We both fell, the viewpoint hitting the ground at 90 degrees with a dull thud. Except the view then jerked downwards to a zombi grabbing my leg - which began clumsily grasping my waist as I kicked out at its mouth, panicking. The first-person perspective showed my hands gripping the rungs and movement upwards: relief. Surrounded by zombis, I dashed to a ladder under the instructions of a mysterious cockney.

The first time I died in ZombiU was during the tutorial. It's a game where you have to remain in total control of every encounter, or death follows. ZombiU's zombis are the classic shambler - slow-moving but relentless when roused, invulnerable to anything but headshots and invariably deadly up-close. Discounting the Day Z mod (which is quite distinct from this), it's been a long time since zombies have lived up to that idea.

The concept of ZombiU comes down to an overly familiar combination of words: survival horror. If it's not quite perfect then that's no terrible criticism, and whatever else, it is one hell of a launch title. No timid attempt at carving off a slice of the bloated zombie market, ZombiU takes a new path - one that cuts a swathe through the horde. ZombiU is a re-imagining of the very first game that Ubisoft ever published, and represents a back-to-basics approach of the best kind. ZombiU isn't just the Wii U's obligatory FPS launch title - it's an original twist on the genre with no exact equivalent on console.

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