I do enjoy mobile gaming, in fact one could say I feel it’s a very under-tapped market. Hopefully it will be be vastly expanded on as our mobile technology increases. With any luck, we will even start to see more altered reality games some time soon!
That being said, sometimes I want to sit in front of a larger screen and do some desktop gaming. OWC Nick slid this gem my way and said it would be great to review for the blog, so I am. Ready your shotguns, and get all the ammo you can find brother, it’s time for Zombies ate my Friends!
So the game is fairly straight forward, however unlike most zombie games, its more of a point and click adventure with some strategic combat. All battles are turn based, and you take your time selecting somewhat goofy attacks to smash the heads of your foes in with. The user interface is pretty neat, we got our health, our experience, our energy… ENERGY!? Yeah, its one of those. Run out of energy and you’ll need to wait ’til you get more—or shell out some cash to buy some. Curse you freemium gaming! Oh well, no sense crying over spilled zombie. The game’s interface is actually surprisingly helpful without being super cluttered. Very often, games will throw mini maps, objective lists, equipment tabs, status bars, buff icons, etc. at you, until you feel you are looking at the game world through an old-timey key hole. Which is about as exciting as watching a Chia Pet grow.
The game starts you out with some character customization, which is pretty awesome. Not something I expected from a title like this. In fact, if some of the NPC’s are any indication of what is available for customization, there’s quite a bit of fun stuff available.
Everything from hair, skin, and even eye color, to whether or not you want to use a garbage bag (torn open and duct taped) as a pair of trousers. As you can see, I opted away from the garbage bag look and went straight for homeless maniac.
Each battle you encounter is a little slow paced for my twitch FPS gaming needs, but that’s ok, every game doesn’t need to feel like Counter Strike. As you bludgeon your enemies with 2x4s and frying pans, they will occasionally pop out experience, energy, money, and items. I actually got bored waiting for them to vanish, so I never saw if it was needed to pick things up instantly or not. Really the only one not to, would be health, as there may be a more opportune time to snag the heals.
So let’s recap a bit. Combat is slow, customizable character, and bunch of loot, Wrapped in a freemium container. Ok, that makes the game sound like a game you would play for 10 minutes and then collect dust on your drive until you need more free space. It’s not. The game is actually geniunely fun to play, and I can see myself putting some more time into it after this review. My only gripe, and OWC Nick’s as well, is that you seem to run out of energy pretty quick, so sad panda on that one.
Graphics:
Man, this POPS! The graphics, even with it’s dulled out pallet choices to set the tone, still create a wonderful scene to behold. It’s flash vector styled graphics are awesome and I’m glad that I had the chance to play this one.
Gameplay:
Like I said, it’s a bit slow, which is nothing to frown at, that’s ok! The game flows well, and the plot line is a bit linear, but all in all, the game is pretty solid. Plenty of things to do and explore, and secrets tracked at the end of each stage, bring me flashbacks to the golden days of playing DOOM.
Audio:
Fair, nothing to write home about, could have used some silly voiceover gibberish sounds when talking to NPCs. Zombie sounds seemed super generic and repetitive.
Innovation:
Well it’s definitely a great way of looking at the zombie survival genre, and with hiding things around the world, you sure get that sense of I am looking for things to help me stay alive. Sure, we could have done with less cat food, and maybe some baked beans, but I wont be too picky on that.
Overall:
It’s an interesting game, I’ll give it that. The needing to wait for energy to recharge is kind of annoying, but that’s its intent so you actually give the developers money. I can understand why it was added in the way that it was. Perhaps we will see an alternative to earning currency other than just buying it. I’m surprised more games don’t have “Hey watch this ad or install this other game and we’ll give you X amount of our currency!” Still, if I’m bored and want to shoot some zombies, I’ll probably go elsewhere. Is it fun? Yes. Does it quench my zombie hunting needs? Not really.
Hey Tony – GR8 review! Makes me want 2 check it out sometime!