Dead Nation

Having built such impressive foundations, Dead Nation's biggest disappointment is that it then builds a rather ordinary construction on top. This is a game that varies very little over its play time. Whether you're battling to a police station, a skyscraper, through a graveyard or up an abandoned highway, only minor changes to the scenery tip you off that you've moved on from the previous level.

The zombie threat never really challenges you in different ways (admittedly difficult with such literally mindless enemies) but nor does the level design take you far from your comfort zone. You came for excessive zombie slaughter and that's exactly what you get, over and over and over.

There are some different zombie types to break up the tide of rotting flesh, but they're so beholden to Left 4 Dead's cast of mutated ghouls that Valve should probably get royalties. Big fat zombies that explode in a shower of guts? Big tank zombies that pound the floor and attack with crushing jumps? There's even a carnival section with clown zombies who honk their noses after a melee attack. It's hard to be scared when you're rolling your eyes at the rather craven imitation on display.

The expanding selection of weapons should help foster variety, but it rarely proves essential. You'll be able to fully max out the stats on the assault rifle within the first few levels, after which point the infinite ammo and considerable stopping power make it the default choice for pretty much every encounter. Toss in some grenades, modelled after (yes) Left 4 Dead's zombie-distracting pipe bomb, and you'll never really need to play around with mines, flamethrowers and contraptions that shoot sawblades.

With such limited scope, 10 levels starts to feel like a long haul. There are few moments when there's more than one way to progress, and even when the boundaries do retreat and offer the chance to roam more freely, you're only really choosing between several paths offering practically identical experiences.

What the environments lack in inspiration, however, they gain in detail. These are phenomenally detailed apocalyptic tableaux, with some fantastic lighting and sound to enhance the mood. It would be a gruesome joy to explore them, if only there were more of interest along the route.

Dead Nation's secret weapon is online and offline co-op play, which helps to mitigate the numbing repetition with some old-fashioned human unpredictability. It's a pity the levels never really stretch the co-op concept to more than just two players blasting away in the same space, but these things are always more fun with a friend, and so it proves here. With limited room to improvise, and scripted enemy encounters rather than the terrifying chaos unleashed by the AI Director, it never comes close to the one-for-all intensity of Left 4 Dead (yes, that comparison again) but then Dead Nation feels very much like it's intended as merely an impulsive snack for people who gorged on Valve's more nourishing meal of red meat.

Dead Nation is guilty only of being a decent game with few pretensions and even fewer ambitions, never attempting to improve or advance the clichés it so readily deploys. Played a few levels at a time, that approach is just enough to satisfy the instinctive need to lay waste to zombie throngs. It's just a pity that a developer with the unmistakable talent of Housemarque hasn't seized the opportunity to tweak, twist or otherwise refresh an overused formula.