World War Z's Waves of Lead update brings The Walking Dead to Extinction mode

Saber Interactive has released Waves of Lead, a free update for World War Z, on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. The developer announced the release on 5 October, a fortnight after teasing a 5 October date, and it leads with a crossover that the shooter has been circling for years.

The Walking Dead reaches Extinction mode

The headline addition is The Walking Dead Episode inside Extinction mode, the first time the zombie series has appeared in that part of the game. Alongside it come two new weapons, each with its own perks: the BSG-12, a tier-three bullpup shotgun, and the Gas Pipe Wrench, a heavy melee weapon.

Mutators, perks and a runic skin pack

Waves of Lead adds five mutators that can be switched on in private lobbies and Horde mode. Let them dance! makes regular zombies take more damage from leg shots and less everywhere else, Sharp shards gives device and heavy-weapon explosions a bleeding effect, Leaky backpack drains ammunition while a survivor is grabbed, and Paranoid's reserves lets equipment crates spawn booby-trapped. The fifth, All-in!, equalises the health of every survivor and zombie at one, hands out unlimited revives and halves the time it takes to get back into the fight.

Heavy weapons pick up new perks of their own, among them Last exhaust for the Chainsaw, Pillbox for the Machinegun, Cluster bombs for the MGL, Dragon breath shells for the Heavy Assault Shotgun, Two-layer bullet for the Payload Rifle and White phosphorus for the Multi-shot Rocket Launcher. Three custom portrait frames can be unlocked by finishing the Infector 100 times, restoring 1,000 health to allies, or disarming and finishing the Bomber 50 times, and the Valhalla Raider skin pack dresses five weapons in runic steel: the Geist 17MP, ARK-103, BSG-12, Paladin LMG and Taiga-12. Saber also used the update to fix a virus sample bonus that failed to award after Extinction runs, a doubled kill count when using the drone, and a flamethrower bug.

Our opinion

Waves of Lead is a service update doing exactly what a service update should. The Walking Dead inside Extinction mode is the headline, but the mutator list is the part that will keep people playing past the novelty, because mutators change how a fight is fought rather than how it looks. All-in! in particular is the sort of deliberately cruel modifier that turns a familiar Horde run into a different game.

The one thing missing is ambition in the presentation. A free update built around a licensed crossover, five mutators and a paid-looking skin pack is a solid month of content, but World War Z has been running on episodes and weapon packs for years now, and each one buys the game a little more time rather than a new direction. For a game this old, that may be exactly the point, but it is worth being clear-eyed about what this is.