What is your 8th favorite candy? It's the candy that you would never actively buy unless it was a particularly aggressive sale, but when you are left with only one box, you mindlessly eat it until your fingers reach the next one and you find only crumbs. I want you to picture it as vividly as possible. Imagine your cupboards filled with them. That's how I feel when I play Zombie Army 4: Dead War. Especially if the snack in question is a delicious braai.

In this analogy, the beautiful, weightless moment before the regret and mild abdominal pain you feel as you bite into it, and remember that you come from a family of diabetics, is clicking the left mouse button, firing your weapon, and hearing the satisfying sound as another zombie's cranium explodes. As a gaming pleasure, it is nothing compared to the sound of a click somewhere in the depths of your brain, the discovery of a solution to a heinous puzzle, or the explosion of possibilities when you try something stupid and get a response that indicates that the developers have seen through it. But it sure is very tasteful.

Beginning with 2005's "Sniper Elite" and continuing through the 15 years and six games leading up to this point, Rebellion has honed this moment as sharply as possible. The kickback of the submachine gun weapon, the way the reticle gets higher with each shot and closer to the all-important headshot, is as mass-produced genius as the sponge base of a jaffa cake. When the blitzkrieg hits, the way the zombie tumbles to the ground shivering is as delicious as the tiniest bit of dark chocolate. I push in my sniper scope, framing a close-up of a distant face, and watch in slow motion as the bullet darts horizontally across the chamber, into the eye socket, through the squishy mass of brain, and out the other side of the skull. It's a fuzzy gelatinous orange filling, a dirty little thrill that I'm too embarrassed to admit.

There's nothing wrong with a few empty calories now and then. But then I glance at the cupboard and realize it's still full. There are hundreds of zombies left to exit the level, and beyond that, there are nine chapters of the campaign, each several hours long. Then there's Horde mode, a weekly challenge that adds fresh modifications to familiar levels. And then there are 100 levels of character perks, weapon upgrades, and unlockable cosmetics to chew on, a major new innovation in this latest installment.

To say that "Dead War" is too much would be a sloppy thing to say; Rebellion has clearly made this game to last, with a player in mind who craves to shower the undead with endless bullets and make sure they are fed until the next one swarms around. And it never gets boring. In one chapter, the game switches beautifully from a boat ride through Venice, to defending a base from zombies falling from the sky without parachutes, and finally to an all-out war in a flooded arena, where enemies (or, as I learned, friends) are fed to the undead sharks. The switch.

Think about that shark for a moment. Along with the common exploding barrels and precariously dangling weights, it's one of the traps that litter every level: in co-op, zombies are one of the few things that can damage your allies, plus they tend to be instant kills with no chance of revival. I won't reveal how I learned this, but if you want to end a decade-long friendship, just suck that friend into the spinning blades of a turbine and turn your carefully customized character into mincemeat.

Trapping is one of the many ways in which Dead War switches the rhythm of violence. The kill camera cuts to the inner workings of the latest victim, which helps to liven up the action (boom, boom, squa-squa-squa, boom). There are also powerful melee attacks with fixed cooldown timers, with machete slashes and Thor-style hammer strikes replacing the usual ineffective rushes. Ten kills with a particular weapon activates that weapon's special ability to slow down time and ensure a headshot; ten kills in a row in a combo can result in a takedown, like Doom's Glory Kill, which gives health to a downed opponent with a single blow.

The threats you face also vary. There are not only mediocre shamblers, but commanders who can resurrect the underlings, snipers who can nimbly fly across rooftops, and guys who run in screaming and explode. You'll fight half-track APCs with gooey pink meat between their armored plates, and literal meat wagons that open their hatches to reveal a disgusting amount of human guts. These enemies have a variety of weaknesses, from exploding hearts to back-mounted fuel tanks, which causes their reticles to frequently deviate from standard head height.

Ultimately, though, the game consists of small variations of the same snack-sized experience over and over again. The limited edition lemon and lime jaffa cakes are still jaffa cakes, after all. One begins to suspect that Deadwar knows this. That usually means progressively larger numbers.

Every kill has a set number of points, and successive kills add a combo multiplier. In multiplayer, this quickly overwhelms other players. One player can overwhelm the others, and cooperative play can quickly turn into something more competitive. Not to say that I intentionally sucked my friend into that rotor engine... Hmmm...anyone know a good lawyer?

At the end of each section, the point totals are converted to XP. Bonuses can be earned by finding collectibles or completing section-specific challenges. From there, XP increases the level of the game and opens up abilities back into the game, making it easier to rack up a high score. An airtight loop is perfectly convincing when you are in it, but it is worth remembering that being airtight does not only mean that no oxygen can escape. It also means that no fresh air can get in.

Stepping back from a multi-hour session of Dead War can feel a bit existential. As of this writing, I have killed enough zombies for one small town. One night, in the middle of it all, I woke up in the dark with my brain still busily organizing the act of holding a gun and pulling the trigger, like a more gory version of the Tetris Effect. Like a more gory version of the Tetris Effect. It's not the violence that freaks me out, it's the feeling of seeing the game laid out flat, with perfect slow-motion headshots stretching endlessly forward and backward like a conveyor belt.

This feeling almost disappears when playing with others. The impact of each player's action is so quickly lost in the chaos that it is almost impossible to tell which shot destroyed the zombie's head, but it is a good companion for the usual idle chatter around a sticky table in a pub. You might be able to take down one of your friends if you ask them to join you, Evil Dead-style.

And of course, if you play alone, you can still make "Dead War" part of your healthy nutritional diet. You don't have to eat it all at once, like the packs of snacks you've always imagined. You can enjoy just the right amount of high-resolution, beautifully recreated ultra-violence, put it down, and come back later to pick up a few more. But you don't. Until you feel bloated, dizzy, and a little sick. And fair play, it's the end of January and we can all abandon our New Year's resolutions and give in to our inner hungry zombie.