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I, Zombie Indie Game Review

I, Zombie Indie Game Review

To get this out of the way, I, Zombie has absolutely nothing to do with the CW show and comic book of the same name.

In I, Zombie you take control of the leader of a zombie horde. Your object in most levels is to turn all of the humans on the map into zombies. Once you have turned a human into a zombie, you can then control them. You can make your zombie horde follow you, attack the humans, or stop and wait for you to give them orders.

I, Zombie is kind of a combination of a strategy/puzzle/stealth game. The game utilizes mechanics from all three of these genres. The stealth element comes into play since you have to sneak up on the humans especially the soldiers. The soldiers have superior firepower so if you go guns blazing you will be killed very quickly. The strategy element comes into play with controlling the other zombies. You don’t directly control the other zombies but you can tell them when to attack, when to follow you and when to stop where they are. You need to time their attacks so they get a jump on the soldiers and aren’t killed before they reach them. Finally each level is essentially a puzzle. In order to finish the levels you need to figure out the correct order and how to attack all of the humans so you aren’t killed in the process.

As a whole I, Zombie had the makings of a good game. The game is fun to play and does a good job blending the various gameplay mechanics. The game has some interesting puzzles that provide some genuine challenge.

As far as difficulty I would consider I, Zombie to be a moderately difficult game. The first levels are pretty easy especially after you get a handle on the game mechanics. The game does ramp up in difficulty quite a bit especially in the last couple of levels. Except for the early levels, the game requires a lot of trial and error. You will die quite a bit as you try and figure out the optimal way to finish the level. The last couple levels are particularly frustrating and difficult. These levels are frustrating since you pretty much need to get the precise timing down in order to beat the level. The last level in particular requires almost perfect timing in order to avoid death.

The graphics are overall pretty nice. There isn’t a lot of variety in the types of zombies or humans but they look nice. I think the characters are a little too small though. The levels are so zoomed out at times that it is hard to see any details on the zombies and humans.

The biggest problem with the game is that it feels unfinished. The game does a good job adding new puzzle mechanics and designs throughout. It seems like the game is starting to build up and then it just suddenly ends. It feels like you have reached the end of the first act/world but it is actually the end of the game. The game only has 20 levels and will take you less than two hours to finish unless you want to 100% the game. This is disappointing since I, Zombie could have been a better game if more levels were included.

In addition to the length I, Zombie has a couple other smaller issues.

First your zombie followers tend to get stuck in corners and on walls. When you are designing your strategy you need to try and avoid corners as much as possible since your zombies will get stuck in them which will slow them down enough that they will get slaughtered by the soldiers and you will lose the level.

Another issue is that there was no indication of where the soldiers can see. Without the soldiers’ line of sight you pretty much just need to guess whether a soldier can see you. You will usually guess wrong since the soldiers seem to always have different lines of sight. You will think you are far enough away from the soldier but he will still start firing on you. This leads to a lot of trial and error where you pretty much need to test how far the soldiers can see. This trial and error could have been easily avoided.

I, Zombie is an interesting game. The game is actually quite a bit of fun. The problem is that it relies too much on trial and error during the last levels and the game is just too short. If you like puzzle, strategy, or stealth games I think you will have some fun playing I, Zombie. Even though the game only starts at $2, I would try to wait for a sale to get a good deal on the game.