October 8th, 2012 | By Dominic Tarason
Tagged in: PC Game | shooter | thebignic | windows | zombies
Well, it’s official. We’ve hit Peak Zombie. No longer satisfied with fitting the letter ‘Z’ (War Z, DayZ) into everything, or ham-fistedly repurposing the word (we’re looking at you, ZombiU), they’ve finally gone and done it. Zombies has been released. And it’s a game about zombies, and the shooting of them. I’m sure you’re as surprised as I am.
Still, there is a vein of originality here. In fact, Zombies seems to be surprisingly enjoyable. Focused purely on ridiculous comedy and stress relief rather than challenge and balance, it runs with the idea that corporate middle-management are indistinguishable from the undead as they shamble from cubicle to cubicle, chanting ‘Synergize’ and ‘Innovation’. You play as A Dude, who apparently carries enough firepower to level a building, and is tasked with working through 25 levels of management.
You’ve played games like this before. WSAD to move, mouse to fire, powerups all over the place. Still, the combination of the game giving you all the guns off the bat (plus the ammo to use them effectively), combined with the fact that every single piece of environment can be smashed, shot to pieces or set on fire makes for a bizarrely satisfying bit of fun. What really makes the demo stand out for me, at least, is the soundtrack. Simply put, it’s catchy as all get-out, and you should give it a listen on the official Bandcamp page here.
The demo only contains the first two levels and a pair of very silly cutscenes, but the full version promises 9 bosses and some really weird things, like giant floor-mouths and golf-club chucking enemies. The whole thing reminds me of the original (and controversial) Postal, only with tongue wedged firmly in cheek. You can find the full version on Desura, and that soundtrack is worth a listen at the very least.
Dominic Tarason (303 posts)
A geek for all seasons. A veteran of early DOS-era gaming, with encyclopaedic knowledge of things geeky on all platforms. The more obscure and bizarre, the better. If you've got indie news you want to break in a big way, send it this way!