Zombie Invasion

by Eric March on November 2, 2008 at 11:59 pm

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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App Name: Zombie Invasion
Developer: Conniption Entertainment
Category: Entertainment

A game clearly taken straight form the pages of Flash-based zombie defense games such as The Last Stand.  This is one case where being derivative is a good thing, since it’s sticking with a formula that works, and Conniption have followed the script pretty closely.

Rather than being sheltered behind some sort of fortification though, you’re fighting off the ravening undead alone and on your own two feet, Bruce Campbell style, and the only thing between you and a bloody, gib-filled death are your wits and your weapons.  You know the battle is futile because they just won’t stop coming, and you can only last for so long, but you’re going to take as many of those bastards out as you can before you let them taste your sweet, sweet brains.

You start off with a gun with unlimited ammo and one grenade. When the groaning hoarde approaches you just tap on them to fire your weapon.  Zombies start off requiring three hits to kill — a life meter appears above their heads when you shoot them letting you know how many more shots (more or less) you’ll need to fire off before they drop.  As you progress though you’ll come across stronger ordnance — a shotgun, and a .44 magnum (or Desert Eagle, whatever it is).  Given that weapons are usually doled out in order of increasing strength, I’m not sure why the higher-end handgun outstrips the shotgun, especially when the shotgun can hit multiple enemies if they’re close together, but I imagine it has a stronger punch overall and can kill stronger zombies faster.  If you find yourself in a jam and you’ve got Zombies scrabbling at your flesh, you can detonate a grenade to clear your immediate area.

Of course, as you acquire stronger weaponry, stronger (and faster) zombies come out to play.  You can’t win, of course — you are one, they are legion — but the idea is to stay alive for as long as possible and make your mark on the global leaderboard.  Accuracy counts, too, so aim carefully whenever possible.

The graphics are pretty good — they’re all pre-rendered 3D models seen from an overhead perspective, but there are enough frames of animation for each of the zombies that it looks pretty fluid, and therefore well-done.  Except for the grenade effect, anyway; that’s just cheesy.  The sound effects are decent, too.

Overall it’s a pretty decent zombie defense game.  Yes, I realize that the play mechanics aren’t a lot different than Plasma, which I panned earlier today, but this is carried out far more effectively, with better graphics, more weaponry, and most importantly, zombies, so this one gets higher marks.

This is only a freebie for a limited time, so grab it while you can — future updates (or at least the first update) will be free for those who downloaded it.  That update is expected to include save states (in case you get a call/SMS or just want to quit), difficulty settings, a better leaderboard, and the ability to defer high score submission until you sync or are on WiFi in case you’re playing on an iPod Touch or don’t want to use your iPhone’s EDGE/3G connection.  Once it goes pay it’ll cost you a buck.

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Posted in Games: Action