Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse"
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For the main character see, Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield
| Stubbs the Zombie in "Rebel Without a Pulse" | |
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| Developer(s) | Wideload Games |
| Publisher(s) | Aspyr Media |
| Engine | The Halo engine |
| Latest version | 1.02 Windows (2006-05-15) 1.01 Macintosh |
| Release date(s) | October 18, 2005 (Xbox US) November 21, 2005 (Xbox Europe, Mac/PC) |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Co-op multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (17+) BBFC: 15 |
| Platform(s) | Xbox, Mac OS X, Windows |
| Media | DVD (1) |
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. It was released on October 18, 2005 for the Xbox, and was released for Windows and Mac OS X in November that same year. Finally, the game was released on February 10, 2006 in Europe. [1]
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[edit] Story
The game takes place in the fictional city of Punchbowl, Pennsylvania at its opening ceremony in 1959. The main character, Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield, was an unsuccessful traveling salesman in his life and was murdered in 1933 during the Great Depression by Otis Monday after coming home to find "Stubbs" with his daughter Maggie Monday. Otis unloaded a musket round into his belly and "Stubbs" was carelessly buried under the site of what is now Punchbowl. Nine months later Maggie gave birth to Andrew Monday, who became the richest man in the world from creating Punchbowl.
[edit] Setting
Punchbowl is a retro-futuristic city that resembles what people in the 1950s envisioned the future to be like (including hovercars, laser weaponry, a monorail, and robots while the importance of computers is overlooked). 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, during Punchbowl's opening ceremony, and is immediately greeted by a robotic, female, tour-guide called a guide-bot, a recurring character. Stubbs soon begins to wreak havoc on the citizens and police officers of Punchbowl, later 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. 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.
[edit] 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 converts humans into zombies, causing them to fight alongside the player.
Stubbs' zombie state prevents him from wielding any conventional hand held weapons, and instead wields a variety of improvised weaponry and combat techniques:
- Severed arms - Used as improvised clubs. Procured by tearing them off of his human enemies.
- Unholy Flatulence - Stubbs' powerful farts. A useful byproduct from digesting brains that temporarily incapacitates his enemies within a small radius and damages those in a still smaller radius.
- Gut Grenade - Stubbs' pancreas (referred to as the "gut grenade" in the developer commentary and game manual) pulled out of his own abdomen that regrows from eating brains. Sticks to those it is thrown at and eventually explodes on its own, but can also be triggered to explode by Stubbs himself.
- Stubbs' hand - Stubbs' own detachable left hand. Used for scouting, operating controls and possessing individual humans (called possession in game manual). Humans possessed by Stubbs' hand have their weapons at Stubbs' disposal as well as an applicable secondary attack and are necessary for infiltration, operating stationary weapons, and driving vehicles. There are two modes a possessed individual can move, which are attack mode and nonchalant mode, and if nobody witnesses the individual getting possessed then no one will attack that possessed person unless it attacks or stops moving in a nonchalant mode, which is a much slower pace than the attack mode. Conversely, if the humans in the room don't yet know the character's possessed state, neither will the zombies, who will attack the possessed character until he dies or blows his cover. Stubbs is vulnerable while controlling someone else, and his hand can not possess those who wear protective helmets.
- Stubbs' head - Stubbs' own detached head. Referred to as his Sputum Head in game. Used in a manner akin to a bowling ball. Eventually explodes on its own, but can also be triggered to explode by Stubbs himself. Aside from the very powerful explosion, the head sprays sputum as it rolls, effectively converting whoever it rolls by into a zombie.
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 sewing the necessary chaos and confusion into a difficult melee.
Stubbs can also drive a wide variety of vehicles, such as cars, tractors and tanks.
[edit] Stubbs' enemies
Stubbs has a variety of enemies, most of which are hostile towards him. His enemies include:
- Civilians - Usually unarmed, and often unhostile, but males occasionally carry improvised weapons such as hammers, crowbars, shovels, axes and baseball bats.
- Scientists - When first encountered they are unarmed, later they are armed with rayguns or sonic pulse carbines.
- Police detectives - Armed with revolvers
- Police officers - Armed with revolvers and wrist mounted stun guns which double as police radios.
- Riot Police - Carry riot shields and wear helmets, and are armed with batons. Some also wear gas masks.
- Hillbillies (Militia) - Militia made up of light-weight old-timers, strong middle-agers, and enormous mountain men armed with muzzle loading muskets, double barreled shotguns, and chainsaws, respectively.
- Soldiers - Armed with M14 rifles, M3 Carbines with infrared scopes and M1 bazookas.
- Robots - Attack with stun guns if provoked. Unlike humans, they cannot be zombified, and will instead explode once they have taken enough damage.
- Barber Shop Security - Armed with the various ray guns commonly carried by scientists, along with large RPG-like rayguns. They are occasionally seen as wearing jetpacks.
[edit] Vehicles
The following Vehicles are usable by Stubbs in the course of the game.
- The Sod 'O Mobile - A Hover vehicle with mounted fertiliser cannon.
- Hover Truck - Used by Punchbowl Dam maintenance personnel.
- Tractor (AKA Impala) - A modified Tractor used by the Quaker State Irregulars which sports several large blades mounted on the front.
- Willys MB - Conventional US Army Jeep.
- M26 Pershing Tank - Conventional Tank used by Army Forces later in the game, Stubbs can use both the cannon and the turret machine gun.
[edit] 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. [2]
[edit] NIMF's David Walsh and Joe Lieberman's involvement
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". However, most people argue that the game's 'mature' rating indicates it is not intended for children, which could negate Lieberman's argument.
[edit] Wideload's response
The following is a response from Wideload, the game company who created Stubbs the Zombie regarding the "cannibalism" story:
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.
[edit] Soundtrack
Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack 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.
1. Ben Kweller – Lollipop
2. The Raveonettes – My Boyfriend’s Back
3. Death Cab for Cutie – Earth Angel
4. Rose Hill Drive – Shakin’ All Over
5. Cake – Strangers In The Night
6. The Walkmen – There Goes My Baby
7. Rogue Wave – Everyday
8. The Dandy Warhols – All I Have To Do Is Dream
9. Oranger – Mr. Sandman
10. The Flaming Lips – If I Only Had A Brain
11. Clem Snide – Tears On My Pillow
12. Milton Mapes – Lonesome Town
13. Phantom Planet – The Living Dead
[edit] Gallery
 Stubbs (on the right) with other converted zombies. |
 Game icon |
