OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Review: Zombie Apocalypse

For many of us, a Zombie Apocalypse is not a matter of if, but of when? Some of you have undoubtedly had the foresight to start your own Zombie Plan in preparation for the big day. You may have regular drills once a month, much to the derision of the neighbours who look at my partner with a mixture of scorn and pity, but they don’t realise it is they who are the enemy and it is going to be their reanimated corpses I’ll be fighting come Z-Day.

So it is a welcome breath of fresh air when a game/learning tool like Zombie Apocalypse (developed by Nihilistic Software) is released. The principal is pretty simple; survive fifty five days of the Zombie hoards that are clambering for your flesh, 55 also being the atomic number of caesium and the 10th Fibonacci number. There are seven levels and each level is played as one day. You start with a bog standard Assault Rifle with infinite ammo and that old stalwart, a chainsaw, and it is your job to send those Zombies back to hell where I’m sure they belong (especially those at Number 42). As you progress through the game you’ll get new weapons, albeit with finite ammunition, and will be facing more dangerous Zombies who will exhibit some interesting characteristics (for Zombies at least).

The actual game has been likened to an old console classic called Smash TV, however, a better and more up to date comparison would be a Zombie filled Geometry Wars with some heavy nods towards Left for Dead. Just like Geometry Wars you’ll be going around in circles shooting at everything that moves and attempting to keep some distance between yourself and your targets. Fighting and shooting is very frantic, if you attempt to hole up you will soon see Zombies appearing by the side and behind you. If a Zombie gets too close you’ll have to grapple with the monster and if they get the better of you due to your inability to shake them off or overwhelmed by sheer numbers, you’ll be dead.

The chainsaw is pretty devastating as a weapon but when you’re surrounded by 50 or so Zombies it is pretty difficult to defend yourself and you’ll be manhandled from behind, pushed to the ground and eaten. Spinning in circles with the chainsaw will buy you some seconds to either make a run for it, make some room to bring your distance weapons into play or bring out the biggest star of the show, the Zombie Bait. That’s right, you’ll be equipped with one cute pink teddy (filled with C4); throw this baby into the hoard and every Zombie in Christendom is going want that teddy. You’ll have about five seconds to catch your breath before that cutesie teddy leaves this world to goto that big toy shop in the sky and taking anything else in the blast radius. But regardless of the weapons and the cute teddies, you will end up running in circles funnelling the hoards into your Assault Rifle or whatever you’ll find lying about until the day is finished.

On the plus side each level will be littered with some conveniently placed explosive barrels, gas canisters and other combustible objects useful for trimming the numbers down before the next wave. In addition there are also some interesting environment objects that Zombies may stumble into, such as a Jet Engine that sucks zombies into the engine, but they tend not to be that game changing as the Zombies will only fall into these obstacles if they’ve been shot.

So with all these great weapons, enemies and great visuals from a developer who obviously loves the subject matter, is Zombie Apocalypse any fun?

Unfortunately with the single player game, once you’ve cycled through the first seven days, that’s pretty much everything. Sure you’ll be introduced to new weapons and squaring up against different types of Zombies as you progress through the days, but that’s it. There’s is no depth or strategy apart from just shoot and keep moving, almost shepherding the Zombies to the barrels and other bottlenecks giving you time to keep unloading into that wall of undead flesh. Some levels do mix things up a bit, for example, you can only use a chainsaw or the level is blacked out and you can only see a small patch of the level (and some ominous shadows). You could argue that the premise of ‘I just wanna shoot some ****ing zombies’ is a unique selling point and great for non-gamers to jump into, but after an hour I found the pacing tiresome.

However, as a multiplayer game it does start to come into its own. Sure, you’ll still be running and gunning but with two or more players you can begin to control the horde and use the dropped weapons more effectively. Communication is absolutely vital but if you’re playing with like-minded people you’ll make easy work of each level, you’ll start to strategise and you will find that depth that will keep you interested and entertained. If you want the perfect setup for playing this game it would be after the pub, sharing pizza with four controllers in the same room with the players razzing on each other.

Bottom Line

Just like sex, Zombie Apocalypse is better when there is more than one of you involved. The game dynamic doesn't change between the single player and the multiplayer; but co-ordination and teamwork will ensure you have a more compelling experience. That's not to say that the single player is flawed, it just isn't as fun. Just like sex.