Overdue Review: Undead Double Feature (PC)

Whether mowing them down in a limousine or lighting them on fire with a stick, Butler absolutely cannot get enough zombie action.  How do Zombie Driver and Burn, Zombie Burn shape up in the arguably oversaturated undead market?  Find out after the jump!

As some of you may have noticed, I've been delving more and more into the realm of indie titles of late, and have found that for the most part, there are some great games out there that are marred by a price point that is just a little higher than I feel the titles are worth.  But by now, we all know what a hard on I have for Steam's holiday sales, so when I noticed a pack of 5 games for 5 bucks that had a couple of titles I had been eyeballing for some time, I snapped that shit up.  I wanted to review all 5 titles, but sadly, lacking a time machine, I have only had opportunity to give two of them a solid shake.  So let's get to it!

The premise of Exor Studios' Zombie Driver is nothing terribly original.  Some accident happens at a chemical plant, people in the town are getting turned in to zombies, and there is obviously some shady business with the government and the corporation behind the chemical spill.  You play as an unnamed guy in a car who gets sent in to the city to rescue survivors, scientists, military personnel etc. all while trying to uncover the root of the infection and the origin of the increasingly questionable orders you are given.  But I've said it before and I'll say it again: who the hell cares about the plot of zombie games anymore?  Not to sound too callous, but it's pretty much all been done, and I'm totally fine with that as long as the game is backed by solid gameplay.  And Zombie Driver delivers that in spades.

As you can see from the screenshot at right, the game features a top down old school GTA style of play.  The missions are always "go to this location, kill zombies, rescue survivors, get back to base", which may sound bland at first, but let me elaborate a bit.  The game features multiple unlockable vehicles, some optional, some as part of the course of the game, that are all ranked according to their armor, ramming ability, and speed, as well as how many passengers they can carry.  Additionally, you can choose from front mounted machine guns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, or a rail gun to make clearing out thick crowds or tougher enemies a little easier.  All of these weapons and features (save carrying capacity) can be upgraded with money you get for killing zombies and completing missions.  Depending on how far you have to drive, how many survivors you need to rescue, and the secondary objective of the mission, you need to take different vehicles or make sure to equip a certain weapon before you head out into the masses, and this is what keeps the game fresh for hours.

Zombie Driver is not without its flaws, and though they don't detract from the game significantly, they do bear mentioning.  There is no mini map and the waypoints that the game sets up for you are incredibly vague, which can make later missions (that are made or broken based on the efficiency of your route) somewhat frustrating.  The voice acting is also cringe inducingly bad, and not in a particularly funny way, almost as if all of the voice actors decided that acting = bad and semi-racist foreign accents.  The vehicles also seem somewhat unbalanced, as their is a significant stretch where there is absolutely no point in using anything other than the limo, making me regret the money I had spent upgrading the sports car (which I used a whopping one time).  But honestly, this game cost me one dollar (and it will continue to cost such until January 2nd), so I simply cannot complain about any of these aspects with any heart.  Download it now.  It's fantastic.  Now, on to game number two!

Burn, Zombie Burn (developed by Doublesix) takes a much more straightforward approach.  There is no plot per se, just score, timed, guard, and challenge missions.  The game plays like a combination of Robotron and SAS Zombie Assault.  You are Bruce, and your goal is to kill as many zombies as possible.  Weapons spawn in different locations across the game's handful of maps and it is up to you to not only mow down as many zombies as you can, but light as many as you can on fire to increase your score multiplier.  The more zombies on fire, the more points each kill is worth (multiplied by the number of flaming undead).  However, burning zombies drop different powerups from normal zombies, so there is always a give and take as to whether or not to kill those flaming mavens that are bumping your score higher ever higher.  They also don't stay on fire forever, so re-lighting is a must.

The screenshot at right actually shows a pretty tame bit of gameplay.  Believe me when I tell you that this game has a difficulty curve that is pretty damned steep.  Zombies spawn in significantly faster than you can usually take them out, and while the bronze medal on each level or challenge is usually not terribly  difficult to obtain, but I have yet to even approach silver, as you must survive something on the order of 75+ waves of zombies.  Maybe I just suck, but I don't know, this game feels very difficult.  Still, because it has no real plot, no campaign, just mini games (racking up a high score, keeping a timer alive, keeping an innocent bystander alive, or challenges with specific equipment or scenarios) it is a great game to play for 10 minutes at a time and simply be done for a bit.  I certainly haven't played this for the multi-hour stretches that I played Zombie Driver, but again, given that I got the game for 1 motherfucking dollar, I am really hard up to complain.  It certainly doesn't really have the addictive quality of Zombie Driver, as there is nothing to upgrade or progress, but it is a charming, tightly designed game that will have you at least a little impressed, in spite of its difficulty and semi-repetitive nature.

I really cannot stress the value of these games at present.  I mentioned in my review of Shank and AAAAAA! that a lot of indie games get marred by a price point that is set somewhat beyond the value of the game.  And even if you don't buy them in the bundle (though I don't know why you wouldn't), even the $5 apiece they are asking for the games a la carte is a worthy bid.  Besides, who can argue with mowing down hundreds of zombies at a time to a bitchin' punk/metal soundtrack?  Not I, dear readers.  Not I.