Shooting zombies is good fun, but shooting, ramming and burning them with an afterburner in a super armoured vehicle, it takes good fun to a whole new level!

Release Date

October 2012.

Pros

Get cash, buy weapons, upgrade your cars and go on a zombie mowing spree. Good fun all round!

The graphics are very nice. The details are wonderful and there are a lot of destructible objects. You can see the the speed limit 50 sign fall to the ground. The explosions also look very good.

Story mode reminded me of Autoduel. Pick a vechicle appropriate to your mission, then drive around the city to complete your objectives. The map is large and you have to figure out how to get from place to place. There are ammo, cash and repair kits to be picked up too.

Blood race mode reminded of Death Rally, but with better graphics, sound, music and variety. The vehicle upgrade feature is not as comprehensive as Death Rally, but I still find Zombie Driver HD more fun all round.

The night time drives are very dark and your headlights only illuminate so much. Objects also cast shadows which blocks what is behind them. Explosions and fire also do not light up the area much. Overall it makes for a more challenging, but also interesting drive through zombie infested grounds.

In story mode you get to drive a tank! Tank plus beautiful explosions plus zombies equals a pro point. You cannot pick the tank for the other game modes or to replay a mission, but it is better than nothing.

Other than the tank there is also a bulldozer in story mode plus nine vehicles to choose from. Except for the taxi, the rest must be unlocked first. There are also three extra vehicles avaiable with DLC packs. If you do get these DLC vehicles they are avaiable in all modes right from the start. Each vehicle handles differently and does make a difference when driving in different missions or events.

Cons

There is no manual. The only way to find out the keys to play is through the keyboard configuration in the game. There are hints and tips on the load screens, but they load too quickly for me to read them. It would have been better if there was a separate manual.

If you are playing with keyboard, the keys are not configurable. For me this is a problem as the arrow keys cause key jams. The alternative is to use the WASD keys for driving or use a gamepad.

Other Points

Slaughter mode is the Zombie Shooter survival mode, but in a car at a closed in location.

There are four camera types to choose from, of which only two I can play properly with.

The Logitech G35 software says Zombie Driver HD does output surround sound, but it sounds like normal stereo to me.

In blood race mode there are three event types. There is the normal race, but with guns of course. There is the eliminator event where you try to destroy as many cars as possible. Finally, endurance mode pits you against a ticking time bomb where you have to cross check points to increase the time.

There are four weapons available plus the afterburner. They are good fun, but more would have been better. Besides the weapons there is also the good old fashion ram-them-with-the-car technique.

In story mode, there is no saving while on a mission and the game is automatically saved when the mission is completed successfuly. You can also replay completed missions for fun or to complete any secondary objectives you may have failed. Note that you do not receive any rewards for secondary objectives if you replay a mission. So, if you want the reward, you must complete the secondary objective when playing in “continue story”.

The story is much better than Zombie Shooter, but do not expect S.T.A.L.K.E.R. material. Although most of the story is OK, it does end very poorly in my opinion. I felt the ending really spoilt the built up plot in the game. The story progression is presented as briefings and in-game audio dialogue.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.5.23-22476 of the game with all the DLCs.

I really enjoyed Autoduel.

I liked Death Rally, but do not play it anymore. Zombie Driver HD makes a good replacement for it.

I also really enjoyed MicroMachines V3.

I have completed the story mode and also played a lot of blood race and slaughter modes.

DRM

Steam.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on Steam)

OS: Windows 8/7/Vista/XP
Processor: 1.5 GHz dual core processor
Memory: 1 GB
Graphics: 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible or better video card with pixelshader 3.0
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
Hard Drive: 2 GB
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Keyboard or Thrustmaster Firestorm Digital 3 gamepad.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

If you are on an attack mission, make sure you buy at least one weapon upgrade. If not, you might be driving around without any ammo to pick up. I got stuck on mission seven because I did not buy any weapon upgrades. I thought it was a bug that there were no ammo spawning on the map. During testing, I bought some weapon upgrades and ammo started spawning.