Palworld with zombies? Welcome to ParadiZe is a survival crafting game that lets you ride zombies

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SHOULD I PLAY WELCOME TO PARADIZE?

Try it if you’re clamoring for a new zombie-themed survival crafting game, but consider playing something like Project Zomboid or Dysmantle instead. Welcome to ParadiZe is the latest game from Eko Software, the developers behind the How to Survive series. It’s got some fun ideas and a playful sense of humor, but this is a crowded genre, and there are better, more interesting titles out there. Welcome to ParadiZe does let you ride on the back of a mind-controlled zombie, so it’s got a few things going for it, but there wasn’t enough there to draw me in. That said, if you really love these types of games, there’s a good chance you’ll have fun with this one.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played around five hours of Welcome to ParadiZe, most of which I’ve spent exploring or hacking and shooting my way through zombie hordes. Crafting and base-building are a pretty big part of the game, but fighting zombies has definitely been the main focus so far. I played Welcome to ParadiZe before release, so I haven’t had the chance to check out its co-op mode. This definitely seems like the kind of game that would be better with a few friends.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT WELCOME TO PARADIZE?

• Tutorials. Video game tutorials are typically tedious, but Welcome to ParadiZe goes out of its way to explain its mechanics in an entertaining way. Most tutorials are presented as comedic instructional videos, sort of like a long-lost Troy McClure bit from The Simpsons. Not only are they genuinely funny, but they provide essential information in a way that’s clear and easy to understand. I usually hate sitting through video game tutorials, so I appreciate that Welcome to ParadiZe found a way to turn them into a good time.

• Simple, intuitive controls. Welcome to ParadiZe has fun tutorials, but if you’ve played a survival crafting game before, you might not need to watch them at all. The menus are clean and well-organized, the control scheme is basic and easy to master, and there aren’t any in-game tasks that feel more complicated than they should be. It’s a breeze to pick up and play, which is a great quality to have in a co-op game.

• It’s not afraid to be ridiculous. Welcome to ParadiZe might be a zombie game, but it’s not gritty or self-serious at all. This is a game where you can slap mind control devices on zombies, equip them with saddles, and ride around on their back. There’s not a ton of story, but the story sequences and dialogue are all pretty funny. The humor won’t appeal to everyone—one of TapTap’s other editors, Ian, wasn’t a big fan—but the goofy, over-the-top writing definitely worked for me.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT WELCOME TO PARADIZE?

• The combat gets really repetitive. I like the simplicity of Welcome to ParadiZe’s controls, but I wish that its combat had a little more depth. Whether I was shooting at zombies or beating on them with a stick, all I was really doing was pressing the same button over and over again. There’s no aiming and not much dodging, and I didn’t get much feedback when I successfully killed a zombie either. I enjoy mindless hack-and-slash combat, but fighting zombies in Welcome to ParadiZe didn’t give me the dopamine surge I usually get from those kinds of games, and after a while, it started to feel pretty dull.

• Zombie AI is a little wonky. The ability to fight alongside a zombie is one of the most interesting things about Welcome to ParadiZE, but my zombie companions weren’t always the best battle partners. I was able to give my zombie specific commands, but the process was fairly slow, and my zombie usually managed to get into a fight before I could tell it what to do. Zombies also struggled to navigate their way around the terrain; my zombie companion was constantly getting stuck behind bushes or trees. You could argue that this is realistic—it’s not like zombies are known for their intelligence—but it got pretty annoying after awhile.

• It feels dated. Welcome to ParadiZE looks and feels like it could have been released ten years ago. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but Welcome to ParadiZE doesn’t tap into nostalgia or do anything exciting and new. It’s a fun enough game, but I already have a ton of titles like this in my Steam library. If a friend wanted me to play, I’d be happy to join them, but otherwise, I can’t see a scenario where I’d play this game over something else.

PLATFORM TESTED

PC via Steam.