Game EXP: Undead's Building (NS)

Disclaimer: I received a free pre-release copy of Undead's Building for the Nintendo Switch from developer Double Drive LLC for Indie Gamer Chick's #IndieSelect event this week.  The game was given without expectation or promise of a positive review, only that the game be talked along with sharing screenshots through varying social media channels.  All of the words and descriptions in this article unless otherwise noted are my own from my own personal experience playing this game.

I was not actually expecting to be writing a Game EXP article today for Double Drive, LLC's just released game for the Nintendo Switch, Undead's Building, but here we are, and I guess, here we go.

The premise of Undead's Building is that you play an unnamed and  unseen elevator operator in various buildings throughout one or many various cities, rescuing citizens from zombies as they frantically wait for the one elevator car in the building to pick them up and deliver them to safety.  Or at least that is what I thought the storyline was until I read on their eShop page, which is instead that people live for free in buildings infested by zombies and are trying to get to use the elevator before they are attacked and killed.  That is the basic point of the game.  

Undead's Building operates in that you are able to switch between cameras located at each floor of the elevator to see if people are waiting, then you direct the elevator to that floor and can either hold the doors closed, or open them and quickly close them before a zombie crawls inside; although while I was afraid of this happening, I never did experience it, although I guess I could see what the animation is like if I feel like being a horrible person.  Each stage is made up of a different building, which means that the floors buttons in the elevator are in a somewhat different order each time, and the number of floors can differ, as well as where the safety drop off point is; sometimes it is the first floor, while others it might be the roof or one of the basement floors.

So I am very efficient, have a good reputation, but I'm slow. Nothing new here.

At the end of each stage, the game ranks you based on your performance, which seems to accumulate throughout the game, but does not have any bearing on the game; or it least it did not have any perceptible effect on the game.  And I will let you know right now, that for the entirety of the game, my Speed rating did not make it past the the second hexagonal ring.  What You are also given a letter grade that is essentially a star rating, which also does not look to have any effect on being able to unlock levels.  In the one level, I purposefully played bad, earning a D (Bad. . .) rating, and was still able to progress to the next stage.

Are they all clones!? Is that why there are zombies!?

Probably one of the more amusing aspects of Undead's Building is that, or at least it seems that, each building reuses the same three character models for the residents you are rescuing, which can look rather silly when you have nine people in your crammed elevator and nearly half look identical.  This in no way detracts from the game, but it is something that is hard not to notice.  And at least each of the excited animations the characters make when they make it inside the elevator, and the frustrated animations while they are waiting outside the closed doors, are randomized so you do not get the same buff bro "wooping" every time you rescue them; the ungrateful swine.

I think the biggest critique I have of the game is how short it is.  The entire game is made up of only seven stages, with the first stage throwing you right into the game like you have been on the job for 16 years.  Had they included a tutorial level showing you how the elevator operated, perhaps before the zombie outbreak occurred, it might have helped to pad the game out.  But padding out a short game will definitely feel obvious and wasteful.  On the Nintendo Switch version specifically, there seems to be little replay value beyond trying to beat your previous score/grade.  Not to doot my own horn which I am going to do anyway, I never received lower than a B grade on any of the stages after my first playthrough (the aforementioned D rating was from a purposeful attempt); most of them I received an A grade and I assume that there is either an A+ or S grade if you manage to rescue all of the residents.  Perhaps in the PC, PlayStation, or Xbox version there are achievements related to grades, or being able to max out or reach a particular skill score?  But in the Switch version, when you beat a level (with at least a D?) you then unlock the next stage.  At the end of the seventh stage, there was nothing.  No notification about "Try to earn S rank!"  Nothing.  The game just takes you back to the stage selection screen to scroll through the only available seven stages.  Other than the inclusion of new and more floors and more residents to rescue, Stage 7 did not feel any different than a blown up Stage 1.  Had there been flickering lights, maybe a fire breaking out in the basement eliminating one of the drop/safe zones halfway through the level, something dynamic?

One final criticism, which might just be kind of nit-picky, is the description for Stage 6, which says that you will now have to be able to tell the difference between those needing rescuing and the zombies, implying pretty heavily that there will be some need for on the fly deducing of people hovering around the elevator.  At least for me, this was not the case and at times, I was only accidentally hitting the wrong button to close the door or switched back to the camera angle when I meant to open the door.  What it almost feels like is unfinished or un-realized plans for what Double Drive had for Undead's Building. 

Undead's Building is a short game.  Almost too short for the $5.99 price tag being asked (maybe not the current sale price of $4.79?), and I think the game length is what a lot of my critique boils down to.  I like the concept as it is a game that I have never played before in any capacity.  I have never played an Elevator Operator Simulator game unless you somehow count Elevator Action, and I have not played this combination of elements in a single game.  I do not want to give the wrong impression as I did have fun with Undead's Building, but the length of time required to beat it with D grade or better could easily be done in around 30 minutes (if you consider average 5 minutes per stage, but I did not time myself), the replayability is low (next to nil?), but it is still a great concept.  It might actually work as a party/drinking game now that I think about it. . .

JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental