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Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
Be the Zombie. Kick A** and Take Brains. It’s 1959 and the city of Punchbowl, PA, is a beacon of progress and ideal living. Show the living that law and order are no match for a dead man on a mission!
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Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Because the truth is, Stubbs is a janky old Xbox The First game running on the Halo engine, meaning the first Halo, no numbers or titles after a colon. Just Halo. There have been a few updates and concessions to modern sensibilities, like Steam Play is enabled so you can play with a friend. Otherwise, it’s exactly as it was, for good and for ill. The vehicle physics is still janky. I frequently have no idea what I’m doing. But is it still a fucking blast to screw around ruining a shiny libertarian technoparadise by being fucking disgusting? Hell yeah, man.
Way back in 2005, a little OG Xbox game called Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse was introduced to the world, but didn’t really gather much attention at the time. It had a unique premise and was a game that I had fond memories of. Falling into obscurity, Stubbs the Zombie became a somewhat difficult game to find and play, one of the Xbox’s most desired collectors’ gems, but original developer/publisher Aspyr has finally brought it back to modern consoles, Switch included. Does ...
For those reasons and more, it continues to baffle me as to why Stubbs got this modern re-release. The story is fine, but clever narratives can only take a game so far. Nothing about this game feels like it belongs in 2021, whether it's the repetitive gameplay or the dated graphics. Like Stubbs' character in this specific story, this game should be approached as a curiosity and nothing more.
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse isn’t a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, but once the novelty of playing as a zombie has worn off, it’s rarely fun. It’s dated in just about every way imaginable, and while those who fondly remember it from many years ago might get a kick out of taking control of Stubbs once again, newcomers are probably just going to left wondering why his corpse has been reanimated once more. With some fresh ideas I’d like to encounter Stubbs again one day, but his original outing now just carries the stench of decay.
On this same note, the game can also be fairly easy, as Stubb's health regenerates from doing basic attacks. His accompanying zombie horde also helps him out, making enemies drop like flies and join their ranks in seconds. This can be curtailed a bit on the higher difficulties, but normal gameplay is a relative cakewalk. Beyond these problems, however, Stubbs the Zombie is a fun-filled reversal of survival horror games, combining addictive gameplay with hilarious twists on tropes and cliches....
We had a chance to play the classic, Stubbs The Zombie in Rebel Without a Cause, and here are our thoughts about it!