A downloadable game for Windows and Linux.
A fun game. If you liked the old 'Resident Evil' and 'Alone in the Dark' games, or the likes of 'House of the Dead' - that is, games with PS1 graphics and a degree of cheeze - it will probably be up your alley: you get to shoot zombies, and it's in first person! ;)
Overall, I say the game has potential, and could even work as a VR project, if done right.
Below, there be spoilers!
Don't read below this point!
The good things:
- Several guns: pistol, dual pistols, shotgun, double-shotgun, SMG, and a secret weapon that I'm not sure I should disclose.
- Level design is good; it's not complex enough to get lost in, but still engaging. Some might complain about backtracking, but personally, I thought it was alright. I've played games with heavier backtracking than this.
- Enemies are somewhat varied, which is good. More on this below though.
- Collecting all the 'Intel' items is apparently supposed to give you something extra at the very end, but I never found them all, so I don't know. What I'm saying is that it's great to have stuff to find.
- Also, secrets!
- Zombies lose parts of their bodies the more damage they take!!
A few things that should be addressed:
- The enemies are not varied enough. You have three (3) melee walking zombie variants, one (1) walking 'gunner' zombie variants, three (3) crawling zombie variants (which are the same as the walkers), and one (1) 'living' EC Trooper variant. The problem with the zombies? They have three variants, but there doesn't seem to be any difference in the damage they take. The EC Troopers behave the same as the gunner zombies - they just stand there and shoot at you, sometimes trying to chase you - make them more mobile at least(!), and they aren't attacked by the zombies at all! You'd think that given what's at stake, the Corporation would send troops armed with SMGs and shotguns (remember the RE movies?), but apparently, it doesn't care enough. So yeah, give them a more serious gun, at least on highest difficulty. Also on this, the Troopers feel even weaker than the zombies - only two (2) pistol headshots vs the zombies' four (4).
- Some of the secret walls are broken - they're invisible, so they're not exactly secret. Also on this: many of the secrets aren't at all obvious, so the game has you wallhumping in the best traditions of 90's fps. But the 90's games at least had visual clues like a slightly different texture or cracks. That being said, it's also not clear that certain secrets can be activated via computer terminals (unless I missed mention of this in the briefing?). Also, some switches are placed in really silly locations: there's a secret switch above a toilet in one level. How's that a secret anyway?
- The SMG feels weaker than even the pistol. If it takes you four (4) headshots to kill a zombie with a pistol, you can easily waste up to ten (10) rounds with the SMG, especially if you shoot continuously. Maybe it has to do with spread? Shooting the EC troops in the chest seems to contradict this. It's not very good as a stopping weapon against big groups of enemies either, because the spread isn't wide enough. The double-shotgun could use a touch-up on its spread too, because it doesn't feel very different from the regular shotgun, and indeed, is actually somewhat worse since it only has two shots and the double-shot isn't very strong.
- The PC doesn't have any hands, so your gun just floats in front of you.
Some nitpicks:
- The levels, although fun, aren't always logical. For example, there's a lab complex under the mansion, yet there are still labs in the mansion itself. Why?
- It's kinda nice to have to save survivors - the things they say once you save them are fun and endearing, in a way - but if you're fighting zombies, how are the survivors still not infected?
- The 'Intel' item feels kinda arcade-y given how it's a computer processor case. It's not a problem per say, just something I've figured should be mentioned. The 'Health' item is a plastic water bottle. Again, not a big problem, but feels a bit useless when you're fighting bio-mutant zombies.
- The zombies swarm you out of nowhere for no reason at all. Yes, it's a game and you need to get challenged and attacked when you pick up a key item or activate a switch, but at least make it a bit more reasonable.
- There's no final boss. I've had no incentive to use the special weapon because the regular guns were enough to deal with the mooks. I was hoping there was gonna be some powerful enemy that would require me to use the special gun, but alas, there wasn't any.