Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse"

Infobox VG
title = Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse"


developer = Wideload Games
publisher = Aspyr Media
designer = Alexander Seropian
composer = Michael Salvatori
engine = "" engine
released = October 18, 2005 (Xbox US) November 21, 2005 (Xbox Europe, Mac/PC) May 19, 2008 (XBLM)
genre = Action
modes = Single player,
Co-op multiplayer (Xbox version only)
ratings = ESRB: Mature (17+)
BBFC: 15
platforms = Xbox, Mac OS X, Windows, Xbox 360 (as a downloadable title)
version = 1.02 Windows (2006-05-15)
1.01 Macintosh
media = DVD (1) CD-ROM (3)
requirements =
input =

"Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse"", or simply "Stubbs the Zombie", is a third-person zombie game developed by Wideload Games, published by Aspyr Media, and built on the Halo engine. The title is a play on "Rebel Without a Cause". It was released on October 18, 2005 for the Xbox, and was released for Windows and Mac OS X in November that same year. The game was released on February 10, 2006 in Europe. cite web
title =Wideload Press quote
work =Wideload.com
url =http://www.wideload.com/
accessdate=2006-09-05 ] Later, the Valve Corporation made the game available for purchase via Steam on May 17, 2007. cite web
title =Stubbs the Zombie invades stream
work = steampowered.com
url =http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=news&id=1041&cc=US
accessdate=2006-09-05 ] This title became available on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace as an Xbox Originals for 1200 pts. ($15USD) on May 19, 2008.cite journal
first =
last =
authorlink =
coauthors =
year =2008
month =May 19
title =Xbox Originals 'Stubbs' and 'Gauntlet' are now available
journal =
volume =
issue =
pages =
id =
url =http://majornelson.com/Default.aspx]

Concept and creation

Stubbs the Zombie was Wideload Games' first game after its foundation. The company's founder, Alex Seropian had previously co-founded and worked with Bungie and used the production as an experiment to determine how he would run an independent studio.cite web| url= http://www.gamespot.com/news/6146662.html| title=GDC 06: Dissecting a zombie| author=Brendan Sinclair| publisher=GameSpot| date=2006-03-25| accessdate=2008-08-08] The game's development began with a team of twelve, but Seropian decided to use contractors which raised the number to sixty. This decision brought difficulties when the hiring process wasn't properly overseen, leaving the team with a shortage of producers and lack of cohesion. A game development model was developed, with 12 full time employees overseeing pre and post production phases, while independent contractors worked with the remaining content. Using the "Halo" engine provided some problem in the early stages. The engine was completely developed by Bungie and it lacked notes from them or peer reviews that would emphasize possible programming problems. Due to this, an excessive amount of time was spent determining which contractors would require training to use the engine, as well as how long they would receive instruction.

From the onset, the game's concept intended to innovate the horror genre by letting the player play as a zombie. Seropian claims that the team intended to take "something that people are familiar" and turn "it upside down."cite web| url=http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3139355&did=1| title=Feature: Stubbs the Zombie| author=Matt Leone| pulisher=1up.com| date=2005-04-01| accessdate=2008-08-08] The game was intended to contrast with what was regarded as the general idea of zombie games, changing the "straightforward good guys versus zombies" format found in games like "Resident Evil". Humor became a key aspect during the developmental stage, with Seropian claiming that the team wanted to go "beyond just amusing dialogue in a cut-scene". Character dialougue and game mechanics were designed so that "funny results" are directly based on the player's action, preventing them from becoming repetitive or stale.

Plot

In 1933, Stubbs is a travelling salesman during the Great Depression trying to eke out a living. However, according to the game manual, Stubbs has had a string of bad luck since he was born, and was thereby unable to get people to buy what he was trying to sell them, life insurance. After making love to Maggie Monday, she became impregnated. Stubbs was then murdered by Maggie's father, Otis Monday, and was then buried in a remote Pennsylvania field. Maggie Monday later gave birth to Stubbs' son, naming him Andrew Monday. He would later become a playboy industrialist responsible for the creation of the city of Punchbowl.

The game takes place in the fictional city of Punchbowl, Pennsylvania at its opening ceremony in 1959. Stubbs rises from his grave and decides to get his revenge by eating the brains of the inhabitants of Punchbowl, thus creating his own army of the undead, creating increasing amounts of havoc as the undead clash with the various militant factions of the area. During the chaos, Stubbs kills Otis Monday by blowing up his house after a brief reunion. Shortly after this in a spoof of War movies Stubbs stands in front of an American flag hanging from a barn wall and gives a speech to his zombies. Though the speech consists only of the word "Brains" said in many tones with limited gestures his Zombies apparently understand him well enough to let loose a cheer of 'BRAINS" before shuffling away.

Stubbs eventually reunites with Maggie Monday and the two lovingly embrace, with Stubbs promptly eating her brain (whether she was willing or not is uncertain). Andrew tries to avenge his half-destroyed, zombie-infested city and his mother by killing Stubbs behind a force field. Stubbs, however, destroys the force field and looms toward Andrew, but Maggie, now a zombie, convinces him to spare him. It is implied that the two zombies declare themselves married to each other. The game ends with Stubbs and Maggie sailing off on a small rowboat, kissing as Andrew and all of Punchbowl are destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and they both "live" happily ever after.

etting

Punchbowl is a retro-futuristic city that resembles the future as portrayed by the media in 1950s. It includes hovercars, laser weaponry, a monorail, and robots, but ironically no computers. Punchbowl was envisioned and funded by Andrew Monday and created by his teams of scientists, led by former Nazi scientist Dr. Hermann Wye. The game begins when Stubbs rises from his burial site under a patch of grass in an urban area of the city. He appears during Punchbowl's opening ceremony, and is immediately greeted by a robotic, female, tour-guide called a guide-bot. Stubbs soon begins to wreak havoc on the citizens and police officers of Punchbowl, travelling to several locations in and around the city, such as the plaza, a futuristic greenhouse, a police station, Punchbowl's Shopping District, a mall, a farm outside of Punchbowl, and a large electric dam.

Stubbs' only apparent long-term goal (besides the destruction of Punchbowl) is to resume a romantic relationship with Mrs. Maggie Monday, Andrew Monday's mother. In his search of Mrs. Monday, Stubbs goes on to unwittingly uncover the cause of his death, and in the process of satisfying his bodily functions and cravings for brains manages to kill those responsible.

Gameplay

Stubbs gameplay is unusual because the player plays as a zombie, rather than a human, and the primary goal is therefore to kill and eat the brains of humans. Eating brains gives back a certain amount of lost health to the player as well as converting humans into zombies, causing them to fight alongside the player. The player also has the option of beating an enemy to death with melee strikes to transform them into zombies.

Stubbs' zombie state prevents him from wielding any conventional hand held weapons, and instead wields a variety of improvised weaponry and combat techniques, most of which are done using an specific body part as explosives or makeshift devices.

All of the aforementioned improvised weapons, excluding Stubbs' hand, have a chance of converting the humans they kill into zombies. Stubbs can herd zombies which are in range by whistling. Since there is a limit to how many zombies will follow him at a time, Stubbs can guide the rest by sending whole groups of zombies in a direction with a single shove. Zombies, both followers and wanderers alike, will attack other humans that they notice and will turn them into zombies as well if they eat their brains or beat them to death. An enemy that fires upon a zombie in a group will attract the attention of all the rest of the zombies, which makes the zombie-herding technique of shoving groups of wanderers useful in assaulting a dangerous gathering of enemies with a horde of zombies. Crowds of zombies serve as a great shield when approaching enemies armed with ranged weapons and are needed for sowing the necessary chaos and confusion into a difficult melee.

Stubbs can also drive a wide variety of vehicles, such as cars, tractors and tanks.

Reception

"Stubbs the Zombie" received a generally positive reception in North America, with IGN giving it 8.1 out of 10.0, GameSpot 7.8 out of ten and "GamePro" 3.5 out of 5. [cite web| url=http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox/games/reviews/49233.shtml| title=Review: Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse| author=Rice Burner| publisher="GamePro"| date=2005-10-18| accessdate=2008-08-07] However its reception in Europe was lukewarm, with "Eurogamer" giving it a score of 4/10, claiming that it has "lots of reasonable ideas that don't quite work" and "a general lack of cohesion". [cite web| url=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62257| title=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62257| title=Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without A Pulse| author=James Price| publisher="Eurogamer"| date=2005-12-23| accessdate=2008-08-07] Metacritic gave the XBOX version of the game a metascore of 75 from 55 reviews. The Windows PC version earned a metascore of 72 from 17 reviews.

The game's plot was perceived as "painfully short" and "linear", but "never boring".The game's enviroments were described as "nicely varied, and, artistically" noting that "places like Punchbowl, the city of the future, are extremely well designed and appropriately cool looking."cite web| url=http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/rebelwithoutapulse/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Breview&page=2| title=Reviews: Stubbs the Zombie| author=Jeff Gerstmann| publisher= GameSpot| date=2008-10-20| accessdate=2008-08-07] The game's soundtrack received predominantly positive reviews. The character's voice acting was described as the element that "set the game appart", to the point of claiming that "Never before have the sounds of zombie moaning been done so well in a game." IGN emphasized the "futile cries from civilians and armed foes" and "squishy, scalp-munching sound effects." as elements contributing to a higher quality that the game's visuals.cite web| url=http://xbox.ign.com/articles/660/660980p2.html| title=Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse| author=Charles Onyett| publisher=IGN| date=2005-10-24| accessdate=2008-08-07]

Stubbs the character is ranked second on "EGM"’s Top Ten Badass Undead. [Scott Sharkey, “EGM’s Top Ten Badass Undead: Thriller Night,” "Electronic Gaming Monthly" 233 (October 2008): 106.]

Cannibalism controversy

"Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse", along with "F.E.A.R.", encountered controversy in November 2005 regarding cannibalism in games.cite journal| first =| last =| authorlink =| coauthors =| year =2005| month =November 29 | title =Video game critics take aim at cannibalism| journal =MSNBC| volume =| issue =| pages =| id =| url =http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10257524/] NIMF's David Walsh and US Senator Joe Lieberman also criticized the game as "cannibalistic" and harmful to children underage. Senator Lieberman stated "It's just the worst kind of message to kids".

Wideload Games responded by saying: Cquote|The current kerfuffle in the US media about Stubbs the Zombie can be summed up in one word: semantics.

Stubbs, they say, is a cannibal.

This is nonsense, as anyone with a working knowledge of cannibals can tell you. Stubbs fails all the classic litmus tests for cannibalism. He does not wear a bone through his nose. He does not help FBI agents track down serial killers. He has not written a cookbook. He is not named Jeffrey Dahmer. The list goes on and on.

Stubbs is a "zombie". Thus the title "Stubbs the Zombie." Zombies eat brains. That's what they do. Stubbs cannot just saunter into the cafeteria and order a plate of Freedom Fries. He has to fight for his meals. In fact, actual cannibals only make it harder for Stubbs to eat, which is why this "cannibalism" story is insulting as well as injurious.

It's no surprise that the all-human media cartel resorts to distortions and name-calling; their anti-zombie bias has been evident for decades, and Stubbs is just the newest target.

If you're a thinking adult, you're probably ready to hear the other side of the story. You'll find it in Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, in stores now for Xbox, PC and Macintosh. Don't let the humanity-centric media tell you what to think about zombies. A free mind is a tasty mind. [cite web| url=http://www.wideload.com/cannibals.html| archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20051207022924/http://www.wideload.com/cannibals.html| title=Setting the Record Straight| publisher=Wideload Games| archivedate=2005-12-04| accessdate=2008-08-07]

oundtrack

"" contains twelve specially-commissioned covers of ’50s- and '60s-era songs (excluding the earlier written "If I only had a Brain" from "The Wizard of Oz") heard in the game, performed by Cake, The Dandy Warhols, Death Cab for Cutie, The Flaming Lips, Ben Kweller, The Raveonettes, Oranger, and others. The thirteenth track, "The Living Dead" by Phantom Planet, is the album's lone original song.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.livejournal.com/users/gamepolitics/146842.html Cannibalism story] at GamePolitics.com
*moby game|id=/stubbs-the-zombie-in-rebel-without-a-pulse|name="Stubbs the Zombie"
* [http://www.destructoid.com/stubbs-the-zombie-will-rise-from-the-grave-again-for-a-sequel-66694.phtml "Stubbs the Zombie sequel]