Quarantine Zombies - Prologue: a free appetizer for a genre we have worn to the bone

The zombie FPS, for us, is old stomping ground. We have combed through Left 4 Dead one and two, World War Z, and a good chunk of the clone parade that followed. We know the tune by heart: the horde, the corridor, the safe room, the final wave. So when a newcomer pokes its rifle out, our first question is never "is it zombies?", but "what does it bring that the others did not?".

Quarantine Zombies - Prologue is Stones Games' bet: a free prologue riding the success of their first game to build appetite for what comes next. The setting is a post-apocalyptic Chicago. The situation, a countdown: thirty days before the army arrives, and you play the first four. The goal, hold out, fix your car and fight your way to the checkpoint to save your younger brother.

Careful not to expect the wrong thing

Where I will temper the enthusiasm right away is on the nature of the game. On paper, this prologue leans more toward objective-driven solo survival, holding out and pushing forward, than the big co-op blast-fest a la Left 4 Dead you might hope for. That is not a flaw in itself, but better to know it before firing it up with three friends on voice chat. We will see, controller in hand, whether the action has the punch and readability the genre demands, or whether we fall back into generic indie zombie fare.

The big upside is that it costs nothing to check. A free prologue is exactly the right format to form an opinion without risk. Our hope is a little new blood in a formula we love but have seen a thousand times. Our fear is one more zombie corridor with no ideas. We will call it after leaving a few shells behind, and tell you whether it is worth the detour or just the uninstall.