Platform Reviewed: PC
Platforms Available: PC
Publisher: Mastertronic Group Ltd.
Developer: Loren Lemcke
Release Date: February 25, 2015
MSRP: USD $9.99 (Php. 319.95)
What does the scouter say about this zombie shooter?
Over 9000 Zombies! is a top-down zombie shooter created by indie developer Loren Lemcke and published by Mastertronic. Just recently out from being an early access game, Over 9000 Zombies! puts you in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with zombies coming from all over the sides. With your gun a blazin’, you do your best to survive hordes of zombies out to eat your flesh day after day and collect scraps of metal to put up turrets and walls for some added defense, all while trying to avoid making your day even worse by stepping on some dog poo. Who likes to step on dog poo, anyway?
In Over 9000 Zombies!, you start off with yourself, a gun, and some grenades in a map. Zombies will start appearing just seconds after; their numbers infinite as more zombies appear for each one you put down. The zombies occasionally drop stuff such as more grenades, health packs, and scraps of metal. A wave ends after one game day and the zombies will stop hunting you and start retreating or wandering aimlessly, giving you a minute to finish them off, grab some more drops, and set-up your defenses with the scrap you collected for the next wave of zombies.
With Over 9000 Zombies!, you gain experience points each time you kill off a zombie. After reaching 100% experience, you will unlock stronger weapons, each different with their own attributes. You can then acquire more experience points to unlock more weapons. The weapons you unlock depend on what weapon you mowed down the zombies with, giving you a weapon tree. Despite having reload times, you don’t need to worry about ammo as it is as infinite as the amount of zombies you’ll face.
The zombies that Over 9000 Zombies! showcase range from the regular, easy to take down zombie to floating arsonist eyeballs that spit out fireballs. There are even zombie politicians and historical figures that rarely show up on the map. These guys are tough to put down so patience is needed, so is more firepower. There are waves that feature only one or two kinds of zombies while some waves have them all at the same time.
With the scraps of metal you gathered, you can have an array of turrets that can help you lessen the number of the zombie horde. There are turrets that shoot out bullets to turrets that shoot out fireballs that incinerate zombies into ashes. (Hah! Take that, you pesky eyeballs!) There are also turrets that shoot out plasma beams and grenades. These turrets are also vulnerable to damage so it is best to surround them with tough walls. You can also build some sort of a fort or a maze, but you wouldn’t be entirely safe in the four corners of your enclosure because the zombies can literally sprout from the ground under your feet sometimes. After a wave, you are given one point to spend for upgrading one of your attributes, be it for additional damage or for resource gathering.
As always in a zombie infestation, awareness and quick reflexes is key to survival. With all the zombies present in Over 9000 Zombies! on a map at a given time, it is easy to be overwhelmed and be cornered. Zombies can spawn everywhere and every moment within a wave so presence of mind is needed to avoid being ganked. Fortunately, you won’t get any damage from a hitbox collision with a zombie so don’t worry barging through a couple of zombies as long as it is done within a fraction of a second. Avoid fireballs at all costs, though. Those things can hurt you instantly.
Over 9000 Zombies! is done with pixel graphics with smooth movements. What’s satisfying to see in this game, besides the explosion and the low-res gore, is how the chunks of undead meat behave after blowing the zombies up; they fly off to the direction according to how they were shot. It’s that small detail that makes a whole lot of difference. Although, I believe that those floating eyeballs are just arsonists in an eyeball costume since they leave out charred human corpses when they die by incineration. It’s ironic, I know.
The music that accompanies you throughout your undead carnage in Over 9000 Zombies! is electro-rock, which is a good combination. Zombie apocalypse plus electro-rock is great but zombie apocalypse plus dubstep equals perfection. There’s just something oh so wonderful when you are out set to slaughter walking corpses and then the bass drops; you just know that you get pumped up and all hell breaks loose.
You can hook up with friends and other zombie killers to fight side by side in the multiplayer mode. Players can then compare scores and see how good they did with the online scoreboard. You can also design your own level in which you can wage your battles in and share it with the rest of the gaming community via Steam Workshop.
Overall, Over 9000 Zombies! is a great game for those who just want to massacre zombies endlessly and see how long they can survive. Despite being presented through pixel graphics, it still manages to deliver satisfaction to their players with the intensity of the action happening throughout every wave. Being a relatively new game, players of Over 9000 Zombies! can expect more updates and content added to this game in the future which would definitely provide more hours of fun to the already entertaining game.
Over 9000 Zombies! provides its players that enjoyment of an all out, massive zombie carnage and it has done so through nice pixel graphics and accompanied by pumped up electro-rock music.
Over 9000 Zombies! is available on Steam for $9.99.
This review is based off a copy provided by Mastertronic.