World War Z: Aftermath, Manic Zombie Shooter, and the long-awaited XL version of Horde Mode finally arrive on PS5. This movie tie-in became a bona fide sleeper hit after being released in 2019 to middling reviews.
For those unfamiliar with the title, you’ll face impressive waves of quadruple zombies in a globe-trotting campaign. Out of both the book and his 2013 blockbuster, World War Z features swarms of ant-like zombies stacking on top of each other and climbing walls and fences. It was an eye-opener when it launched on PS4, and thanks to Horde Mode XL, it’s even more so on PS5.
The PS5 version, which is free for those who own the Aftermath edition of the game, arrived on January 24th and has been in testing ever since. Sadly, the game’s performance didn’t improve as much as we had hoped, with consistent frame rate drops in both offline and online modes. With no performance modes to switch to, the developer suffers from fluctuating framerates until Saber Interactive finds a fix. It’s never bad enough to stop you from playing, but it’s disappointing to see performance degrade with something that should be upgraded.
However, in addition to all the post-launch content, WWZ also includes a new and enhanced Horde Mode XL, increasing waves of zombies from 500 to 1,000 on-screen at once. Horde Mode XL works the same as before, but every 5th wave is tagged as an XL wave. It’s quite impressive to see it in action, despite the aforementioned frame rate issues. XL waves at the higher rounds are really tough, and playing with friends makes the zombie onslaught even more hectic and fun.
The absurdities of World War Z’s Horde Mode XL are certainly worth checking out, and there’s also a fun campaign in store for newcomers. As an upgrade to the PS5, it’s very disappointing that it’s less performant than it was before, but not enough to ruin the fun of spraying bullets into a pile of zombies.