Atom Zombie Smasher

Atom Zombie Smasher is a strategy game, and yes it is yet another game containing zombies, although they exist in the abstracted form of pixels.

In each mission, you have a top-down view of the city, and your job is to position offensive weapons, support objects, and the helicopter drop point in order to cut down the zombie population and rescue as many humans as possible. On the map, the characters are represented by coloured pixels, purple representing the zombies (known as Zed), yellow represents civilians, and blue represents scientists. These pixels move around the city streets.

Most items in your disposal have to be placed during the initial set-up. Some of these items can be interacted with during the real-time phase, but others are fixed in position and function. Mines and barricades cannot be interacted with at all. Dynamite can be triggered when you wish but cannot be moved. Infantry can be moved through the streets at will and will shoot on sight. Snipers can reposition their aim but cannot be moved. Artillery must be given a new target to fire at. Zed Bait can be placed to attract Zed to a certain location, and this replenishes after a specified time to be placed again. The helicopter drop point can be repositioned and is an important aspect to utilise. The mission is won when the target amount of civilians are rescued, but also, the helicopter sounds a horn just before it lands, which makes civilians speed up and move towards the drop zone.

In each rescue mission you have a limited time to save civilians before the sun goes down. Once it's dark, zombie hordes swarm the streets, and so your job is almost over at this point since rescuing any civilians can be a near impossible task. If you manage to wipe out all the zombies before nightfall, all remaining civilians are rescued, and the territory is claimed.

During the Campaign, all the units are slowly introduced to you which allows you to get used to the mechanics. The map screen is presented much like a board game where you see territories that you and the zombies are controlling, and you are awarded Victory Points each turn for these. The Victory terms are specified when you set-up the campaign. In each mission, Victory Points are also awarded to you based on the amount of civilians rescued, and points are awarded to Zed based on how many civilians they infected.

After each mission, more Zed appear in unoccupied territories, or the 'treat level' for currently occupied cities increases. The problem is that they appear in multiple territories but you can only attack 1 per round, so the Zed have an unfair advantage. Zombies then begin to spread exponentially once they reach threat level 4 since these territories also reinforce nearby territories which can quickly create extra threat level 4 territories. So even though you may be winning by a long way, a bit of bad luck soon turns things around.

Before each mission, you are shown the available units in your command. You don't get all your units because they go on 'away missions'. You can end up being left with barricades, dynamite and snipers, which won't be able to take down a level 4 territory.

If you chose to attack threat level 4 territories, the game plays a bit differently. Instead of rescuing civilians, you have to wipe out all zombies within the time-limit. Doing so gives you control of the city, and gives you bonus scientists.

It almost seems Blendo Games realised these problems, so to fix it, they made Llama bombs that are given to you at seemingly random points. This allows you to cleanse multiple territories with a few clicks. I would have much preferred to be able to disable Level 4 cities and Llama bombs, because I think they ruin the game-play mechanics.

Scientists give you points to spend in upgrades. These can increase helicopter speed, artillery shell quantity, experience gain etc. Each unit you have can gain experience due to the amount of kills or effective use. Units like Snipers can increase their fire rate and reposition time. Units like dynamite and blockades increase the number you can place down.

Overall, Atom Zombie Smasher is a good game, but I felt the Level 4 territory idea was far too effective and soon turned the tables whilst being beyond your control. It seemed no matter how well you did during the initial phases, the Zeds would always catch up and then you rely on luck to pull it back. Due to the fact they could spread so quickly, the map can become pure Level 4. This means the game-play changes because you aren't rescuing civilians any more, only destroying zombies; which I found to be not as fun.

Not all that good of a game. Its the zombie apocalypse, and on several missions your objective is to save as many people as you can. As the commanding officer, your job is to place your defenses as best as you can to stall the incoming zombie horde to get the civilians safe on the heli.

Its top down view and cartoony visuals scream low budget, but im not too bothered by them. I mean its a tower defense game at its core, with a focus on micro management of your troops. The game starts easy enough, but it quickly escalates in difficulty. It also has a tendency to save after every mission, including the ones that didnt went so well for your side. Its very repetitive and i quickly grew bored of playing it.