Due to being described as a retro style survival horror, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from Malformation Games’ debut release. While it definitely makes good on its promise to provide an experience recalling Capcom’s 32-bit era horrors – with a little bit of Silent Hill and Parasite Eve creeping in – it also far exceeded all pre-conceived expectations. This is a classically trained horror adventure that manages to feel considerably fresh, putting surprise and subtle twists on the formula, while also implementing a bunch of modern features.
The setting is a good place to start, taking us to a post-apocalyptic South Korea. Seo-Yeon and Evan – two highly trained operatives – arrive on the coastline, resulting in an opening sequence set within either a funfair or a rural fishing village, depending on the route chosen. From there, they head deeper into the city in search of valuable information relating to a meteor that has left the city of Busan in ruin. The impact led to earthquakes, sinkholes, and raging infernos, and now an orange mass is starting to terraform what’s left. This includes the remaining survivors in addition to the stray dog population, both of which have become reanimated shambling corpses with visible growths.
The locations all reflect the state of emergency, featuring unstable partly looted buildings covered in wreckage, and streets lined with countless abandoned vehicles. With the orange mass now absorbing its surroundings, Seo-Yeon is often forced to seek indirect access to key locations, using sewers, subway systems, back streets and more. While the voice acting is a marked improvement over what we had to endure thirty odd years ago – with Seo-Yeon alternating between English and Korean depending on whom she’s speaking to – text descriptions of environmental objects are rather plain outside of major set pieces such as museum exhibits.
Rather than using pre-rendered backdrops, Ground Zero is in full 3D while using fixed cameras to create tension, often by obscuring partly off-screen enemies. Visually, it’s somewhere between late SEGA Dreamcast and early PS2, recalling Code Veronica. Environments are lit using Seo-Yeon’s body-mounted torch, casting realistic shadows over the various wreckage and scenes of disaster. As the environments are generally larger than what we saw in the 32-bit era, the camera is quite twitchy at times, swapping positions in the blink of an eye. Navigation isn’t too tricky, though, with a choice of either modern or tank controls. Indeed, anyone familiar with the classics of yore will feel right at home with the controller setup, and that’s despite more than a few modern ideas being present.
Areas also have maps as default that helpfully highlight nearby items, thus preventing scouring high and low or missing something entirely. While an on-screen mini map would have been beneficial, this would have perhaps prevented this from feeling like a true survival horror.
The combat system is a lot deeper than what came before it, to the point of being reasonably nuanced. The pistol has a laser sight as default, allowing precise aiming via the analogue stick to perform critical hits. Not only this, but it’s also possible to block, parry and dodge – with parry attacks seeing Seo-Yeon retaliate with a roundhouse. Floored enemies can be executed, resulting in a brief and bloody animation. All of this ties into the ability to scan defeated enemies in return for credits. The better condition the corpse, the more credits are awarded – so it pays (quite literally) to use the knife as often as possible, while generally avoiding riddling enemies with bullets. Rather than stick to the usual assortment of firearms, there are over twenty to discover, and they can be later improved with a first-person-viewed scope and a silencer. While this does allow for a great deal of flexibility, it does result in a bit of bloat – while also making tracking ammo types tricky, as it isn’t always obvious which type is needed.
Every room is somewhat unique and memorable, each serving a purpose – even if it is merely to house a document and a couple of items. Progression usually boils down to finding a key item and using it in a specific area, or finding documents that contain either a code or puzzle solution that you’ll then need to piece together. Become stuck, and it’s likely you’ve overlooked something or somehow missed a room entirely, making the map more than invaluable.
Save rooms feature periodically, offering a chance to offload inventory. Continuing its innovations, to unlock a safe a basic maths equation must be solved. Alternatively, you can use an explosive but loose access to a bonus item. Inventory management plays a big part, with space limited. After factoring in a couple of weapons and ammo types, you’re only left with a few spaces for mission items. Helpfully, though, health serums can be loaded into an injector, freeing up space. The idea here is to load it with three serums of the same colour for a permanent health/stamina/immunity upgrade – another neat touch. Unwanted items (hello, flashbangs) can be sold for cash too, allowing you to stock up on ammo for a preferred weapon type. That said, amassing surplus ammo for certain weapons isn’t uncommon. This is a horror that wants you to kill and not just carefully skirt around anything shambling your way.
Ground Zero still feels appropriately demanding, forcing you to fend off enemies in good time or risk being harmed or infected, all while using the appropriate level of firepower. Most enemy types have the capacity to catch you off guard, making a frantic dash or attacking in pairs. While it has mission objectives, these are purposely vague, leading you to figure out the steps needed to progress. Around halfway a second choice of paths unlock, giving access to either a hospital or a police station. Both are sizeable, multi-floored, locations with multifaceted puzzles to solve – and there’s still another dozen or so locations to explore after this point, including a hotel and a museum. Such a lengthy experience is this that I started to feel a little burned out towards the end. Imagine playing two classic Resident Evils back-to-back, and you’ll get the gist.
A few pacing wobbles aside, Ground Zero can proudly stand tall against some of the genre’s greats, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a future cult classic. It showcases a very deep understanding of what makes the genre tick, while also bearing many surprises, an inviting setting, and thoughtful touches such as auto-saving. This extends further to numerous features intended to promote additional playthroughs, tallying the number of deaths and times saved, along with S ranks to gain in return for unlockable secrets – on top of bonus character skins paying homage to the classics. To see and unlock everything, you’re looking at a similar playtime to a contemporary Capcom horror, making this a decent value for money proposition. Looking and playing like a lost SEGA Dreamcast gem, genre fans shouldn’t hesitate to get in on the ground floor.
Malformation Games’ Ground Zero is out now on PS5, Xbox Series and PC. Published by Kwalee.