Zombie Escape, a new line-drawing, zombie-avoiding triumph developed by Viqua Games and published by Chillingo, is now available from the app store. Rather than simply employ the technique of avoiding any and all contact, Zombie Escape equips you with a variety of upgradeable weapons to keep the undead mob at bay while you struggle to survive.
Zombie Escape Pros:
- Great variety of objectives and abilities in Campaign
- Enjoyable Survival mode
- Simple controls
- Fun graphics and animations
- Crystal integration
- Addictive, frantic gameplay
Zombie Escape Cons:
- Survivors move a bit slow
- Some survivors enter the screen and walk right into a zombie
Zombie Escape offers both a Campaign mode and Survival mode, the latter becoming unlocked after spending some time working through the Campaign. Campaign utilizes three locations with waves represented by days of the month. Each day has a specific number of survivors that must be routed safely to the waiting helicopters without being overrun by zombies. Losing any more than two survivors will result in a failure of that day’s mission. Survival mode mirrors Campaign except that there is no longer a specific number of survivors that must be saved. Instead, you keep saving people until you lose your third.
Survivors and zombies enter the location from the sides of the screen, preceded by a flashing icon indicating their impending arrival. To save survivors, you draw a path from the person to a waiting helicopter by dragging your finger from one to the other. If you come into contact with a zombie or with the glow surrounding them, the person starts screaming and can quickly become consumed unless you take fast action and drag them away. Weapon pick-ups also appear via airdrops around the board and can be snagged by simply passing over them once they’ve landed. Weapons include sniper rifles, bombs, raw meat (for drawing attention elsewhere), emergency call-ins (for a much needed lift), sleeping gas, safe zones, and more. Each can be upgraded using points earned by killing zombies, suffering no casualties, and the like. The upgraded weapons will come in very handy as you encounter more and more difficult types of zombies, such as zombies that emit poisonous gases and bursters that explode after death. There is a great deal of strategy required to find a suitable winning method, especially one that results in no additional loss of life for the survivors.
Graphically, the game has a great look and feel. Each level takes place within one screen, so there are no issues with scrolling, panning, or zooming to confound things. The vibrant colors really pop, and everything is easily discernable. The weapon selection area comprised the lower section of the screen, with dimmed and lit buttons to indicate which weapons were active in each level. The soundtrack is a subtle, arcade-style track that stays out of the way while providing some simple auditory stimulation. The sound effects add a good deal of character and fun to the experience, especially the screaming and munching. Controls are strictly touch-based, as lines are drawn by dragging and weapons are used by tapping. We had no issue whatsoever with the controls, which felt very natural to use.
There is an awful lot to like here. We were especially fond of the way that each day differed in some significant way that felt relevant to the storyline. One day, there might be an issue with receiving munitions, so you can only use raw meat and sleeping gas to defend yourself. Another sees choppers being delayed, so you must survive for almost 2 minutes without any way to board the safety of an aircraft. It keeps gameplay fresh and forces you to employ different strategies from level to level. The fact that the choppers can only hold a specific number of passengers also forces you to rethink which survivors should be boarded on which whirlybirds. Also, the upgrades were not out-of-reach and certainly factored in to decisions made on the fly. Zombie Escape exceeded our expectations and continues to engage us with both style and substance.
Replay value is very good, as Crystal is utilized for global leaderboards and a nice achievement system. The survival mode can keep you playing well-past the point that you complete the Campaign mode, which offers three difficulty settings to enjoy. The difficulty ramp up is good, as we first failed a mission near the end of the first location and have really started to struggle at about the mid-point of the month. For a mere $0.99, Zombie Escape is 5-Dimple zombified fun.
