Video Game Review - Land Of The Dead - Road To Fiddler's Green

On a remote farm in the country things are peaceful. Everything isn't as it seems though. A stranger appears outside of your home; little do you know that he is one of the many walking dead. In a desperate struggle for survival you make your way to the one city still controlled by the living. The only thing standing between you and your goal are several thousand zombies and one very crappy game brought to you by our friends at Grove Games. This review is based on the PC version of the game, though it is available on the original Xbox as well.

Graphics: 6.5/10

The best way to describe the graphics of this game is "ok". Not great but not terrible. The zombies are well animated and detailed with huge chunks of flesh missing from them. The character movements are fluid and smooth. The weapons though are very bland and plain looking and there are some animation glitches. For example: the shot gun. No matter how many rounds you have left the animation stays the same. If you have 2 rounds left out of four and then you reload, it shows your character putting four shells in the gun.

Sound: 7.0/10

Ah, the sounds of zombies crawling around... beautiful. Too bad all the other sound effects are low quality at best. The voice acting is horrible and at times it even sounds like the actors are half asleep. The greatest disappointment is the weapon sounds. Not all of them are terrible, but most of them are. The sound of a baseball bat connecting with a zombie's skull is music to my ears and the other melee weapons sound equally as cheery. However the guns in the game sound weak and pathetic.

Artificial Intelligence: 5.0/10

Zombies are dumb, that's a fact of life but this is just sad. I'm standing on top of a car shooting at a zombie and it doesn't even react. The zombies around it just stand there even though I am in plan view in front of them. Only when I actually engage the zombies back on the ground do they go into attack mode. Sometimes I even stand on the ground right in front of a zombie and it won't attack me until I shoot it once first.

Multiplayer: 7.0/10

It's hard to connect to a server to play land of the dead. It's even harder to find decent people to play with but once you do and download some "modded" content, this game's online play really shines. Nothing like trying to kill someone while trying not to be eaten by zombies.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

The game is not horrible but it does suffer a lot from its many flaws. If you're a die hard zombie fan then pick up a copy (good luck finding one). If not then don't waste your time. There are a few communities out there dedicated to "modding" and improving the game with better weapons and online maps which makes the game much more enjoyable but not anywhere near perfect.

Eric Pratt plays and reviews games and also serves as a moderator for the popular gaming tournament website PrizeArena. To read more game reviews, or win money playing games, visit his site and sign up for your free account.

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