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Zombi will have more melee weapons, but cuts multiplayer

Ubisoft details changes made in transition from Wii U.

Ubisoft has detailed some of the changes it's made to Zombi, its recently announced rendition of ZombiU for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

The nail bat hits harder than the cricket paddle.

As detailed on the Ubiblog, one of the most notably differences is that there will be more melee weapons. While ZombiU limited players to a cricket bat, Zombi will feature two additional short-range implements: a shovel and a nail bat. The former has a longer range and can hit multiple foes in a single swing. The latter can also do that, plus it deals additional damage and increases your chances of a critical hit.

The flashlight will also be altered as it will now feature the option to switch to a further-reaching beam at the expense of battery life. It will also take a full 30 seconds to recharge should it run out of juice.

Other changes include shifting the mini-map, which used to be on the GamePad screen, to a corner of the main screen. Going through one's inventory will now occur on the TV as well, and like the original, it won't pause the game. To account for this, you'll still be able to see zombies shuffling into view along the sides of the screen.

"We kept the central idea that you're always vulnerable," said Zombi producer Hélène Henry. "Rummaging in the backpack still doesn't pause the game. We've added a dedicated button to access the backpack, which lets players see their full inventory and assign shortcut keys."

The one major feature Zombi cut in its transition to other platforms is ZombiU's local multiplayer mode. This PvP mode allowed one player to spawn zombies on the touchscreen while another player with a Classic Controller would fend them off. "We decided to focus on the solo mode, as we believe this is where the ZombiU experience really lay," Henry explained.

She added that Zombi would contain "small technical improvements" over its source material with faster load times and minor tweaks to the controls. "A lot of time was spent getting the controls mapped as intuitively as possible, to keep the original atmosphere," Henry noted.

Zombi will launch on 18th August for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

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