“When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth” is a quote from George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” that establishes a chilling “Us vs. Them” situation that becomes gradually unbalanced until there’s barely an “Us” left. Where zombie games like “Left 4 Dead 2” are for players that enjoy killing zombies, “No More Room in Hell” distinguishes itself for creating fun in surviving them.
“No More Room in Hell” lacks a narrative, but the gameplay compensates for it. This game takes an eerie approach to zombie shooters by being realistic.
That said, zombies are dangerous and everywhere—they’re out in the street, flooding buildings, and have made the country their own. Their haunting animations and agonizing groans make them lifelike. A majority of the zombies are shamblers that walk slowly, but “No More Room in Hell” realistically bends the overdone trope of special zombies: runners sprint for their prey, infected soldiers take more of a beating and drop supplies, crawlers can sneak up on players, and infected children are fast and attack even faster.
While zombies claw and grab, you don’t want to get bitten. In that case, without suppressing the infection with pills or immunizing yourself with a gene therapy, your character will die and resurrect as a runner if someone doesn’t put you down.
You can prevent your gruesome death by remembering the Golden Rule of zombie cinema: to kill a zombie, attack the brain. “No More Room in Hell” has a lot of weapons to accomplish that but with a few drawbacks.
Guns are powerful and loud, helping you feel the weight of shots fired. However, ammo is scarce, finding the type you need is difficult, and any misfire might waste a round that could have saved you later. Successfully shooting zombies grants more relief than adrenaline.
“No More Room in Hell” also includes a plethora of melee weapons for when zombies get too personal. Melee combat is reminiscent of scenes in AMC’s “The Walking Dead” when characters pick off individual zombies with knives and other weapons. It’s necessary to rotate between light and charged attacks and know when to shove since activity decreases stamina.
Throwables are rare but clear paths immediately. Grenades and TNT can blow up groups, but Molotovs set a fire with the downside of flaming zombies becoming runners until they die.
The game is more difficult thanks to “No More Room in Hell” removing popular assists seen in other games. What you’ll immediately notice is that there’s no HUD. If you’re lost, press “C” to use your compass. Your health is reflected by your vision’s darkness, and you only see your gun’s ammo by manually checking the magazine. It’s also not guaranteed that every gun you obtain is loaded, and every item in your inventory decreases your stamina. The worst part is there’s one respawn point per round on classic difficulty.
Nevertheless, you must face the horde if you want to live through both the Objective and Survival game modes.
Objective maps force you through long stretches with obstructions to overcome so you can escape. Some tasks are simple: unlock a padlock, extinguish a fire, or pull a lever. Others require full attention, like lugging propane tanks to destroy a bulkhead or pushing cars out of your escape vehicle’s path. Map layouts and tasks are also potentially different per round.
The mix of tight corridors and open spaces is scary given the number of corpses ready to skin you alive. Take “Cleopas,” for example; you begin by clearing zombies from the back alley of a Liverpool neighborhood, crossing the streets, using a grocery store’s radio, and finally pushing through a crowd around the gate to the helipad outside.
On the contrary, Survival places you between resource-filled structures and orders you to earn extraction by preventing specific zones from being overrun by the undead. Progress is made by killing an increasing number of zombies across an average of 10 waves, but you lose if all zones are overrun. That means act accordingly: pool resources, defend zones, and repair zone conditions with FEMA bags.
Survival maps have no alternate layouts, but they are well-designed, like how slums in “Favela” offer safe rooftops for sniper support, or how “Camp Blood” is set in a dark, foggy campground inspired by “Friday the 13th.”
Some are harder than others. Letting zone A in “Laundry” get overrun results in an immediate loss while zone B must be maintained for supply drops.
Getting extracted can also be a hassle. The rescue in “Drugstore” may catch you off guard because of how early it arrives, and you might get abandoned in “Silence” if you don’t hurry and complete a mini objective involving blowing up a cemetery wall to get to the truck.
“No More Room in Hell” is better in multiplayer since the game is difficult. More eyes watching your back is always helpful so yours stay in your skull. For some, that may seem like a drawback if they want to play solo. Completing a game solo isn’t impossible, but it feels that way.
It’s also highly recommended that you play on official servers or create your own. Most of the online servers are modded in ways that squander the fun of triumphing while weak and outnumbered. For the intended authentic horror experience, play the game vanilla.
There is nothing as frantically gratifying as “No More Room in Hell.” It didn’t pioneer realism in the zombie-shooter genre, but it’s a shining example of it. It’s also very rare to find a zombie game that’s genuinely scary, and the game scratches that itch. “No More Room in Hell” is free on Steam, so experience the chills of the apocalypse before its sequel arrives in late Oct. 2024.