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Josh Ye

This article originally appeared on ABACUS
It’s a match-up that makes so much sense, between two of the biggest games around. And yet something about it isn't right.
Battle royale pioneer PUBG has a temporary crossover with the survival horror hit Resident Evil. In honor of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, PUBG Mobile is adding a mode where 15 teams of 4 fight to be the last team standing… while battling zombies from Resident Evil 2.
It’s an obvious publicity stunt for both games, but I dig the concept. After all, I get to blast zombies in a police uniform with a minigun, like that infamous shoulder-eyed boss monster -- all taking place inside the spooky Raccoon Police Department. And it’s free!

That’s not even including the other iconic Resident Evil monsters to battle, like lickers and the Tyrant. Who would say no to that, right?

But the truth is, while definitely entertaining, the zombies also take away many of the elements that make battle royale games fun in the first place.
How Fortnite and PUBG made battle royale the hottest trend in gaming    
While you’re fighting zombies, you’re distracted from the real objective of the game, which is to eliminate and outlast the other teams of humans. Sure, it’s fun to shoot (and sometimes even knife) zombies. But it’s almost like the zombie aspect of the game hijacks the core mechanics.

Look, the fun of PUBG, as the ultimate PvP game, lies in that you work with your teammates to find the best loot and the best locations to maximize your chances of being the last team standing. You have to meticulously map out your surroundings so you can defend effectively and attack enemies from unexpected angles.
But when you have hordes of zombies to constantly fend off, that feeling is lost.
That’s not to say it’s all bad, of course. Killing zombies is just fine. But that’s also the problem: We were so busy mowing down zombies that we forgot that this was supposed to be a battle royale game.
So yeah, I’m basically complaining that a zombie mode has too many zombies. That’s probably because killing these zombies doesn’t feel very rewarding; they’re slow and feel monotonous to kill.

That’s not to say the game isn’t challenging. Enemies respawn at a very fast rate, and we were overrun by zombies many times during our session -- especially at night, when more zombies appear than during the day.
But even then, being overwhelmed by a large amount of zombies didn’t really create any genuine edge-of-our-seat moments during the stream. Instead of being panicked and scared, we’d be more like: “oh, unlucky, maybe we shouldn’t venture into the woods at night.”

Still, I don’t mean to be too harsh. It’s a temporary event, it’s free, and for what it is it’s just fine. It gives PUBG Mobile a little something different should you get tired of shooting people and want to shoot some numbnut zombies instead.
And it’s something PUBG Mobile’s big competitor, Fortnite, already tried. They temporarily introduced Fortnitemares during Halloween last year, which actually ended up being more fun -- there were fewer zombies, but they were more powerful. But overall, it still felt a bit like a distraction from the main event.

If you want to learn more about PUBG Mobile’s zombie mode, check out our full stream here!


For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.



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PUBG Mobile’s Resident Evil crossover is a fun idea that doesn’t quite work

Bosses like this are tanky, but they drop more valuable loot than regular zombies when defeated. (Picture: Tencent)

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Blasting police zombies inside the Raccoon Police Department feels cathartic, but not very rewarding


Don't forget, we stream games on our Twitch channel three times a week (we're AbacusNews on there). This week, we took on a crossover between two of the biggest game franchises around: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Resident Evil. This mashup seems a like a no-brainer -- I mean, who doesn't like shooting zombies -- but as Josh discovered, it's not as satisfying as it should be.


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PUBG Mobile’s Resident Evil crossover is a fun idea that doesn’t quite work

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Blasting police zombies inside the Raccoon Police Department feels cathartic, but not very rewarding

Blasting police zombies inside the Raccoon Police Department feels cathartic, but not very rewarding