Being able to tame a zombie and turn it into your slave worker in a post-apocalyptic environment that doesn’t take itself so seriously. The initial reveal of Welcome to ParadiZe made it look like somewhat interesting and creative, in a time when zombie apocalypse games aren’t exactly the most exciting games to try to sell to an audience. Finding out it is a mixture of a hack ‘n slash RPG (not unlike Diablo) and a survival-ish base builder made it stand out from other games with similar premises. But interesting promises alone wouldn’t be enough. Is Welcome to ParadiZe indeed good, or is it just yet another forgettable zombie game to be added to the pile?

Well, it’s a bit of both, actually. The game is oddly light-hearted and cynical at the same time, being set in a post-apocalyptic setting where there’s no need to keep moping around anymore about the state of the world. Someone came up with a new technology that allows you to tame braindead zombies, effectively turning them into cheap, unquestionable labor, with some locales managing to make ends meet due to said technology. The world is far from perfect, and zombie hordes still attack you left and right, but it’s almost like nobody cares anymore. It is what it is. Let’s try to make ourselves laugh a bit while we’re still alive.

That’s the best aspect about Welcome to ParadiZe. It’s super campy. The voice acting is intentionally crappy and over the top, almost as if it came straight out of a telenovela. It doesn’t push graphical boundaries (it could have been released for previous generation consoles and nobody would have cares) but it has some wacky designs. The intro cutscene retains that whole Fallout-esque “making light-hearted jabs at corporativism”, which made me chuckle once or twice. But that’s just the game’s setting. How about the gameplay itself? How fun it is to tame zombies and create your own horde?

Well, you can’t. You can tame ONE zombie at a time. In essence, you can catch, train, evolve, and have one zombie sidekick with you throughout your journey, which makes things feel a lot less exciting. The reason for that is simple: Welcome to ParadiZe is encouraging you to play it co-operatively. Have three more friends with you, each with their own zombie, and have at it. Playing the game by yourself is actually quite boring, I’m not gonna lie. This is not only due to the disappointing limitations imposed on zombie taming, but also on the gameplay loop. And the level design, may I add.

If you remove the zombie taming from the equation, Welcome to ParadiZe is a straightforward, Diablo-ish hack and slash game. It’s… serviceable. Controls are simple (though I’d actually recommend playing with a controller because the mouse and keyboard bindings just don’t feel right), objectives are simplistic, map design is just average at best. The story has its moments, all thanks to the aforementioned humor, leading to the occasional absurdist setpiece. But to be honest, you’ve played that before. Countless times, in fact. You can train and customize your pet zombie, but at the end of the day, they will be more of an esquire that just follows you around. I expected more out of it.

Welcome to ParadiZe‘s premise sounded a lot cooler on paper than in practice. The sheer limitations on the zombie taming aspect made the game feel like a mere Diablo-ish clone, at best, with the only difference that you and your friends have four more brainded AI allies to help you out on your raids. It’s serviceable with friends, and really boring if you decide to play it by yourself. All in all, it’s not inherently bad, but far from good either. I’ve played better zombie games, and worse zombie games. I’ve played better and worse isometric looters. It’s got some really funny moments, but that’s basically it.

Graphics: 7.0 It doesn’t push any graphical boundaries. Some designs are wacky, but it’s not something you haven’t seen in countless other games released over the past decade or so.	Gameplay: 6.0 Sadly, the promise of being able to control zombies felt half-baked at best, as you can only “tame” one zombie at a time. Its AI is as braindead as an actual zombie, rendering it useless at times. Your own controls are quite Diablo-ish, but lack some extra polish.
Sound: 8.0 It’s all very campy and light-hearted, despite the violent premise. Voice acting is intentionally ridiculous, and the music sounds like The Reverend Horton Heat.	Fun Factor: 6.5 The idea sounded a lot cooler on paper than in practice. This is really boring by yourself, but if you can convince some friends to tag along, you (and your respective pet zombies) can have some fun.
Final Verdict: 6.5

Welcome to ParadiZe is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Welcome to ParadiZe was provided by the publisher.