I've been interested in anything zombie since I could remember, before they became the hit they are today. I'm still addicted to them despite becoming mainstream and largely about comedies; this game is anything but a comedy, backed by how bleak the setting looks.

I was drawn in from the get-go, where enemies are actually dangerous, and supplies are scarce assuming you try and take on the whole undead horde along the way.


Story
Before we get into the present day, a flashback occurs to give some backstory to our male main character named Jonathan. Five years ago he gave his wedding vows to a woman you find out he couldn't actually protect. It shows why he's so protective of the person in his group now, a young woman named Michelle, who acts as an optimist to Jonathan's pessimist.

Jonathan and Michelle's safe-house has been breached, so they decide to move on in hopes of finding their next safe haven. The story largely stays on this point, as the rest of the game is about surviving the whole way with limited supplies blocked by all kinds of dead people; the moving kind.

The ending comes as very abrupt, and makes me assume this is part of a larger story in the works, because after the only boss in the game, the game ends not a minute after.


Gameplay
I decided to be one of the crazy people who tried to kill as many of the undead as my supplies would allow, which does pay off near the level cap (12) where Michelle learns an in battle healing move. Before that, you're only option of healing HP is the use of items, most of which can only be used outside of battle. By the way, the level cap for your canine friend is only 5, which you could totally beat the game at.

Since you can hit the level cap a little more than halfway through the game (assuming you go killing everything that moves), it pays to avoid enemies every now and then to conserve your limited supplies and your nerves. I assume that's the way this game is meant to be played. Scattered throughout the city are boxes you can strategically push to make sure zombies have a hard time following you, sometimes stopping them from catching you at all.

It's a good idea to get a feel for avoiding the faster enemies, especially the Infected dogs, because closer to the end there's a mini-game where avoiding the enemies is the entire point, and not doing so will get you killed if you have bad reflexes.

It was nice going into abandoned buildings and foraging for supplies, although I found it kind of odd that there was nothing at all to be found in the large number of vehicles scattered across the streets. Instead it's mostly dumpster diving, bags, or trashcans, which are luckily very easy to locate.

You can also find a very limited amount of ammo for the guns in the game, but this is better left for the boss, since that bad boy has about 1000 HP and your melee attacks aren't going to do so much.

Regular enemies also have a good amount of health, which only means spamming attack isn't going to cut it all the time. If things get too difficult, it pays to wait until you can heal yourself, since levels come fairly easy, and even though Michelle's heal is a godsend, it's not required to finish the game.


Graphics
With fog overlays, and the gray color tones, the game definitely looks the part. The post apocalyptic wasteland full of zombies looks rightfully bleak and dreary, vastly improving the experience.

The most easy to spot rips for me were the various different SNES Shin Megami Tensei games for the battlers, while most of the faces come from Xenogears. The battle backgrounds look really neat, but I think InfectionFiles put quite the bit of zombie repellent to the right of them, because most of the Infected congregated to the left, even after the battleback stops containing sinkholes to the right.


Sound
There's some variety, but since the music, including the battle music, is largely atmospheric, it might be hard to tell you're not listening to the same song most of the time.

That's mostly a testament to how fitting they are for their backgrounds though; I do promise to those paying attention that there's a good amount of song choice in the game.

As for the sound effects, the sounds are minimal and only played when important. For example, there's actually no cursor sounds at all, same goes to when confirming or canceling a command.


Bugs for the Dev
♦ "We will do what we have too." should be to. It happens after Jonathan's nightmare when he gets some air on the roof.


Stray Observations
♣ It's a good thing my characters were immune (story-wise) to infection, because they were scratched and bit more times than I cared to count.
♣ Is that a hobo? No, it's just some guy diving in for canned ham.
♣ Infected that fall in battle stay dead for the rest of the game, which I liked. Otherwise who knows how dead I'd be with my obsessive need to kill enemies I see.
♣ Skills don't use MP, so don't hold back.
♣ The lockpick mini-game was super easy.

I can tell a lot of work was put into making this game as good as possible. Sometimes when the enemies were dead, the slow walking around got annoying, but I think it'd probably be worse off with normal speed quickly moving through everything and avoiding stuff where the strategy for avoidance is good as is.

Also a lot of the enemies had boatloads of HP, but it did even things out since their damage output was so low. Either way I consider this a really good game that I'd recommend to anyone reading this review.