I, Zombie Review

I, Zombie Review by Nindie Spotlight

Developer: Awesome Games Studio

Publisher: Awesome Games Studio

Release Date: March 8th 2018

Price as of Article: $4.99 USD, £4.49 GBP

There’s really no story to speak of in the game, you’re merely a zombie on the mission to survive the level by taking control of every human on it. As you infect others you’ll then have the ability to roughly control them, telling them to follow you, attack, or stop. You don’t question the their motivations, a zombie is just gonna zombie.

Pretty bare bones overall with a light soundtrack and various groans and other assorted action sounds. Really the game is all about the action and strategy, there’s not a specific focus on something as peripheral as the sound.

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Considering the budget price for the most part the visuals are pleasing and work well. There are a limited number of overall assets used in the game but the’re all pretty cute in a zombie game kind of way. One part of the reason for the simplicity of the overall assets used is also, no doubt, tied to the level editor in the game. If they hadn’t kept everything relatively simple that wouldn’t have been as possible to pull off. Overall I’d consider it a fair trade-off.

The goal in the game is to infect everyone in the level. Starting with plain civilians of various types they’re pretty easy prey, you just need to be ready for them to run away. Once you infect someone you then have the ability to take control of them, essentially telling them to attack, stop, or follow. Things get a bit tougher when there are soldiers about, once a zombie takes a hit their speed goes way down. This means ambushes need to be planned carefully to ensure you can infect them before they manage to shoot you or your minions to pieces. Thankfully you all heal pretty quickly, so a key component to the game is often showing care to control someone new and then pull your troops back to regroup and be ready to attack again at full health.

What’s great is that aside from a change in venue to snowy maps (complete with snowmen you can hide behind) there are two variant level types that make things a bit more interesting. The first is a timed level where a scientist needs to be stopped before he’s able to concoct and anti-zombie weapon but he’s covered by some heavy duty soldiers who shoot first, ask questions later, and can’t be turned. This forces you to be more stealthy than usual and in particular you need to be in tune with viewing distances so you can carefully sneak between patrol routes to get to the scientist. The second, my favorite, starts with you somewhat pinned in but there’s a zombie on the other side of the map that you’re able to control. By carefully telling them when to move or stop you can then slowly amass your mini zombie army while away from the action, and then finally mount your attack on both sides once they’re ready.

One downside of the budget price is that, aside from replaying levels to execute them better and get 3 stars for them all, once you conquer all of the game’s 30 levels the base experience is done. To help compensate the great news is that the game includes a level editor and has integration for playing maps contributed by other people or making them yourself. Depending on the degree of interest from everyone else playing the game this may or may not be a great boon but since this sort of functionality isn’t typically included in indie titles it is exciting.

As for the level editor itself it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Most notably the touchscreen isn’t supported, though editing using the traditional controls functions well enough once you get the hang of everything. In particular setting up walking routes for your people is a little wonky when you first try to get the hang of it but it does work. One concern I’ve already shared with the developer is that every once in awhile something will begin to go wrong and some editing functions will stop working. If this happens a quick save, shutting the game down, and then returning tends to do the trick but hopefully it is addressed. Once you think your level is ready for prime time after play testing it you just need to make it public and then others can give it a spin. When you check out other peoples’ levels be sure to rate them up or down as you feel is appropriate so the best will manage to make their way to the top. Be sure to look for some from MAMEiac, I think mine are at least fun and may experiment more.

Pros

A clever mix of action, puzzle, and strategy games all in one

The included level editor, complete with online sharing, opens the game up for much more content

Variant level types show how the game mechanics have potential for even more creativity

Cons

Only ships with 30 levels

The level editor has some quirks that can require a save and game restart to resolve

Hard to say whether community support will lead to worthwhile levels or not