​Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: October 26, 2019

Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip, set between the two movies, serves as another reminder that well-made movie tie-in games are rare. This overpriced arcade-style twin-stick shooter features four-player local multiplayer, but the experience is shorter than the film itself. Even Abigail Breslin reprising her role as Little Rock can't salvage the thin narrative and bare-bones presentation.

Starting from Pacific Playland on the west coast, Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita, and Little Rock head east toward Washington D.C. The game features just ten story levels, each lasting 10-15 minutes, with no checkpoints. Five additional side missions unlock as you progress, offering shorter objectives like collecting snacks or exploring a school. Completing these unlocks new characters. The game excels at throwing hordes of zombies at you, feeling like an old-school mindless shooter, with melee weapons proving particularly useful.

Weapons are plentiful, hidden in car trunks, military caches, and grocery freezers. You'll find dual submachine guns, miniguns, katanas, and guitars. Without ammo drops, you'll constantly swap weapons throughout each level. Even melee weapons have limited uses, forcing you to rely on a slow-firing pistol when depleted. Hazardous objects and explosives can eliminate groups of zombies, along with grenades, Molotov cocktails, and land mines.

Killing zombies fills your special meter, with each character having unique abilities. Tallahassee spins with dual chainsaws, while Little Rock shoots faster and self-heals when activated. Once triggered, abilities can't be canceled, and you remain vulnerable - Tallahassee often takes damage while helplessly spinning.

Beyond basic zombies, the game incorporates evolved types from the sequel. You'll face Columbus's feared clowns, puking sorority members, ninjas (quick zombies in hoodies), and nearly indestructible T-800s. While the variety is welcome, you'll encounter hundreds of each type by the game's end. Zombies inexplicably nest in porta-potties and ambulances, spawning from oddly placed manhole covers in suburban lawns and store interiors.

The story missions are disappointingly simple, featuring mundane objectives like finding restrooms, collecting Twinkies, playing firefighter, and helping an old lady cross the street twice. The dialogue is skippable, with most voice actors mimicking their movie counterparts except for Abigail Breslin. As you kill zombies, you earn points to improve character stats across damage, ammo, health, speed, and special abilities.

Simply Put

Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip fails on multiple fronts. Charging $40 for a two-hour game with minimal presentation and basic gameplay is excessive. The reload animation is merely your character looking down, and the only death I experienced was due to a bug in the final mission that prevented shooting. Even the menus are poorly implemented - the boot screen displays vertically, and the main menu doesn't fit the screen. It's clearly a rushed tie-in capitalizing on the movie's release.