There is nothing scarier than a mob of flesh-eating zombies looking for their next meal. As a big zombie horror movie fan, and a self-proclaimed Resident Evil guru, I was intrigued by developer Inland Studios’ Zombpocalypse. Picture a game of Smash TV (without the boss battles), toss in some flesh-eating undead, various weapons, and horror movie environments like dark subways, warehouses, and alleys, and you have the formula for ZA. The object of the game is to kill your brain-dead adversaries, accumulate as much cash as possible, and stay alive until the stage ends. Pretty straight-forward right? Not necessarily.
Surviving in ZA isn’t as simple as pulling the trigger. You start each level with your trusty baseball bat (no zombie situation is complete without one of those) but you’ll soon discover that it’s almost pointless to use it. Thankfully your first weapon spawns not too far from where you begin the level. I’m the type of person who likes to dispose of his zombies in all ways imaginable. Don’t fancy splitting those rotten melons in half with a magnum? No problem, ZA has you covered with a large assortment of shotguns, machine guns, flame-throwers, and a strange BFG-style weapon that can chain shock the undead into crispy, charred remains. Nothing beats a Zombique!
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Nothing beats shreddin' Zombie flesh with a shotgun!
Take what you know about Zombies from popular Hollywood movie remakes like Dawn of the Dead, smash the corpses into a trash can (twitching thumbs severed by the trash can lid being slammed down), and prepare yourself for the monstrosities in this game. They run in packs like in today’s depiction of the undead, but they run on all fours, belch fire, and explode into viral chunks when struck by a heavy weapon.
Keep your running cleats on people! You’ll spend most of your time avoiding hordes of undead as they pursue your warm flesh. Don’t despair my friends; some undead will drop health packets to replenish your health.
As your health meter depletes, so does your ability to run, so you may find yourself rushing into a crowd of flesh-eating monsters — favorite weapon firing away — just to save yourself from seeing the game over screen. If you can make it to the end, you are rewarded by how many bullets you fired, your hit accuracy, and wether you were any good or not. This gives ZA some replay value, but little else exists beyond improving your hit accuracy.
ZA could really benefit from a multiplayer option. What would be better than leaving your buddy behind as human steak so you can make that fast getaway? Come on, stop glaring at me! You know you would do the same.
While we’re on the subject, it would be nice if the player could battle a boss before the end of each level. Since the developer’s goal was to capture classic gameplay mechanics with this release, having the tried-and-true, end-level boss would have been perfect for this game. Imagine surviving a zombie infestation (your friend now zombie chow thanks to the new multiplayer feature) and this fleshy, hulking behemoth of a boss comes in to finish you off.
Just strollin' through the park pickin' off the locals
Graphically, the game is above average. The environments are colorful, dark, and very gritty in their presentation. Plus, the violence is non-stop, so there is plenty of blood to keep your screen dripping for hours.
My only compliant is the HD graphic option. I tested ZA with an ATI Radeon x1650 and some textures would glitch in this mode. I am running the latest video driver for my video card so I can’t say what the problem was. With said issue aside, everything operated as intended.
Overall ZA is a great little game for the PC. With a little bit of polish and a multiplayer feature, I can picture ZA being sold on XBL and the PSN. There are less worthy titles being sold on both networks, so I don’t see why a game like ZA can’t have its chance at stardom. Sega? Are you paying close attention here?
Did I forget to mention the game was free? That’s right would-be zombie hunters! Visit www.zombpocalypse.com to download the game for free. While you’re there, tell them that PixelPerfectGaming.com sent you!
System specs:
Win XP SP2 / Vista
Single Core 1.2GHz Processor
OpenGL 1.4 / Direct X 8.1 class video card
64MB Video RAM
XP – 348MB System RAM
Vista – 1GB System RAM
Score 7 out of 10
Mike ‘STGuy1040’ Pittaro
Developer– website
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