Zombies! Those pesky un-dead muthas are everywhere. Invading our homes in both TV, film and of course gaming…
As you are probably aware, there are a ton of zombie themed games on iPhone, most notable of these are Resident Evil 4, Call of Duty: WAW Zombies, Zombie Attack and of course Plants Vs Zombies. Even Gameloft are getting involved with Zombie Infection (GDC hands-on here) … now we have a new one, N.Y.Zombies from Foursaken Media, described as a first-person defensive shooter offering a new blend of casual yet strategic, action-packed gameplay.
Like games such as Battle Bears, you are glued to the spot, unable to flee… instead you must stand your ground with an assortment of weapons. These range from basic pistols, to shotguns, uzis, rifles and rail guns, as well as grenades, flash grenades and molotovs. you start off with pistol and knife, but the rest are available to buy from a weapons screen before each level starts, with money earned as you progress.
Presented through a map of New York, you start in your apartment, where you must survive an initial wave before moving on. As mentioned above, you cannot move your character through the environment, instead you can only look around and aim. This is done by dragging a finger around the screen, and then tapping on an enemy to fire. You can also pinch in to zoom for head shots. This is not only great for the rifle and distant enemies, but earns you more money per kill. To select a weapon, you simply tap on the relevant icon at the bottom of the screen. These icons also show how much ammo is left in any weapon at a time. Should a weapon empty, it will auto re-load, which is shown as a timer around the weapon icon. Bigger weapons take longer to reload, so you need to manage your weapons strategically and balance the range of weaponry to ensure you always have a loaded weapon to hand.
Enemies come in variety of zombified creations. Early levels give you your everyday, run-of-the-mill zombies. Slow and meandering cretins that are easy pickings for your pistol or knife. later levels though introduce faster zombies, as well as ones that can revive their fallen dead brothers. I came across a particular nasty zombie on a rooftop level which can jump very high from building to building until it’s ready to pounce. Nothing a snipe to the head in midair didn’t cure of course!
What scares you the most though is not what you see in front of you… nope, it’s what you can’t see that gives you the shivers! The fact that you cannot simply run away only heightens this fact, and adds an element of claustrophobia. Zombies do appear as dots on a small radar though, so you have a general idea of what is coming from where, but not what kind of zombies it will be. If you need to do a quick 180, you can simply tap the radar to swing around and face the unknown. Despite this in later levels it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the flesh eaters from all angles, and when that happens, not even a well placed molotov cocktail can save you.
Graphically it’s not pushing the hardware like RE4, Call of Duty or Gameloft’s upcoming title, with low poly models and textures and limited character animation. But it does create a good atmosphere with lighting, sound effects and music, and so far I’m having a blast. But until I’ve put more time into it, it’s hard to tell if it will keep me hooked. Look out for my final score on release (out soon), until then check out the screens and video below.
