Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be the keeper of a zombie apocalypse zoo in a horror game? Then, welcome to Zoochosis. A crazy mix of animal care, weird monsters, and dark humor, Zoochosis promises horror-filled fun but, for some reason, delves into the bizarre more than anything else. So, I strapped on my virtual bodycam and dove in. Here’s what I think of this surreal game. Check out this Zoochosis Review: An Unsettling Bodycam Horror Simulation Experience.
What is Zoochosis?
Zoochosis is a first-person “horror simulation game through a zookeeper’s bodycam,” blending tasks with horror elements. You’re a first-day rookie zookeeper in a zoo that’s certainly not typical, and your job is feeding animals, taking their temperature, and doing your best to keep them calm while dealing with bizarre and terrifying events.
First Impressions
From the very first moment when this game starts, something does not seem quite right. The zoo is dirty, weird noises are happening, and no one seems to care that the human body is being transformed into some ground meat log. Yep, you read it right. But this is a palliative for you in the role of a character you are playing, and it only makes the creepiness even greater.
But when it gets creepy, the game dawdles for what feels like an eternity in getting scary. You’ll be busy for the first hour with mundane tasks such as petting a sick giraffe and feeding penguins. I spent too long moving between pens with animals, waiting for something scary to happen. Sure, there’s a body in a bag, but the absolute horror? It’s how long it takes for things to get scary.
Gameplay
Zoochosis leans very hard on the simulation element at first. You have animals to feed, administer vaccinations, and check temperatures. These tasks look like something you’d find in a typical animal-care simulator, not a horror game. There is an almost laughing-at quality to running around a junked-up zoo, forcing food into the toothy mouth-stomach of a kangaroo, and checking the health of penguins, with creepy noises building in the background.
At 50 minutes, the first fundamental horror element—at least, if you don’t count the body-bagged meat—comes on. You fight a facehugger-like monster, and then, seemingly right afterward, the game drops you back into your zookeeping tasks as if nothing happened.
The Atmosphere: Unsettling, But Fearing Nothing
While Zoochosis does a great job at creating unease, actual scares are, in every respect, something that it lags at. For a horror simulation with jumpscares, they’re sparse and far between, at least in the demo. I was frustrated with the pacing on this one. I know you can’t just start throwing terrifying zebra monsters at us from day one (although, as I was honest here, I wouldn’t have minded). But the first half of the demo was far too slow, mainly when I was ready for the zoo to “go psycho.”
And that is the centerpiece: the zoo is supposed to be messed with. The design, grimy details, and general atmosphere are all off, as if you were walking into a warped version of a place where you should feel happy and safe. But the game doesn’t entirely lean into horror fast enough for my tastes. There’s room for some freaky encounters (and trust me, you’ll want to avoid the zebra with teeth where they shouldn’t be), but it’s a slow burn.
Zoochosis Horror Elements: A Mixed Bag
Now, let’s talk about the monsters because this is meant to be a horror game. Zoochosis has some rather creatively disturbing creatures, from the unwell kangaroo with a mouth where its stomach should be to the Dark Souls-inspired hippo. What I didn’t meet many of, however, was what made me play the game in the first place: a few zombies amidst baby flamingos; maybe a bunch of undead males around black bears are just crazed males in their enclosure doing regular zoo tasks, which made it hard for the horrors to have any hold on me at times.
When the scares do come, they’re workable but brief. Then there’s the catch: after each jarring, frightening instance, you’re pulled back into the everyday world. After fighting some strange, claw-wielding creature, it’s back to feeding penguins or cleaning up after animals. The rhythm of alternating terror and normality ends up making the horror feel disjointed, and it isn’t easy to remain on edge when half the time you’re still acting like a normal zookeeper.
Simulation Mechanics: Interesting or Torturous?
Its most surreal aspect is the “simulation” part of Zoochosis. For one, there are very intricate details regarding zookeeper mechanics, such as weighing food, calculating portions, and performing animal health checks. Those kinds of activities are indeed interesting at first but might get extremely tedious throughout the game. How many times can you feed the penguins?
There’s just something wonderfully funny about making sure your zoo animals have been fed in the middle of trying to eat your face off.
Key Takeaways
- Pacing: Too slow for a horror game, spending too much time doing zookeeper tasks.
- Atmosphere: Genuinely unsettling, but not scary enough.
- Gameplay: Part quirky animal-care simulation, part scares.
Summary
Zoochosis is one of those games that takes a lot of work to get a hold of. It’s not mainly your run-of-the-mill horror experience- it’s too weird for that. It tries to bring on a creepy horror experience and mix it up with a quirky zoo simulator, and though it doesn’t get it right most of the time, at the very least, it’s one of the most exciting gaming experiences out there.
If horror is your kind of thing, and it’s always in your face, then you are in for a letdown with Zoochosis as it tends to be slower and takes lots and lots of time at animal-care responsibilities. However, if you enjoy surreal and bizarre experiences where horror slowly builds- maybe too slowly at times, you’re in for a treat. It is one of the weirdest games you will ever play, though not one of the scariest.
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