Atom Zombie Smasher
A little present from my brother (who is intent on screwing over my Project Completion resolution) this game was an instant hit for me, perfect for squashing some Zed if you have just half an hour or a rainy day to kill.
Gameplay
Once again a game with simple design, premise and style makes for an enjoyable experience. All you have to do is choose your unit, point and click, then let things happen. Maybe point and click again. Oh, lots of zombies? Ok, rapid pointing and clicking! Furiously panicked clicking! ARGH! THEY NEVER STOP! … The pacing is well done, and you literally dive straight in without needing to know much at all. Of course the challenges come later in the campaign when things are getting frantic, your available mercenaries aren’t your favourite (I love artillery with plenty upgrades …) and the day is short so you know those Mega Zed have another wave coming behind them!
Graphics
Despite the crackly and possibly Grindhouse inspired appearance the game has great visuals. Clean and precise where needed ( i.e. the streets and survivor / Zed indicators) but entirely in character everywhere else means that you can be happily immersed in the game without anything jarring you. You aren’t distracted by over the top effects because the B movie graphics are to the point and minimal, nor are there any awkward camera angles. Overall it has a nice coherent feel to it and I love the comics!
Extras
With community mods, little added extra vignette comics and a wide variety of options to change the campaign I think this is one of the better games for extra added value. Despite playing the “campaign” through in about 2 hours initially I have since played it again, and again, and again.
Replay Value
As I mentioned in the intro you can play just one mission to kill a little time or spend a rainy day battling the hordes of Zed. So far I’ve played around 16 hours during which I managed to get 51% of the achievements, I fully intend on trying to get all of them in the future.
A great first game to review for this year, even though I started playing it on December 30th, and thoroughly recommended for both value for money and good old zombie killing fun!
