It would probably be the most clichéd thing in the world to make this observation, but Stubbs the Zombie In Rebel Without a Pulse is something of a zombie itself; a game that wouldn’t die, despite widespread apathy. It has something of a reputation as a “cult” hit, but we’re not entirely sure that’s justified. The main selling point of the game was always that it was made in the Halo engine – a fact that becomes most apparent when you hop in the Sod Cannon tank in the second area. Unfortunately, the game seems to have inherited the worst aspects of the classic Bungie series, with enormous, featureless areas and poorly-defined objectives without the salve of having some of the best shooting action ever.
Taking control of the titular Stubbs, you’ll journey through a 1950s Americana-inspired world engaging in rudimentary combat, possessing people and – of course – chowing down on lovely, buttery brains. “Being the zombie” is a compelling idea, and initially it seems like you’re going to have some almost Wonderful 101-esque fun recruiting the undead to your side and forming a groaning army of flesh-eaters, but it quickly becomes clear that these zombies are as dense as you’d probably expect. Fitting for zombie lore, not so great for enjoyable gameplay.
You can have your minions follow you around, but they’ll get hung up on the slightest little incline or seam in the environment, hovering uselessly until you double-back to collect them. This forces you to play terribly conservatively, as you’re more or less defenceless without a meat shield of willing sacrifices and Stubbs moves extremely slowly. His initial attack is a single-press melee swipe that seems to do a random amount of damage and can occasionally dismember, but the main reason to use it is to stun enemies into a state where you can grab them with the X button and chow down on their brains.
Thought-noshing, you see, is the way you replenish your health and various zombie powers that are acquired as you make your way through the game. At the start you just have a (ho, ho) flatulence ability that causes Stubbs to unleash an almighty Bronx cheer, stunning every human in the stench radius and making them easy fodder for a grey matter platter. You’ll later be able to throw “grenades” made out of exploding organs, roll your head along like a bowling ball and – most interestingly – possess other characters, allowing you to take control of them to help turn the tables.
It’s here that Stubbs the Zombie is at its best – depressingly, whenever you’re not playing as Stubbs. Blasting away with your possessed soldier or whoever makes the game into a more conventional third-person shooter, though not exactly a great one. We’d argue it’s not a great sign when the central concept of your game – being a zombie – is less entertaining than your bog-standard shooting, but Stubbs feels like a flawed premise to begin with. It’s a fractured, confusing game that feels more like a proof of concept than a complete entity of its own.
The attempts at comedy registered to us as wide misfires, but – say it with us – your mileage may vary. The ghoulish horror of munching innocent peoples’ brains is amusingly vivid, but having the people scream “I HAVE A WIFE AND KIDS” as you murder them swings the proceedings sharply into unpleasantness. And not the funny kind of out-there gonzo unpleasantness you’d see in the likes of The House of the Dead: Overkill or No More Heroes; just ugly, mean-spirited nastiness. It’s the kind of decision that seems to inform the rest of the “comedy”. It’s not prudishness – it simply isn’t funny enough.
And that’s all it is, really. You’re wrestling with the mechanics throughout, munching brains in unskippable cod animations until you’re able to use one of the four powers (two of which are basically useless), then trying to figure out where to go next until the handy waypoint appears and directly shows you. There are cutscenes, but they’re not funny. The visuals look bland and empty. It has character for sure, but it’s irritating. It’s a game that, in 2021, has really got nothing going for it besides any nostalgia you may already have. It’s a well-ported, smooth version of a game that wasn’t good when it originally released and has aged like milk. There's a two-player mode, too, if you want to share the pain.
Conclusion
If you already have a soft spot for Stubbs the Zombie, you’re going to have a perfectly fine experience here. But we wonder why on earth anyone would hold a candle for a game this obviously flawed. There’s some ambition here for sure, but something is always working against it. You can’t lose yourself in its mindlessness because your character is too weak. You can’t really formulate a decent strategy using your powers because you can only gain access to them through the rote melee combat. The jokes didn’t make us laugh. The premise is fun but the gameplay simply doesn’t do it justice. We’ll say it again – in order to make Stubbs the Zombie fun at all, you have to possess one of the firearm-wielding humans, thus transforming it from a load of baffling nothing to a pretty dull shooter. Please, no more resurrections for Stubbs. Let the man rest.
Comments 59
I'm still gonna give this a try when I see it in a sale.
Nintendo need to stop highlighting trash games in Directs.
I'm honestly not too surprised it got a 3, seeing as it did look pretty bad.
The soundtrack’s ace though!
Lmao when i read "aged like milk", i wasn't sure if you were talking off or that it had matured into a delightful Cheese. Sad to see it's off.
We didn't find it funny. Nobody asked.
I think 3 is harsh, personally. I liked this game a lot on the original Xbox...and while I agree it hasn’t the aged the best-I wouldn’t call this a bad game, or trash.
As someone unfamiliar with the original release and can only judge what I see by today's standards, it sure does look like a 3/10-quality game. Probably one that's only going to be for those who have nostalgia for it.
It's like... We remember games of old a little too fondly.
@Grandiajet - Not like we remember good ones when they get announced unless they got a big name next to it anyway.
When they showed this in the direct for all of 2 minutes I grew impatient with its dull world. Apparently the gameplay is as exciting as the presentation 😪
I felt wierd for not seeing what was so good about this game previously. Maybe I was right?
@Paraka I've added a few smaller games to my wish list based on videos from a Direct
Looks cool still. Like a game that's so bad, it's comically awesome. I will get it on deep discount....
Garbage game.
Yeah, this has been one of the more puzzling remasters. This game wasn't particularly good back in the day. The only reason why it had any modicum of success was it hit right when zombies started coming back into the public consciousness in a big way.
"Stub it out"
That's what I was thinking while Nintendo was allotting WAY TOO MUCH time to it in the Direct. The Direct that we waited over a year for BTW. 😝
i will get back to this some point. it's okay in terms of it's gameplay. IMO, the game is more of a 6/10 than a 3/10 though.
i do agree that at A.I. isn't that great, and so far from what i've played, the story... isn't that interesting or great to say the least.
@Grandiajet They probably get paid to highlight it.
A tier system of some sorts.
'Pay X for a news bullet on the switch'.
'Pay Y for the trailer on our youtube channel and us mentioning the game on twitter'
'Pay $$$ for a highlight during our direct'.
I thought this game was a cult classic?
If it gets a deep sale (like 80% off or something), I'll play it again. My wishlist is long, but so is my patience and my list of games I DO have.
I still have the disc with PC version. The game wasn't very good back then (I've managed to power through it thanks to fun localization) and it baffles me it was released on Switch AND even shown in Direct.
As far as fun horror games from that time period are concerned, I wouldn't mind Ghost Master released on Switch, preferably with a sequel backed by Nintendo.
@Grandiajet - "a few."
So a smaller amount has been added to a maybe "If I can remember" pile than trash titles.
They will be forgotten when Nintendo does another Direct. Happens every time.
This game was pretty novel back when it was first released. I have friends who constantly bring it up in their "personal favorites" list. When this was shown in the Direct I immediately texted them and they were very pleased as most of them have stored their OG XBOX. This game is totally a nostalgia bomb and as such was a good choice to show on the Direct as it built hype with those fans.
A lot of the games in that Direct seemed similar to this. Like there was a theme. I didn't know this was an old port. Were most other games in that Direct old ports too?
@Paraka If everyone adds a few then that could total a lot. And I buy most of the games on my wishlist.
@Friendly I'm sure they get paid for it. Nintendo don't really need the money though, and it's probably better for the company to show off better quality games.
I kind of figured this wouldn't review well. I thought it was an interesting game back in the day, but it's very dated by today's standards.
That's why I'm not liking the new direction Directs have gone recently. We don't need long explanations of games like this, or the dodgeball one, or the DC comics one. It should be a quick sizzle reel and that's it. First party exclusives, high quality triple AAA third party titles and high quality indie titles are the only games that should get their own segments.
Maybe THIS game will run well on the Switch.
Dipping all the way back to 2001 to get a game that might keep a steady framerate.
Well I love it...
I can't figure out why this was in a Direct at all. They had half a dozen mini nindie shovelware directs to dispense with this stuff. Why did it make it into a real direct? At least they could have spent that time on something that mattered like MH, SMT, Rune Factory that wasn't even there, Disgaia that wasn't even there.....
I still insist this kind of communications bungling just wouldn't have happened when Iwata was around.
The fact that Nintendo Life finds this game mean spirited, makes me want to play it more.
I’m going to let you all in on a little secret: I got the soundtrack so long ago, when it first came out, but I’ve never played this game. I love the soundtrack, though!
@Preposterous Oh, I loved Ghost Master!
I was never aware of this gaming having "cult classic" status in the first place. It's one of those remasters that seemed to come out of nowhere with pretty much no demand. It's like I vaguely remember seeing this game back in the day but even back when this game was new it didn't standout to me.
Destroy All Humans seems like the best of these open world parody action games from that era.
I remember the humour was pretty crass, but enjoyable. The score probably depends on it a lot.
Well the game is 20 years old now. I remember enjoying it however. I’ll wait on a sale down the road. Should’ve been $10 not $20 cmon Aspyr!
"but having the people scream “I HAVE A WIFE AND KIDS” as you murder them swings the proceedings sharply into unpleasantness."
You're upset that your murder isn't guilt-free?
Bit hard to take this review seriously with lines like that, and the fact there was NO MENTION of the epic soundtrack.
I rate this review 3/10
This game is interesting and tries something different than the gun toting hero.
It's like when the people told Lanning that Abe should have a gun, but then abe would solve all problems with the gun!
Same reason the kid in Heart of Darkness gets his gun taken, guns are an easy and somewhat lazy way of making an action game.
@JokerCK This is their review.
It's a crime to review this game and not mention that exceptional soundtrack.
To the rest, though, fair enough. I had fun with it on PC at its original launch, but it doesn't surprise me to hear it doesn't hold up.
While I do agree that this seems like it's aged terribly, so has Mario 64 and plenty of people, including this very site, are still praising that game to kingdom come. A baffling double standard, to be sure.
Love a good bad review.
@TheAwesomeBowser shhhhh, don't point out the double standards.
Goldeneye 64 could release as a straight port and would still be awarded 10's, despite how truly horrible it is to go back and play now.
MS should have just quietly added original game to BC.
Then you could just play off disc or download it new.
Xbox Retro fans would have celebrated original game, warts & all.
But doing a zero-effort, multiplatform port just damages it.
Now this looks like a lazy cash-grab that no one asked for...
@Grandiajet I totally agree with this and have mentioned it in other threads. It devalues the directs and Nintendo's role as curator of enjoyable content. Honestly, it feels like they are getting paid to include things in directs at this point. This may just be my jaded nature talking but the directs are starting to feel more like commercials where space goes to the highest bidder. The older format directs felt a lot more personal.
@Grandiajet I’m sure you’ve played it yourself right? Or are you just repeating what this review tells you?
@Benjinat probably because it is a port machine filled with worse software than this game
@Saint_Link Oh on! You're on to me. I'm under mind control from Nintendo Life. They are, after all, the only site to critically pan the game. And I personally have all the time and money in the world to play every video game.
I liked the game, but I know it not for everyone
I love this game. I'll get this for my switch if limited run releases a physical edition. I'm sure the game will look, and play fine in handheld mode. I know better then to play this on a 65" inch 4k tv and examine the games 20 year old graphics.
@Grandiajet You do know that it's a hard to find Xbox game. Keep your fanboy-ing to yourself and sorry that is not Bayonetta 3 or Metroid Prime 4 news. I guess you need to go to patience and gratefulness school.
Been playing through it, only a few levels left. Loved it so far, really fun, absolutely HILARIOUS. an f-ing great game, but I never played the original, so I did not have anything to base it on, also I loved how it still looks like it is from 2005. definitely not for all tastes though.
@Grandiajet this game is f-ing awesome!
@SuperCharr Its an awesome game!
@SuperCharr Alright, good. It may be my nostalgia, but it is an extremely fun game
@SuperCharr Well, i try to be nice.
@The_FastLife The company aspyr, (the people who did the remaster) are going to release a super expensive special collectors edition, that comes with a special stubbs head statue, lighter, gut grenade plush, the soundtrack, a few other goodies, and the physical copy of the game
Genuinely one of the worst games I've ever played. It's extremely rare that I don't finish a game because it's that bad but I couldn't bring myself to complete this game. The novelty and enjoyment lasts for about 15 minutes and then it's gone. The entire game is a repetitive, joyless slog without a single redeeming feature.
It's not one of those games that used to be good but hasn't aged well either. This is my first time playing it but even by the standards of it's time it's absolutely dreadful.
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