At QuakeCon 2005 id and Raven Software's upcoming blast fest Quake 4 stole the show but it didn't get all of the attention. Tucked away in NVIDIA's booth was a single PC running Aspyr and Wideload Games' Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, and while there was no more than eight people crowding around the machine at a single time, that number remained consistent throughout the entire show and for good reason. Highly addictive and unlike anything that anyone has ever seen, it allows us to finally put the proverbial shoe on the other foot and see things from an undead perspective. Detachable limbs, armies of freaks, and tons of brain matter. This one's got it all.

Stubbs is a 3D action adventure title where you play as former traveling salesman and currently undead monster Stubbs. The poor guy was just minding his business and resting in peace when super billionaire playboy to the stars Andrew Monday mows over his grave and erects the glamorous city of Punchbowl directly on top of it. Of course, and if the film Poltergeist taught us anything, Stubbs isn't partial to having lots of people walk over him and he's mighty pissed off, so much that he springs to life, rises from his grave (WWWWISE FROM YOUR GWAVE) and makes Punchbowl his own personal zombie stomping ground. The goal: to kill as many people as possible and bring Mr. Monday to his knees.

The demo at the show had a rather slow frame rate but the game was definitely playable. Taking place in a rather sparsely populated metropolis, the primary mission objective was to basically grab as many people as possible and convert them to zombies by any means necessary. The most popular way is to just grab the poor #$#@*$& and bite their heads (accomplished by either pressing Q or the left mouse button), releasing an exaggerated spray of blood and brain matter sailing through the air. It's fun stuff for sure, but it's not the only way to convert someone to the undead side. Zombie scratching (C or the right mouse button) is just as poisonous.

Maneuvering Mr. Stubbs using the WASD controls is fairly easy and he just shambles along but not fast enough to get a jump on the enemy. He's not a zombie of the 28 Days Later variety, so he's very prone to being attacked by baddies who keep their distance, though some of them are stupid enough to get in close. While the majority of the people I battled against were police officers and members of SWAT, there were some college punks (or maybe high school punks) wearing lettered jackets who had the audacity to attack Stubbs with baseball bats, and each time they tried I thwarted their evil schemes. When I wasn't digging my corroded nails into their soft flesh or cracking open their skulls like coconuts, I just tore off their arms and legs and bludgeoned their sorry @$$es with their own appendages. Seconds later, the corpses were reanimated and my new pals and I did the zombie boogie through the rest of the city.

It appears that the numbers game is a very important part of this title, especially since Stubbs can become overwhelmed in a hurry. Bullets never do a lot of damage, but it piles up (or whittles away, whichever you prefer) if you always have to make the uphill climb through gunfire. Therefore, it's best to bring some friends along, as in seven or eight. I'm not sure how many zombies the engine (the Halo engine, by the way) can display at one time, but even five or six is enough to divert the enemy's attention. The NPCs aren't stupid, so they won't focus on you when several other creatures attack them, which allows you to pick and choose your opponents without having to worry about clearing an entire area. Plus, if your smelly buds manage to take down an enemy NPC, that downed character will also become a zombie.

Another cool thing about zombie conversion is you needn't worry about spoiling your attacker. If you rip off his legs, punch off his head, or yank off an arm or two the body will still be able to become zombiefied. It may not be as affective without a bottom half, but on the flip side, headless corpses are just as good as ones that have all of their extremities.

In addition to using his teeth and claws Stubbs has some other nasty tricks including unholy flatulence (which is basically a super fart), gut grenades, and the ability to detach his hand and send it out to do his bidding Adams Family style. When this occurs the game transitions to the hand's point of view and you attack and subsequently possess people with it. As soon as its fingers dig into an NPC's skull he becomes yours to control, allowing you to make good use of whatever weapon he's holding. Since he's mortal he won't have as much resistance to gunfire as the zombies, but this action allows you to take down a few more bad guys without doing Stubbs any harm. However, it's a good idea to leave Stubbs in a safe place when you do this, since controlling the hand while he's in the middle of a gunfight will most likely get him killed.

It's good to see the Halo engine being used for something else but at this point in its development Rebel Without a Pulse is not nearly as attractive as Bungie's epic FPS. The character detail is fine, and the imagery is a delightful mix between modern day and Depression era styles, but Punchbowl is nothing more than a typical looking city but without traffic and pedestrians. There's also a grainy filter that's been applied to the game which causes it to look as faded as an old shirt, and while at first it appears that Stubbs can go anywhere, the developers have put up those familiar and still annoying after all these years invisible walls. However, the game still looks good, and since the demo was the total opposite of the vibrant and detailed screenshots that were released several months ago, the final product may look a lot different than the QuakeCon demo.

Thankfully, the demo's graphical shortcomings were overshadowed by its highly addictive and satisfyingly refreshing gameplay. There just isn't anything like this available on today's market, and with the glut of zombie films that have been released the past three years, I'm pretty sure that Stubbs the Zombie is going to be quite popular when it's released on October 17.