirement for this game is a GTX 1060. Even if you don’t know how to read the name of a graphics card, anyone can see that one number is considerably bigger than the other. The only possible way to prevent this lockup from happening again was to lower every graphics option to the lowest available option. The game looked considerably worse as a result, but at this point I just wanted to play.

Finally being able to go through the level after trying to retrain my brain to the control scheme, I’ll be honest I was just having a good time. Maybe it’s relief from the technical problems but it's very easy to get into a flowstate when moving from place to place killing zeke after zeke. The guns in WWZ VR aren’t difficult to control or aim with. Assault rifles for example will stay in the general direction of your aim as long as you keep your arms in the general direction, even hip firing to stay on the move is more than viable.

However, there are some caveats to the simplicity. For starters, guns can only be gripped one way. The Uzi for example can only be two handed by grabbing the barrel of the weapon, not the handle. Other VR titles such as Boneworks allow for free form weapon gripping, so once again working with muscle memory I tried to quickly flip my grip to the zeke behind me. My hands were physically pointed at the zeke, but my character proceeded to shoot the heavens above due to the preset grip animation. Not every weapon has this issue, at least not from my experience.

Then there comes the problem of the levels themselves, that being the objectives are simply boring. The first chapter has you go somewhere, see the power is down, grab a fuse box, turn the power on which attracts the horde, kill the horde, then go somewhere else to do it again and again.

I personally found the levels themselves to go on way too long, despite them not being big. Let me explain, it’s not necessarily that the objectives are hard to do, it's the fact that they take up an unnecessary amount of time. Because a vital story item, whether that be a fuse box or a key, is split up into one of many possible places it makes it that much more annoying to search for them because, again, you’re alone. The AI companions will not help you look for what you need the way your friends potentially would. 

But, the highlight of World War Z as a game is dealing with hundreds of zombies on screen at once. Personally, I felt that this is where the game always shined on the console version and in VR I can’t help but just enjoy the carnage. The game just needed more moments focusing on this. The moment to moment gameplay is cathartic, there are just too many unnecessary changes that can sour the experience as a whole. I think a better route would’ve been to have just focused on the excellent Horde mode. The blueprint is already there, and it would adapt beautifully to VR’s gameplay which I do think is still fun and ultimately what kept me going.

Overall, World War Z VR truly isn’t a bad game on its own merits but when compared to what came before I cannot help but feel disappointed. The foundation to a good shooter is here, I just feel as if this is a case where less isn’t particularly more. $20 may be a low asking price, but if you ask me you’re better off purchasing the far superior console versions.