Dead Nation

In spite of the moments where I lost my mind over a cheap death, I enjoyed Dead Nation. It's a thing of beauty to sit in a chokepoint and tear apart an army of zombies or watch a maxed out landmine go off several times and clear out dozens of roamers. Still, Dead Nation's missing that punch to really make it sing -- it has no personality and I never felt like I had to get back to playing it. The u...

Dead Nation adds a lot to the standard twin-stick shooting affair, with welcome dungeon crawler mechanics, co-op play and social features that are likely to attract a solid little community.

The game's dark, zombie-laden world is enhanced by an incredible lighting engine, but is hindered by a distant camera and an imprecise aiming mechanic. What's more, for as much tension as the game's sporadic checkpoints create, their limited nature concludes in frustration and repetition. Dead Nation's design choices make sense for the context, but they don't always result in an entertaining exper...