I have this weird connection with Five Nights at Freddy’s where, I don’t particularly like the games, find most of the lore overly complicated, and yet own all of the games in the franchise regardless through some strange sense of nostalgia. The reason I’m telling you this, is because it explains why I was interested in reviewing Undead’s Building at all. I saw screenshots with cameras, zombies, and survivors, and that was enough to intrigue me.
Undead’s Building revolves around two main mechanics. The cameras and the lift. The cameras allow you to see what’s going on throughout the building, and also allow you to zoom in for a closer look on specific floors if you so desire. This is practically useless in TV mode as you can see clearly without it, but pretty invaluable in handheld mode. The lift on the other hand lets you move up and down (duh) to allow survivors to climb aboard. It can hold a maximum of nine passengers before you have to drop them off at a safe floor. You can also open and close doors manually, but this is rarely necessary unless you want to shut the doors as fast as possible cause someone’s dying on another floor.
And that’s it. All you do is move the lift, let survivors in, and do your best to prioritise those in the most danger of being devoured. If you count them standing there while the zombies flail at them as being devoured anyway; the animations are a bit lacklustre to say the least. As are the sound effects which come down to dings for the lift and a few generic zombie noises or people screams. You’ll see the same character models for every survivor too, as there’s barely any variety. Not surprising as this game consists of all of seven stages. SEVEN.
I wouldn’t mind the shorter length if the game did anything even remotely more interesting with its concept. Why not include different zombie types that try to break into the lift if you stay on a floor? Why not include survivors of different builds that take up more space or need assistance from other survivors to reach the lift? Why not include weaponry brought in by survivors that can be deposited on other floors? These are ideas I came up with in five minutes and I doubt any of them would be too difficult to implement. Time-consuming maybe, but it’d make for a far less bland end product. Instead we’re left with a zombie game where all that changes is the number of floors and maybe a background or two.
Undead’s Building doesn’t even require that you play it. I’m not kidding. You can do nothing and you’ll come out of a level with a ‘D’ rank. That’s your punishment. Boohoo, no ‘S’ rank for you. This means the only incentive to play is if you care about getting the best rank you can… As a completionist I tried to see what it’s like if you care about saving these people. The results. Annoyance. Frustration. A bad time. Survivors and zombies seem to come in waves making it almost impossible to save everyone without precision timing and constant awareness of every single floor. Kinda hard when you can’t be in the cameras and control the lift simultaneously. The amount of times I’d reach a floor as a person died was ridiculous. And perfection is required to get the esteemed ‘S’ rank on a stage.
Basically, Undead’s Building is bad. Bland. Boring. Another word starting with ‘B.’ It has a “whopping” seven stages but there may as well be just one for all the difference it makes. Its concept is the best thing about it but it simply doesn’t do anything special to stand out or actually make the game worth playing. Much like the undead, Undead’s Building is lifeless, void of personality, and should be avoided at all costs.
A digital copy of Undead’s Building for Switch was provided by the developer.
