Developer: Loren Lemcke
Publisher: Mastertronic
Platforms: PC
Over 9000 Zombies – Preview
There are plenty of survival games where you are one of the few survivors of the apocalypse. In fact, these types of games seem to be growing like weeds nowadays. Every once in a while, one manages to bring a zombie survival game that has essentially the same goal but plays completely different. This is where Over 9000 Zombies from Loren Lemcke comes in. In Over 9000 Zombies you will need to blast your way through hordes of zombies in top-down arcade-like graphics and build defensive walls and turrets in order to save yourself. Just remember, you will die in the end.
In Over 9000 Zombies, the goal is to recreate the ultimate chaos that one would find during an apocalypse, or in this case a zombie outbreak. This goal has been achieved perfectly as chaos is all you will find yourself in.
As for the gameplay, you will spawn at a crossroad with five seconds to spare until the zombies start to spawn around you. While the map is quite large and requires several plays to discover the entire map, it continues to be the same map over and over. This is not a major annoyance but by having to play the same map over and over, you will eventually figure out the best spots to build your defenses. Building your defenses can be done via the Build Menu which shows two types of walls and several types of turrets. The building menu is clear but the mechanic is slightly troubling. If you have begun building, you need to close and re-open the building menu to pick a different type of wall or turret, otherwise you will continue building what you have previously picked. Once you have found a spot that works for you, surviving the incoming hordes becomes easier each time and this takes away some of the chaos. However, something that can easily be missed during the chaos is the fact that the zombies cannot spawn inside the houses. Tactics using this fact seems to work best. Every day in the game lasts between five to ten minutes and you can save the game in case you need to run off. It will be easy to figure out when a day is about to end as it will become darker and darker, ultimately leaving a light spot around the character. Than the game will warn you that the day has ended so you can still run off to kill any remaining zombies and pick up precious metal scraps which you will need to build defensive walls and turrets. Each day has different kinds of zombies or a mixture of previous zombies which not only increases the difficulty but also adds variation in the gameplay. However, don’t be surprised when you find yourself shooting through a horde of zombie dogs, crows and even crabs.
The game can be played with a controller or the traditional mouse and keyboard. The first option will certainly give you a more clearer sense of playing an arcade shooter but personally I prefer the traditional means of playing as the mouse provides more accuracy. This is not your main focus here however as there is a good variation of weapons that can drop. With that comes many ways to utterly destroy the incoming zombie hordes ranging from the traditional shooting to burning to bombing them in the face. There are some overpowered weapons such as the Plasma Projector which will shoot three rows of plasma. Weapons like these do not require the accuracy needed for a sniper rifle. Additionally, the zombies will also drop a healthy dose of grenades, health packs and power ups ranging from unlimited ammo to speed boosts to rapid fire. These power ups do not stack but are still a great way to help you survive the day.
There is also a co-op mode but once you start a co-op game you will immediately find yourself at the crossroads while your co-op partner is not yet in the game. During the early stages this does not really matter much but it is a small annoyance during later stages. These co-op games are slightly easier than the single player mode and the waves remain the same. A little more variation in the waves would have been welcome. Both your partner and you can pick up scrap metal so there is a certain need for communication when it comes down to building your defenses. Luckily, if you die in co-op mode you can respawn as long as your partner manages to stay alive. We did however manage to find a fairly large bug in co-op mode when your partner has left the game via the menu and re-enters your game. Doing this will cause the day announcements and countdowns to completely mess up for your partner. There are a few more bugs in the game but these are purely mathematical bugs that will make it easier to unlock certain achievements.
Visually the game will bring back memories from childhoods that were spend on the Amiga, the Atari or in a video arcade hall. The top-down shooter element of the game will only magnify these memories. However, as it is an arcade game it tends to be repetitive and storyless while there is enough content for a storyline to form. After all, you are trying to survive during a zombie outbreak. Who are you? Where did the zombies come from? What town are you in and most importantly, how did you get there? These are simple questions that can easily become the backbone of a small story but for now, the game remains without story.
At release there were no sound options available, or at least not in depth. The developer patched the game only two days after the Early Access release with a new sound options menu where you can now change the levels of the music and sound effects. This is a great feature to have, if it worked like it should. This is where the shoe pinches. Even if you have turned down your sound to zero percent, you will still be able to hear your co-op partner shooting his way through the hordes. Additionally, when you restart the game, these settings will be lost and you will need to go through the sound options menu once more. Apart from the sound options that refuse to save, there is a resolution setting in the game but you can only toggle between a few preset options. Choosing your preferred resolution from the start is not an option and you will need to go through several resolutions until you can find a suitable one. Furthermore you can toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode.
Conclusion
Over 9000 Zombies may be yet another zombie game but by using the graphical features one could find in arcade games, it feels more original than the majority of zombie games currently out there. Just like arcade games, Over 9000 Zombies is repetitive and addictive but will provide you with countless of bloody hours spend. While the game is in early access, it does not feel like it is unfinished but there is still room for improvements and additional content. So far the game is great as it is although it may not be for everyone as it is a very specific genre.
Over 9000 Zombies - Preview,
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