ZMR: Zombies Monsters Robots Preview

The title tells you exactly where to point your gun.

ZMR: Zombies Monsters Robots began life as a Chinese MMO third-person shooter known as Mercenary Ops developed by Yingpei Games, a subsidiary studio of Epic that has developed assets for the Gears of War and Infinity Blade series, as its in-house game. Originally with more focus on the PvP part of the game, Mercenary Ops began to evolve from a standard PvE zombie horde mode to fantastical enemies and large-scale bosses, eventually evolving into a different game, a sequel, ZMR.

This doesn't mean that ZMR has let PvP fall by the wayside. After publisher En Masse Entertainment showed me the trailer of the free-to-play game, the developer showed how they expanded the gameplay with what looks like raucous mech battles in "Team MechMatch" in addition to traditional game modes. However, as the title implies, the focus is definitely on defeating hordes of zombies, monsters, and robots.

Jumping into the game, I got to see firsthand how one of these game modes might play out with a zombie level. I started with a flame turret that I placed in a chokepoint that burned most of the enemy wave to nothing but disappeared soon after it ran out of ammo. The twelve waves of zombie-types increased in difficulty, as you might expect, finally leading up to a chain-wielding boss—the Executioner with electricity powers. Luckily, the prominently displayed tesla coils on his back gave a clue to his one weakness: bullets!

Along the way, we activated a number of traps, like a giant spiked log that ran through a large room twice and an area that was covered in flames. Gameplay was fairly conventional third-person, though I found myself dive-rolling quite a bit to avoid the zombie horde as it closed around me. With levels becoming progressively more challenging, I found myself needing to be revived several times, using a "revive token" for which I was glad the devs had stocked for me so I could keep on playing.

Real money can be used to buy extra clips for weapons, cosmetic skins for the characters, turrets and revive tokens; as well as weapon rentals or outright purchases. Character upgrades can be had by using earned "bullets" which cannot be bought, and then used on a gun range where targets hide upgrades. Money can be spent to see what the target rewards are as well. 

An upcoming update expected after launch is Dinosaur Island, a level featuring dinosaur enemies with guns strapped to their backs. This joins enemies like sea monsters, a giant pharaoh, and the aforementioned robots. ZMR: Zombies, Monsters, and Robots releases on the PC in early Summer.