Zombie Escape review
Seasoned zombie slaying veterans know how to dispatch zombies a thousand different ways, from flamethrowers to cleavers, refrigerators to small tactical nuclear weapons, we all know the list is nigh on endless.
Zombie Escape however is based in a world where the zombies have won, they have outnumbered humanity and the best we can do is rescue those in dire need of salvation from the brain eating masses. This means you don’t have to kill the zombies, just rescue the survivors, but a tricky business it turns out to be.
The view is from a bird’s perspective, looking down on the wasteland. Using your finger you guide the route of the survivor to the waiting helicopters, avoiding the zombies along the way. The zombies however crave for human flesh so will stagger their way towards any survivors within their detection radius, which varies on the infected in question, some can only see the survivor when really close, others will seek survivors out.
To aid you the military will drop care packages that the survivors can pick up to add a few weapons to your arsenal, such as snipers, bombs and emergency helo pick-ups. This adds another dimension as more often than not risk versus reward comes into play on whether to chance a gauntlet of zombies to reach a weapon or play it safe and get on the nearby chopper. Taking into account you may have four or more other survivors on screen at once means that the game gets frequently frantic.
The weapons themselves are upgradable in two forms and paid for in the cash you get after each successful mission. You can only lose a set amount of survivors per round otherwise its game over but the difficulty is challenging rather than frustrating. Sound effects are a highlight, from the beating rotor blades to the shuffling of zombie feet and accompanying groans to the shrieks of horror the survivors emit when the zombies are closing in on them.
Coupled with variation in level design such as shortage of weapons meaning that you have to survive an entire round with just meat (buying you precious seconds as the zombies feast upon raw steak and ignore humans) means that Chillango have made the effort to mix things up rather than recycle the same gameplay. There gets a stage where killing the zombies becomes detrimental to your cause, ‘Stinkies’ emit a toxic cloud upon death that will incapacitate any living person, narrowing your route finding further.
Unlike other line drawing games, keeping your wits about you to avoid the zombies, pick up crates that have been dropped and head for the helicopters makes Zombie Escape stand out from the rest of Flight Control’s rivals to give it a unique edge and make it a top game in its own right. Highly Commended.
