Diehard GameFAN: Undead Knights Review (PSP)

Undead Knights is a fun, if basic, PSP title that cross-breeds the hack-and-slash action of Dynasty Warriors with a dumbed-down version of Overlord's troop management to good benefit, though it often feels like it had the potential to be more than it actually is. The story is serious enough to keep you interested and cheesy enough to keep you amused, the visuals are mostly good and the audio is generally fantastic. The game is easy to learn and play, and hacking through enemies is both satisfying and enjoyable. The zombie making mechanic is simple enough to understand and can often mean the difference between success and death, and there are some interesting applications for your zombies that make them more than just disposable soldiers. Between the ability to upgrade your characters, the option to revisit stages and play through them on multiple difficulty levels, and some interesting multiplayer modes, there's a lot to see and do with the game if it tickles your fancy. However, the zombie concept often feels basic and unrealized, between the lack of significant zombie variety and the lack of anything but basic actions for them to perform. Further, the game can become repetitive if you're not a fan of hacking apart everything you see over and over, and the multiplayer modes, though amusing, aren't as exciting or interesting as they could have been. Undead Knights is fun and enjoyable, especially if you like rending faceless troops asunder, and there's enough to the game to make it worth a look if you're on the fence, but anyone who's sick of Dynasty Warriors and its ilk won't find enough here to keep the game interesting, as the game simply doesn't do enough to be anything more than a violent hack-and-slash game with zombies in it, albeit an enjoyable one. -