Demo Talk: Ground Zero — The Vibes Are Right, The Gameplay Not Quite
October 14, 2025
Resident Evil-inspired games are always a treat to play through. There’s a certain comfy feel to all of them — a familiarity born through a shared love for the classic franchise. Ground Zero, a game made by the small team at Malformation Games, wears its influences proudly, drawing heavily from the aesthetic and gameplay of the early Resident Evil titles.
Of course, Ground Zero adds its own spin to that old formula, but the game very clearly has a target audience. Adding tank controls to a game made in the year 2025 doesn’t happen on accident. Is nostalgia enough to sell a game like this? Honestly, yes, but I do think Ground Zero needs some extra polishing if it wants any praise for its unique design choices.
Ground Zero Is Perfectly Dark and Gritty
Survival horror games depend entirely on their atmosphere, and Ground Zero does not disappoint. From the get-go, you can really feel the strong ambience. The amusement park is exceptionally well-designed as an intro area, leaning heavily into the gritty aesthetic. The game’s graphics may be on the simpler side of things, but, even so, it manages to create tense environments. The art style is definitely nostalgia-bait, but it is used very effectively.
Ground Zero doesn’t exactly explore any wholly original ideas — at least, not in the demo — but it does everything that it needs to create a convincing world. The game builds off of the design structure of the original Resident Evil 3, and I can’t say that it’s worse off for that. The urban exploration is pretty cool, and it makes for some captivating sights. Even if Ground Zero leans heavily on familiar ideas, the level design is genuinely impressive. It’s easy to replicate a style. It’s hard to turn it into something new and engaging.
What Ground Zero Needs To Fix
Although I like the concept that Ground Zero goes for, it urgently needs some changes to the gameplay. The enemies are just a little too overwhelming, even on the Normal difficulty mode. Players shouldn’t be running out of ammo in games like this, but it’s really easy to do in Ground Zero.
It’s easy to put the full blame on the enemy design, but my only real gripe with that is the ease in which hordes form. Dealing with multiple enemies at the same time is just too much for games like this. The shooting controls require way too much precision to effectively and efficiently handle those situations.
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With how fast the enemies can get in the demo, being able to properly point and shoot isn’t realistic. If aiming was even just slightly more forgiving, that would go a long way in smoothing out the game’s rough balance. More ammo would be nice, too, but I understand the fear of potentially being too forgiving. At the end of the day, running away from every encounter just shouldn’t be encouraged. Ground Zero’s demo wastes its stellar atmosphere by indirectly rushing players past enemies.
