Pandemic Shooter is a five dollar, cel-shaded FPS on Switch made available from Cave Games and No Gravity Games. It might be a 3D shooter but its gameplay is essentially one-dimensional, basic, mindless, and raises an eyebrow from a narrative and presentation perspective.
Saying the story is weird is an understatement. Apparently two space velociraptors are trying to spread misinformation on Earth, causing its inhabitants confusion and chaos and somehow zombies are involved. Apparently you are the only one capable of wielding weapons to fight waves of zombies who spawn and die with unconventional animations. As you make your way through each stage, which is nothing more than tight corridors that never change elevation and has plenty of dead ends, the playable character and his contact on the phone speak only in inside jokes that make no sense to the player. It is like listening to a blooper reel at the end of the movie without actually seeing the movie. Topics include things like flat Earth believers and a stupidly uncomfortable amount of giggling. It is so weird! The comic book story transitions are also awkwardly fixated on the behinds of females.
Gameplay-wise, you are armed with different firearms and must shoot at the slow moving zombies that spawn around you. Unless fighting a boss or you get totally overwhelmed, taking out throngs of the same zombies with the basic hand pistol is rarely a challenge or any fun. Especially since there is no music, the zombie grunt noises are annoying and way overused.
Like the story and gameplay, the control scheme is also weird and doesn’t make sense. For some reason the “Y” button pulls up the menu instead of reloading like typical FPS controls. There is no option to aim down sights either, making lining up those headshots a little more difficult than they need to be. Simply moving in all directions carries weight, as if the player is walking with 20 pound ankle weights. If you have the tenacity to see the campaign through to the end, an infinite horde mode becomes available which is a little cheap since this is an option that should be unlocked from the start.
Pandemic Shooter is by no means a quality title but it only costs five bucks so it is easy to understand this is a budget first person shooter. The odd narrative and presentation is jarring and the mindless shooting of the same enemies from the same level design gets boring but what can you expect from a title built on a tight budget.
Also Try: Dead Effect
Not As Fun As: SNIPER: Hunter Scope
Wait For It: a new lightgun shooter like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles or Time Crisis
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz
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