Game Reviews

Zombie Infection (iPhone)

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Zombie Infection (iPhone)

What exactly happens if a zombie can't find a brain to eat? Does it starve to undeath?

It doesn't really matter in most games however because long before starvation sets in, you'll have shot off its limbs and stomped its head.

In an ironic way then, the only sustenance is your own killing frenzy, and Zombie Infection dishes it out one bloody helping at a time. This enjoyable if predictable survival-horror game doesn't offer up any new flavours, yet it is filling in its own way.

Investigative duo Damien Sharpe and Alex Rayne travel to Brazil with the hope of blowing the whistle on inhumane corporate practises (are there any other?), but as you discover in the opening moments of Zombie Infection, the situation is a lot worse than anticipated.

With the local population succumbing to a virulent chemical compound, shooting them dead is the only option for survival.

Food for thought

While inspired from hallmarks of the survival-horror genre, Zombie Infection is more shooter than anything else.

Puzzles are few and far between; instead, pulling the trigger is what gets you through the 12-mission single player story. There's a Survival mode that unlocks once you've completed the campaign, which lets you post high scores based on how long you can last against a never-ending stream of zombies, but the main attraction is the story.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that it reads as though it was written by someone who's brain had already been munched on by a zombie, yet like any suspenseful adventure it's more about the intensity of the scenarios and Zombie Infection delivers its share of thrills.

From taming zombie lions in a zoo and making shoes out of a giant crocodile to taking out a zombified crane operator, the action is as varied as it is visceral.

Eating bullets

Combat revolves around guns. Tapping the attack button in the lower-right switches to aiming stance, which moves the camera over Damien's or Alex's right shoulder. Hit the attack button again and a shot is fired. You're thankfully able to move while firing, though the inability to reload and walk at the same time is annoying.

You can also throw punches as Damien or deliver a roundhouse kick as Alex by pressing the melee attack button adjacent to the weapons fire key. Additionally, special instant-kill fatalities can be triggered whenever you've drained an enemy's health or knocked them down. A red icon appears, which instigates the final blow when tapped.

It's a good, straightforward combat system. The lack of convoluted puzzles - often a source of frustration in classic survival-horror games - benefits Zombie Infection, allowing the focus to rest purely on the action.

Dealing with the different zombies that appear within new level - basic shambling zombies, construction undead protected by hard hats, even zombie dogs - is entertaining. That you can shoot off individual limbs is particularly satisfying.

Pathological

Of course, none of this is surprising or new.

Zombie Infection synthesises elements from other games into an enjoyable, though altogether predictable experience. It's not offensive by any means, yet it's also not a game that inspires much awe either. The easy-going combat kept me interested to see the adventure through, but I never found myself pumped up to play.

To be blunt, you're unlikely to get massively excited about Zombie Infection as you venture from one predictable level to the next.

This isn't to say you can't enjoy the action, yet the package as a whole lacks the sort of thrilling edge that define the best examples of the genre.

Zombie Infection (iPhone)

Cooked up using elements from the most noted games in the genre, Zombie Infection is a predictable, yet filling survival-horror action romp
Score
Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.