Before I start my review in earnest let me just say this, go buy this game. Like right now. This game is beautiful on a scale of which I have not seen and I could not sing higher praises of it. Even if you won’t take my word for it, trust the metacritic score of 86, trust the steam review rating of 96% positive (at time of writing) and trust the two awards it has won already. Now with that out of the way, let me explain my position for you lovely people…
Zombie Night Terror is made by NoClip. It is produced by Gambitious Digital Entertainment and is a strategy game at heart but honestly I also want to say it tastes like a hint of puzzle game in my mouth, deliciously sweet puzzley goodness. The game is simple. You ARE the zombie apocalypse. In a very Lemmings fashion you command your zombies across the pixely 2D levels to munch on all of the humans that lay before you. Keep the infection going and the fun follows suit. Having difficulty with some walking TV dinners? Use your roster of zombie powers such as explode, quick run and jump to get those hard to reach delicious morsels. Each power you use will cost you DNA however, you gain DNA by eating humans, picking up DNA barrels or by sacrificing some of your own to whatever dark gods pull the strings of these end times.
The game starts just outside a cinema. A new drug has hit the streets and all the cool kids are doing it! (Author’s note: The author does not in any shape or form condone or support the distribution of experimental and/or illegal drugs, but it is really cool though.) However this batch has some ill-favoured side effects. Side effects being it will turn you into a shambling corpse to add to the army of the undead, the only buzz you’ll be getting from this is the buzz of a chainsaw! Using some basic commands, direct your zombies into the paths of the screaming, helpless and frankly quite delicious people. The comedy that comes out of the dialogue is simply put, amazing. Tutorials are given to you by little TVs that play a news report and all along the bottom you see funny little headlines, not to mention a few easter eggs hidden around. All of the people speak in something similar tp Simoleon and compliments the comedy in the speech bubbles brilliantly. The levels are so intelligently put together, requiring you to use all the skills at your disposal (jumping, exploding, infecting etc) to spread the infection as far and as wide as is inhumanly possible. The challenges that come with each level is also simply that, challenging. Often times you’ll realise sort of how to achieve them but you just can’t do it, you need to think about where the zombies need to go and where they should be at what time and it’s really hard! And that’s the way it should be! Because when you complete one of those challenges you feel a sense of achievement. Gameplay alone leaves you in awe when you see two groups of zombies closing in on a few victims caught between them with nowhere to run, or in one level where you have to charge 28 zombies into a drug cartel den, armed to the teeth with guards, drug smugglers and… Err… Prostitutes…
Graphically speaking the game is very pretty. The pixel art 2D style of the game is perfectly suited to the style of play, the gore is oh so very satisfying, especially when characters plunge to their deaths. All of the animations are crispy, spicy goodness; from the sacrificial burning of zombies to regain DNA to the biting of a victim’s neck *munch munch munch*. The background music is eery and the screams/jibberish language/sound effects all nicely capture what the game is trying to portray, that everyone is going to die… :^)
In review I give this game a 10/10. There is nothing wrong with this game. It all works perfectly. Everything is perfect. This game is the software equivalent of a well made BLT. Now go buy this game. In fact, buy it twice I want the developer to release more.
