I was expecting ZombiU to be mediocre and at best, a generic zombie game . The one thing I didn't expect was how addictive the game is.
ZombiU creates tension by obscuring your view in first person mode and giving you a third person view of your character and surrounding in key moments. This creates a sense of dread as you are unable to pause the action whenever you are stationary.
It's as close as you will get to feeling like you are in a zombie movie. It's never an easy choice between running away or staying to fight. Using a melee weapon or using a firearm. You are constantly making split second decision and living or dying by your choice.
When you finally fall victim to a fatal zombie attack, you will think about what went wrong and can't wait to get back to where you died (in normal mode). You see you will get one try with your survivor, die and you either re-spawn in your safe house as the next survivor or worse, come to a complete end if you are playing the merciless Survival mode. That's the world of Zombi U where no one is truly safe except the guy speaking to you over the radio.
It's a testament to the developer's craft that the game is able to sustain its level of tension throughout the duration. You never get the feeling of being too powerful even when you get better firearms. This game is truly underrated because it was released exclusively on an under-performing platform.
Often times in this generation, exclusive games tend to feel short and unfulfilling because of how expensive it is to make games solely for one system. Zombi U doesn't give the impression of any cut corners and remarkably looks really good for a launch game. It's a shame that even when released on other systems, it continues to fly under the radar as opposed to more recognizable zombie games like (yep you guessed it) Resident Evil 7.
