"Zombeer" is a comedic horror themed first person shooter game for the PC.  This game has you playing as a man named K whom wakes up at a bar with an angry voice message from his girlfriend, a huge bite on his left arm, and a vibrator in his hand (looks like he got buzzed in more than one way).  The angry message from your girlfriend is a clue to how you got your bite as she was upset that our hero was hanging out with a girl dressed as a zombie cheerleader.  Well you did hang out with a zombie cheerleader that's for sure but she wasn't in a costume and now you have a huge zombie bite and you are slowly transforming into a zombie.  This should be bad news right?  Actually this isn't the bad news as in this game scientist have invented a way to slow down the zombifying procession and the way you do that is by drinking beer...  Lots and lots of beer.  The bad news is that your girlfriend has run off to a party hosted by a guy you really, really, reaaaallllyyy hate...  The Chancellor.  Not only did she run off to the party but the Chancellor is also a zombie and has bit your girlfriend on her butt (eww cooties) and now you have to find her before the situation gets worse but just make sure to drink responsibly or you'll end up a raging flesh eating creature with a lack of balance or worse...  You'll become a zombie.  (Click "Read More" to read the full review). 


The story in this game is enjoyable despite it being another zombie themed game.  The story in this game resembles more of an 1980's comedy horror that uses a lot of pop-culture references and parody.  The pop-culture references can be subtle like a poster or an item of a famous horror character but the parodies can also be right in your face to where you will not miss them even if you try.  Some examples of what to expect in the reference department is stuff like seeing a pipe from "Super Mario Bros (1985)" or seeing a Joker face that's right out of "The Dark Knight (2008)"...  Heck, even the Necronomicon can be found if you dig deep enough.  Sometimes the levels can warp into a huge reference like how one section turns into something that looks like a "Minecraft (2011)" map.  This game is also not for the easily offended as it contains a lot of crude humor.

Not everything in this game is jokey as the goal of trying to go and save your ass-bitten girlfriend before you turn into a zombie is quite serious and you'll have no time to fool around.  Gameplay is nearly like your standard first person shooter game except for one unique element.  The unique element is that you have to keep your condition stable by drinking beer and if you don't drink enough beer you'll turn into a zombie and if you drink too much you'll just die of alcohol poisoning.  When you do turn into a zombie the controls change to where the controls become much stiffer with a very small chance of recovering.  When you drink too much you'll just die in an instant and I was a little disappointed from that as it would've been nice to see some screen blurring to simulate being drunk.  If they could make a special transformation due to not drinking enough then I don't see why they couldn't do that for drinking too much.


The whole alcohol system was not a bad system as it added something unique to this genre but it defiantly needed some fine tuning as while a good concept it could've been used a bit better.  One thing that got a bit daunting was that it felt like that I needed to take a drink every fifteen seconds and it did work for some parts of the game but there are huge chunks of the game where it felt a bit unnecessary.  It also makes exploring the game for secrets a bit frustrating and would've been nice to see the infection act slower when you are not battling...  Well on the easier difficulties at least.  The game in general did have it's moments where it was average but this game did also have some very genius moments that were enjoyable as all hell.  Getting beer isn't hard and especially if you hack Zombeer machines via a mini-game. 

The mini-game has a beer bottle spinning around in a wheel with green and purple lights.   To win you must make the top of the bottle land on a green light three times and if you land on a red light at any time you'll just be attacked by a group of zombies, also you have spots that have no lights at all and nothing will happen if you land on one.  This mini-game also has a time limit that becomes shorter with each new machine you try to hack.  The difficulty on this mini-game is just like the difficulty of the main game as it starts out easy but gets harder as you go deeper into the game.

The mini-game.

There are also collectibles that are needed to be found and one of the collectibles is quite clever as you collect audio clips containing commentary.  Don't expect the commentary to be that serious as most of them are just silly comments but I'm not complaining as it did go along with the game perfectly.  The difficulty in this game is very fair as it gradually becomes harder the further you are in.  You will defiantly die a few times in this game but it's not so bad as you'll learn what went wrong very easily and you'll have no problems getting past the part you died when you revive.  Just also be sure to have a lot of beer on you as you'll be chugging them constantly (like I said in the paragraph above this one).  This game does have multiple difficulties if you want a challenge when replaying this game.  This game isn't very long as you can beat the game in around four hours.

The problems I had with the gameplay slowly started to go away the deeper I went into the game and by the time it gets to the final leg of the game you will see some huge improvements.  The final leg of the game was a blast to play as everything felt very fun and it was a shame how the first three quarters of the game was a bit bland (gameplay wise) and if it was as fun as the final act I'd be calling this one of my games of the year.  The weapon system in this game isn't bad at all as the weapons worked well but it is a bit frustrating trying to find ammo for them.  One weird problem with the game is with the screen splattering effects.  This game is in 16:9 but the screen splatters hit the screen as if they were made for a 4:3 screen and so the effects look like a weird box hitting the screen instead of a proper splatter.

A good example of the pop-culture humor found in this game.

Controls in this game play no different than any other first person shooter out there today and that's not a bad thing at all as it's a control method that works.  Well that's not totally true as you do have to consume beer while playing by pressing Q.  I did have one problem with the controls and that was that the mouse sensitivity is set way too high when you first start the game and so you are going to have to go into the settings and lower the sensitivity and problem solved.



I was mixed on the level design as there were times where it had very average level design but there were times where the level design was very good.  The look of the graphics as a whole are a little dated but nothing that'll make you angry and say "I bought a new game and got a game that looks like this?".  The music in this game has a punk rock and pop-rock sound and it was used very well and worked well with the frat boy university levels.  The sound effects were also used well and some of them were also very funny and helped with the comedy.

Overall this game has a good amount of pros but also a lot of cons.  Sadly the cons from the first three quarters of the game is what killed the experience for me but I also don't want this series to end as the fun nature of the second half has given me hope that a sequel will be good.  While I'm not going to recommend this game, I wouldn't say it was a terrible game as I would recommend getting this in a gaming bundle or on sale.  Just misses the mark.

Game: Zombeer
System: PC
Developer: Moonbite Games, PadaOne Games
Publisher: U&I Entertainment
Genre: Action, Adventure, First Person Shooter, Horror, Comedy
Price: $9.99 (Steam)
Recommended: No (Barely)