Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Trending
  • Gamescom 2025 schedule
  • Gamescom
  • Battlefield 6
  • New Games for 2025
Don't miss these
The best zombie games
Action Games The 10 best zombie games that will munch your brain
CrisisX
Open World Games CrisisX is a zombie survival-crafting game with serious PvP chops and an eye for immersion – and it just shot to the top of my wishlist
Quarantine Zone: The Last Check
Simulation Games The zombie apocalypse simulator where you're a Last of Us-style fed deciding who gets to live in the quarantine zone hits 1 million wishlists as indie powerhouse Devolver Digital signs on as publisher
Dying Light: The Beast image showing a messed up zombie crawling towards the camera with the GR+ horror special badge
Survival Horror Games Dying Light: The Beast's open world is "a secret mystery box" where "very f*cked up things" happen, but I'm most intrigued by the Stranger Things vibes
Hell is Us in Future Games Show
Adventure Games Upcoming dark action-adventure game Hell is Us is channeling "old Zelda games" by giving you "just enough to know where to go but not too much"
Town of Zoz
Action Games There's something nasty lurking in deceptively cute foody hack-and-slash Town of Zoz, and suddenly my appetite has disappeared
Ground Zero in Future Games Show
Survival Horror Games If you’re after a retro Resident Evil fix, upcoming survival horror game Ground Zero will scratch that terrifying itch
Fallout: New Vegas
Games I'm going back to the five best post-apocalyptic games I ever played, thanks to Death Stranding 2 giving me a taste for the terrible
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
Horror Movies Hideo Kojima shares the summer blockbuster he's most excited to see
After Inc
City Builder Games My favorite Steam Next Fest city-builder so far is a chill sequel to Plague Inc, but I still ended up feeding dogs to my citizens
Kyle Crane looks out at the horizon in Dying Light: The Beast with the GR+ Horror Special badge
Survival Horror Games Dying Light: The Beast is more than a homecoming for Kyle Crane – "For us, this is Dying Light 3"
Toxic Commando screenshot with GamesRadar+ Autumn Preview 2025 frame
FPS Games Left 4 Dead has held the horde shooter crown for 17 years, but John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is the best challenger yet
A zombie jumping at a player during the upcoming game, Dying Light: The Beast.
Survival Horror Games Dying Light: The Beast director says he's "a little bit surprised" that more studios haven't followed Techland's "go anywhere" approach to open-world game design
Kyle Crane looks through a pair of binoculars in Dying Light: The Beast, with the GR+ Horror Special badge
Survival Horror Games "Our fans would kill us": Dying Light: The Beast director outlines Techland's "areas of perfection" that "we cannot mess up to any extent"
Infected swarm the player in a swamp in Dying Light: The Beast, with one leaping arms outstretched, with the GamesRadar+ Horror Special Big Preview badge
Open World Games I live and breathe survival horror, so here's my ultimate Dying Light beginner's guide if you're starting with The Beast
  1. Games
  2. Action

ZombiU - 10 zombified London settings we want to see on the Wii U

Features
By Matt Bradford published 18 June 2012

A tourist wishlist for London's zombie apocalypse

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

ZombiU's London setting may be old hat to our UK readers, but for us ill-travelled westerners it's an opportunity to slaughter hordes of the undead in a city we rarely get to see outside of BBC docs and episodes of Sherlock. Truly, from a tourist perspective, Ubisoft's overseas destination is a breath of fresh (infected) air as it combines the allure of a history-rich city with the universal joy of becoming an ass-kicking zombie slayer.

So what do we want to see on our post-apocalyptic romp through London? Funny you should ask. From graveyards to galleries, and chambers of terror to the The Beatles old stomping grounds, we've stitched together a wish-list of ZombiU locations, beginning with a few we've already confirmed...

Page 1 of 15
Page 1 of 15
Going Underground

Going Underground

ZombiU's debut trailer favored artsy slo-mo over actual substance, but it and Ubisoft's E3 gameplay demo managed to drop a few clues as to which parts of London will be hostile to the living. For instance, London's vast Underground network looks like it will play a critical role in getting around the survival-horror shooter. Comprised of over 400 kilometers of tracks, the London Underground represents the second largest below-ground transportation system of its kind in the world (the first being China's Shanghai Metro). This makes it perfect for dimly lit chases, claustrophobic subway car fights, and as we glimpsed in the E3 gameplay demo plenty of those tense, door hacking sequences.

Still, while it's good to see the London Underground get its due, it would be a letdown to spend all of our trip below street level. That's why we were also happy to see other, more recognizable London landmarks making the cut final cut...

Page 2 of 15
Page 2 of 15
Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

ZombiU's CGI trailer also stars an unfortunate schmuck driving headlong off the Tower Bridge with a zombie as his hood ornament. Using our own Sherlockian powers of deduction, this suggests the iconic bridge will at least play a supporting role. Whether it's a frantic dash across the river, or a precarious climb to the peak of its supports, we envision the Tower Bridge serving as a memorable detour on the road between zombie point A and apocalypse point B.

Page 3 of 15
Page 3 of 15
Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

The most noticeable London setting in ZombiU's trailers was the one and only Buckingham Palace; the headquarters for UK's royal family and, apparently, a trendy hangout for London's zombie scene. The snippets of gameplay footage we saw took place outside of Buckingham Palace's gates, so we're hoping the home of the British monarch appears as more than a fancy backdrop.

These are the places we know so far, but we're sure ZombiU has much greater ambitions. At least, we hope it does. So where else will Ubisoft's overseas zombie game take us? We're not entirely sure, but we have a few suggestions...

Page 4 of 15
Page 4 of 15
Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery

Short of a Zombie factory or a Jolly Ole Zombie Farm, we can't think of any location better suited for ZombiU than one of the city's most notorious graveyards. Home to over 170,000 former residents (aka potential targets), Highgate Cemetery spans 37 acres of land and is bursting at the seams with gravesites, tombs, and gothic vaults. Upping the creepiness factor is the fact that mother nature has been left to run amok throughout much of the grounds, transforming large chunks of the cemetery into something out of a Victorian horror novel.

The opportunities for exploration and crap-your-pants encounters are ripe in Highgate Cemetery. So too are the opportunities for famous cameos from deceased residents including communist leader Karl Marx, author Douglas Adams, and famed physicist Michael Faraday. And if those historic personas don't whet your chainsaw-gun, Highgate Cemetery is also rumored to be plagued by the Highgate Vampire. Thankfully, we're told he doesn't sparkle.

Page 5 of 15
Page 5 of 15
Tower of London

Tower of London

Ok, we lied. We can think of one more London location perfectly suited for zombie antics. In fact, we're pretty sure Ubisoft's ancestors built the Tower of London with ZombiU in mind. Lets rundown a checklist of horror-friendly features, shall we? A history of brutal violence and torture? Check. A former life as one of the UK's most oppressive and horrific prisons? Check. Reported haunting grounds for Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Pole? Check, check, and sorry about that last name.

As one of the city's most historic landmarks, the Tower of London is a no-brainer for ZombiU. Its current incarnation as a modern military facility would also give Ubisoft the wherewithall to jam in all the security camera wrangling and door decoding it wants while taking advantage of its foreboding atmosphere and gothic architecture to create some truly unsettling moments.

Page 6 of 15
Page 6 of 15
London Eye

London Eye

Measuring 443 feet in height and 394 feet in diameter, the London Eye aka the Millennium Wheel is one of the most popular paid tourist attraction in the UK. It was also once named the tallest of its kind in the world, before some jerks had to go build a bigger one called the Singapore Flyer in you guessed it Singapore. Frankly, we could care less about the stats; we just want to roundhouse kick zombies off some of the tallest structures London has to offer, and the London Eye is custom made for such kick-foolery.

We imagine Ubisoft could have some fun with this particular tourist trap, scripting an entire sequence around a ride that would see players balancing themselves on a capsule with the Gamepad while laying a beatdown on rotting hitchhikers. We also wouldn't mind a chance to take a virtual spin on the London Eye for a brief respite from the action, and as a chance to map out our escape route from a whole new perspective.

Page 7 of 15
Page 7 of 15
Abbey Road / The Cavern Club

Abbey Road / The Cavern Club

The Fab four. The Mop Tops. Those groovy white dudes that had their own Rock Band game. Whatever you call them, the Beatles are the UK's most valuable musical exports and rightly deserving of a cameo in ZombiU. Considering Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still members of the living it would a touch inaccurate to zombify them for a reunion with John Lennon and George Harrison (not to mention a touch tasteless). In lieu of this, we want to see Ubisoft give us a backstage pass to some of The Beatles' most famous UK hotspots, including the iconic Abbey Road, outside of the Abbey Road Studios; or The Cavern Club, the legendary Liverpool dive where The Beatles played their first gig. Yes, we know this is technically outside of London, but we'd allow for some creative geography. We'd also be willing to grit our teeth through a Rock Band sequence using the Wii U Gamepad as our instruments if that meant exposing ourselves to a little Beatlemania. And lest copyright lawyers get in the way, we'd also settle for an appearance by The Monkees or The Sex Pistols. Maybe the Monkey Sex Pistols?

Oh, and speaking of Monkeys...

Page 8 of 15
Page 8 of 15
London Zoo

London Zoo

Modern zombie lore tells us animals aren't immune to whatever turns humans into ravenous, flesh-eating monsters, so there's no reason why ZombiU should break with tradition. In fact, a detour to the London Zoo might be welcome change of venue, offering an undead buffet of mutant penguins, zombie gorillas, or naked zombie mole rats. The London Zoo also has the distinction of hosting the world's first public aquarium, creating the possibility for aquatic zombie variants.

Home to nearly 800 animal species, the London Zoo poses an opportunity for Ubisoft to get creative with its enemy designs, while giving players something else to swing at besides the run-of-the-mill homo sapiens. Even better, PETA's inevitable outrage would amount to oodles of free publicity.

Page 9 of 15
Page 9 of 15
Big Ben

Big Ben

We get it: A giant clock ranks with Petting Zoos and Bingo Halls on the list of scary places. That being said, we know ole Ben will worm its way into ZombiU in one form or another, just as it does in every piece of media related to London. Knowing this, we have a few ideas how Ubisoft can extract the most fun from this otherwise unintimidating landmark.

For one: Sniping. Big Ben looms over the Palace of Westminster and a good chunk of London's touristy zone. There are few better vantage points that would be ideal for putting that Gamepad sniper scope feature to good use. We see ourselves climbing Big Ben's peak, finding a nice perch, and picking off London's shambling masses from afar. It could even be included as a bonus game (Big Ben's Brain Blowout?).

On a smaller scale, ascending Big Ben would make for a fun platforming challenge especially if Ubisoft were to place a rare weapon or Bug Out Bag augmentation at its peak. At the very least, players should have the option of taking a picture of it with the Gampad's camera, thus allowing them to feel like a true London tourist.

Page 10 of 15
Page 10 of 15
Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

Everyone have their monocles? Good, let's continue...

London hosts a number of world-class museums and art galleries, so it would be a cultural faux pas for Ubisoft to ignore these on its post-apocalyptic tour. We're not advocating a virtual recreation of the National Gallery or an audio tour of the Tate Modern, but it would be cool to pilfer old-timey weapons from the Imperial War Museum and fend off walkers from atop the Blue Whale in the Natural History Museum. We'd even be content with cutting loose in the Science Museum and putting centuries of human progress and innovation to good use (finally!).

Sure, museums aren't the first place thing we think of in terms of fun, but they can be a breeding ground for inventive sequences and challenges that would otherwise feel out of place anywhere else. Moreover, museums offer a chance to solve trivia questions over the GamePad and earn extra ammo and supplies with every correct answer. On second thought, that's a terrible idea.

Page 11 of 15
Page 11 of 15
Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussauds

The mother of all wax museums, Madame Tussauds has been making normal people look like lifeless zombies since 1836. It's founder, Marie Tussaud, was even known for making death masks from decapitated heads during the French Revolution. This obsession with death and the macabre lives on in the museum's most famous sections, the Chamber of Horrors.

Littered with creepy tableaus and a permeating sense that anything can come alive at the last moment, this cult London attraction not only has the right ambiance for a survival horror game, it comes preloaded with a morbid real-life backstory to boot. We can see Ubisoft using Madame Tussauds as a linear action sequence, forcing players to tip-toe through its many themed rooms while scanning the wax scenes for danger or survivors.

Page 12 of 15
Page 12 of 15
Westfield Stratford City / Hamleys

Westfield Stratford City / Hamleys

Shopping Malls are a staple of zombie storytelling. We're told they represent something about mass consumerism and the zombification of western culture, but for practical purposes they're an arsenal of zombie killing implements. And where Dead Rising popularized the art of crafting weapons from common household items, we want to see ZombiU adapt that concept to one of the largest mall in Europe, aka the Westfield Stratford City.

Spanning nearly 2 million square feet and home to over 300 shops, Westfield Stratford City is a Shangri-La for apocalypse survivors. And while it would be ambitious for Ubisoft to recreate this shopping mecca in full, a run through its main hall, connected theaters, and adjoining hotel could stir up some creative zombie mayhem.

Barring Westfield Stratford City, we'd also take Hamleys, one of the oldest and largest toy shops in the world. Offering seven floors and 54,000 square feet of killing space, we're sure we could find something to defend ourselves with. And if not, at least we'd have a few toys to distract us from our grisly fate.

Page 13 of 15
Page 13 of 15
Saint Paul's Cathedral

Saint Paul's Cathedral

Because no zombie tale is complete without religious overtones, we anxiously await the moment when our mad dash to safety brings us to the gothic halls of Saint Paul's Cathedral. If its awe-inspiring interior isn't enough of an inspiration for designers, Saint Paul's Cathedral is also equipped with a Crypt containing over 200 tombs. There's some definite potential here for Ubisoft to show off the Wii U's graphical prowess and the studio's ability to extract some truly terrifying moments from one of London's most historic (and downright creepy) landmarks.

Now, Ubisoft has to be careful. Nintendo isn't one to court controversy, and inviting blood-thirsty hordes to the home of London's Anglican Bishop won't squeak by without tripping a few alarms. Remember, Resistance: Fall of Man took a flogging when it brought the Chimera war to Manchester Cathedral. There could be similar backlash from tying Saint Paul's Cathedral to scenes of decapitation and chainsaw massacres. On the other hand, London is renowned for its places of worship, so ignoring this and other churches altogether would be a noticeable omission on Ubisoft's part. It'll be interesting to see how much controversy Ubisoft and Nintendo are willing to court to appease the hardcore demo.

Page 14 of 15
Page 14 of 15
Oh the places we'll go...

Oh the places we'll go...

Will ZombiU replace be the European trip we couldn't afford after highschool? Probably not. But for those who don't already call it home, it could prove a welcome diversion from the largely westernized genre.

We've tackled ZombiU from a tourist perspective, and now we're turning it to you. Whether you're an occasional traveller or lifelong resident, let us know what London environments you'd like to see in Wii U's undead IP.

If you want to learn more about British zombies, take a look at this ZombiU preview our first hands-on with Wii Us most M-rated FPS and watch the entrancing debut trailer.

Page 15 of 15
Page 15 of 15
TOPICS
Ubisoft
CATEGORIES
Nintendo Wii-u Platforms
PRODUCTS
ZombiU ZombiU
Matt Bradford
Social Links Navigation

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries. 

See more Nintendo Features
Read more
The best zombie games
The 10 best zombie games that will munch your brain
CrisisX
CrisisX is a zombie survival-crafting game with serious PvP chops and an eye for immersion – and it just shot to the top of my wishlist
Quarantine Zone: The Last Check
The zombie apocalypse simulator where you're a Last of Us-style fed deciding who gets to live in the quarantine zone hits 1 million wishlists as indie powerhouse Devolver Digital signs on as publisher
Dying Light: The Beast image showing a messed up zombie crawling towards the camera with the GR+ horror special badge
Dying Light: The Beast's open world is "a secret mystery box" where "very f*cked up things" happen, but I'm most intrigued by the Stranger Things vibes
Hell is Us in Future Games Show
Upcoming dark action-adventure game Hell is Us is channeling "old Zelda games" by giving you "just enough to know where to go but not too much"
Town of Zoz
There's something nasty lurking in deceptively cute foody hack-and-slash Town of Zoz, and suddenly my appetite has disappeared
Latest in Action
Batman Arkham
Former Assassin's Creed director who also worked on Arkham Origins joins Rocksteady, sparking more hopes for a new Batman game
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Hollow Knight: Silksong will have a free Nintendo Switch 2 edition upgrade at launch, meaning you don't have to pay extra to get the 120hz mode
Hideo Kojima in a screenshot from the Xbox and Bethesda 2022 showcase.
Hideo Kojima will give a "glimpse into future projects" at his "Beyond The Strand" anniversary event for Kojima Productions' 10th birthday this month
Kaser stands in front of a glowing blue background as the imprisoned dragon Lord Arena swirls behind him like a fish - key art from Lost Soul Aside used on the PlayStation store
Lost Soul Aside review: "We (don't) have Final Fantasy Versus 13 at home"
Valor Mortis
Ghostrunner devs abandon parkour for Valor Mortis, a first-person soulslike that might explain why the rest of the genre follows Dark Souls' lead
A screenshot of James Bond in 007 First Light's reveal trailer.
007 First Light is getting its own dedicated PlayStation State of Play this week, with "over 30 minutes of gameplay" including James Bond's "first mission as an MI6 recruit"
Latest in Features
The Outer Worlds 2 character holding bottle and glass, with the GamesRadar+ Big Preview frame and Reaction sticker
Channeling big Fallout energy means The Outer Worlds 2 could be the Starfield I always wanted
Cropped key art for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles shows two characters stood side by side.
45 minutes of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles has me certain that Square Enix "rebuilding" the remaster after losing the original source code was worth the effort
Battlefield 6 multiplayer screenshot
I'm still concerned about Battlefield 6's map sizes, but there's no denying it gets chaotic urban warfare right
Where Winds Meet hands-on preview
I played Where Winds Meet and fell in love with the RPG's open world so fast I could barely pay attention to any of the missions
Borderlands 4 screenshot shows someone holding a weapon forward towards the camera.
"We tend to commit to the bit": Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talks Borderlands 4, the evolution of looter-shooters, and $80 game discourse
A mech firing a machine gun in the desert in Menace
Menace is an XCOM-Warhammer hybrid that makes turn-based strategy feel like an immersive sim, and for the first time in my life I'm playing a game that seems made for me
  1. Twisted Cryptids card on a wooden surface
    1
    This gorgeously weird monster board game warms my Halloween-loving heart, and it's a delight
  2. 2
    Lost Soul Aside review: "We (don't) have Final Fantasy Versus 13 at home"
  3. 3
    Hell is Us review: "The lack of waypoints and explicit objectives is a double-edged magical sword that pulls me deep into its harsh world"
  4. 4
    Shuten Order review: "The Danganronpa creator's new multi-genre mystery feels like a forgotten DS cult classic I would have been obsessed with"
  5. 5
    The Rogue Prince of Persia review: "I roguelike but don't roguelove this freerunner – there's just not enough to stand out"
  1. Demon Slayer Infinity Castle
    1
    Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: "Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer's best adventure yet"
  2. 2
    The Long Walk review: "One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made"
  3. 3
    Frankenstein review: "A classy, if somewhat safe, adaptation"
  4. 4
    Weapons review: "A twisted fairytale that bests Barbarian"
  5. 5
    The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: "An occasionally thrilling heroic adventure that sits safely within a B-tier MCU range"
  1. John Cena as Peacemaker holds a gun to the head of a different John Cena as Peacemaker in Peacemaker season 2.
    1
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."
  2. 2
    Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots"
  3. 3
    Alien: Earth review: "Arguably the franchise's strongest outing since James Cameron's Aliens"
  4. 4
    King of the Hill season 14 review: "Hank Hill himself has evolved into a much more open and accepting person"
  5. 5
    Eyes of Wakanda review: "A creative premise shortchanged by the runtime and Marvel bloat"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...