PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night Mode Is the Worst Way to Play PUBG Mobile

Since its launch, PUBG Mobile has never been short of ways to entertain its player base. From new maps like Vikendi to cooperative experiences like PUBG Mobile Zombies mode — or Zombies: Survive Till Dawn as it's officially known — Tencent has always ensured there's a reason to keep coming back. It plans to do the same with the PUBG Mobile 0.12 update that brings a new game mode, Zombie: Darkest Night, and is set to be released on April 17. But if our impressions of Zombie: Darkest Night are any indication, this is one mode you should avoid. We played PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night in the game's 0.12 beta on a Samsung Galaxy S9. Here's what you need to know.

PUBG Mobile 0.12 update's Zombie: Darkest Night mode

The set up for PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night is simple. You have to survive hordes of the undead as well as stay away from toxic gas. All of the action takes place across the cramped confines of a section of the Erangel map and is limited to 32 players in addition to zombies aplenty.

You don't drop into the map as you would in a normal round of PUBG Mobile or PUBG Mobile Zombies mode. Instead, you and three squad mates find yourselves amidst zombie corpses and crashed vehicles. There's a short countdown period after which, you'll have to make a run for the buildings around you in a mad rush to acquire whatever gear and guns you can find before zombies or toxic gas or other human opponents can kill you.

In theory this should make for tense encounters not too dissimilar to Resident Evil 2. However, the end result is anything but. For most of PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night, you'll find yourself indoors as it doesn't take too long for the toxic gas to kill you.

In addition to this, zombies spawn almost anywhere. From appearing out of nowhere right behind you on the first floor of a building to rising from the ground in front of you, they attack in numbers.

If you don't have the right guns (usually shotguns), it makes it incredibly tough to survive them swarming you. There's absolutely no room to manoeuvre. You can't jump out of a window to escape them due to the aforementioned toxic gas, and you don't have enough ammo to deal with all of the zombies in your general vicinity. Even with a full squad, the sheer number of zombies make it tough to survive as we discovered in our numerous matches.

All of this makes each round PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night an annoying experience. You'll essentially scrounge as much gear as you can find in the initial few minutes and assuming you aren't gunned down by other players or killed by zombies, you'll hide in a building shooting every monster that makes its way to you hoping you have enough ammo or that zombies drop enough to help you get by.

It doesn't feel as dynamic or fun as normal PUBG Mobile or the excellent Zombies: Survive Till Dawn because you're basically pigeonholed into a small area, reducing the game into a mere shooting gallery.

All of this is made worse by the fact that PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night mode's design highlights some of the game's biggest flaws such as the 'door bug' wherein doors just don't open as they should regardless of your smartphone, Internet connection, or ping.

The door bug is a pain in regular game modes but with the intensity of PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night that has you running indoors as fast as you can, it's magnified to the point wherein you rather play any other mode but this. It's simply not fun and quite possibly the worst way to play PUBG Mobile.

Granted some of these issues may be rectified when the PUBG Mobile update 0.12 is out this week, but given Tencent's track record, this is unlikely. While the PUBG Mobile update 0.12 brings a host of welcome features like Spectator Mode, Crosshair Modifications, and new weapons, our time with PUBG Mobile Zombie: Darkest Night suggests this isn't one of them.

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