The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition – XBOX One Review
The Walking Vegetables….the title says a lot about this game with it being a play on the similarly named Zombie franchise only in this scenario the zombies are replaced with vegetables that have been brought to life by alien invaders.
The game takes the form of a twin stick shooter mixed with roguelike elements and gives of a huge retro 80’s vibe right down to the VHS scanline effects on screen along with the garish neon colour palette.
As you start your run through the game you will start with a police baton for close quarters combat and a pistol with infinite ammo but you will quickly get options to pick up other more powerful weapons or buy them from the shop once you find it on the map.
The weapons automatically reload so you don’t need to worry about timing reloads and ammo seems fairly generously spread throughout the level for some of the weapons.
The map is made up of individual tiles which equate to an area where you will clear out all of the vegetables and visit any locked buildings once you pick up enough keys.
T
here are additional bonuses available for purchase in the shop such as a guy who wants you to buy him a car which will then unlock fast travel.
Each area will have specific exit routes to the next area highlighted with big neon flashing arrows and you can choose your own route around the level.
You will pick up money from each of the vegetables you slaughter and can smash items in the environment for further rewards including the aforementioned keys, I found keys to be in fairly short supply and you will need them to open both the locked buildings and also any locked bonus chests or medical chests you discover.
This causes you to have to make a decision on how you prioritise their usage, use too many on chests and you won’t be able to get into some of the buildings.
The roguelike element comes into play as you die you are returned back to the police station at the beginning of the game and start your run over again.
You do get a spinning wheel game as you get visited by ‘The Ghosts of runs Past’ which will give you one of the items you picked up on your previous run which could be a much more powerful weapon etc.
The storyline is fairly comical and fits pretty well with the theme of the game and the graphical style also matches well with the retro theme albeit everything is fairly basic even by retro standards, the neon colours can be a bit garish at times but I think they do fit with the80’s vibe.
Overall the game is fun to play and entertaining but I don’t see there being a huge amount of longevity in it, some of the achievements are set up to entice you to play for longer and attempt more challenges at getting through the game but its just not quite enough to encourage me to stay long term
With thanks to Merge Games for the Review Code
Developer: Still Running
Publisher: Merge Games Ltd
Price: £10.74
Twitter: @StillRunningZKW / @MergeGamesLtd
