Game Reviews

Zombie Crisis 3D 2: Hunter

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Zombie Crisis 3D 2: Hunter

"When there’s no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth."

Those chilling words from George A. Romero’s seminal horror flick Dawn of the Dead easily apply to the current raft of zombie games currently afflicting iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Each week there's a fresh set of shambling corpses to dispatch, and with them comes the overbearing stench of decaying originality. Zombie Crisis 3D 2: Hunter is another addition to the mountain of me-too undead slaying escapades, and it unfortunately fails to distinguish itself in any area.

Tastes like brains

Although Zombie Crisis 3D 2 is anything but original and innovative, it does at least attempt to do things a little differently from its predecessor. The first game was a first-person, on-rails shooter in the same vein as legendary coin-op title House of the Dead. This sequel takes the top-down, twin-stick shooter approach.

Initially, the shift appears to have been wise. The controls are responsive, and the auto-aiming and auto-fire system has a certain elegance about it. You only need to worry about keeping your character out of harm’s way - although as the game progresses this task becomes near-impossible, allowing intense frustration to rear its ugly head.

The problem is that in later levels avoiding enemy attacks just isn’t an option. Since the camera is focused tightly on your character, the screen quickly becomes crowded when multiple enemies are inbound.

Evasive action

While the vast majority of the zombies are only capable of inflicting damage when in close range, some possess projectile attacks. Frustratingly, you have no chance of avoiding them when you’re trying to concentrate on the more pressing matter of not becoming dinner.

Although you’re equipped with a leap manoeuvre which allows you to evade attacks, it covers such a considerable distance that it often places you in an even more problematic position. Your only real hope for survival is to keep moving and toggle quickly between your weapons.

Aside from your standard gun, all other armaments have limited amounts of ammunition, although ammo boxes are periodically dropped by vanquished enemies. Picking the right gun for the job is imperative if you want to last more than a few seconds.

The big, lumbering zombies take several shots and are best dispatched with the rocket launcher, but the smaller, slower variety aren’t worth wasting such valuable ammo on, so you should always attack those with your default weapon.

Speak the English?

Aside from the stifling lack of originality and the desperately unfair difficulty, Zombie Crisis 3D 2 is blessed with one of the most cack-handed English translations I’ve had the misfortune to witness. Even the most basic of statements is unintentionally hilarious.

At one point your character muses about the large volume of sticky green "slim" on the floor.

To make matters worse, there are some particularly cheeky in-app purchase options: you can pay cash to unlock unlimited ammunition for all of your weapons. While this cheapens the game in a sense, it's actually a fine way to remove some of the frustration that blights Zombie Crisis 3D 2.

One can only hope that the undead craze is slowly but surely starting to wane, because this game is proof that developers have scraped the skull cavity completely dry.

Zombie Crisis 3D 2: Hunter

Cursed with a lack of innovation, an unduly harsh challenge and a terrible script, Zombie Crisis 3D 2 is one of the less appealing twin-stick shooters currently available for iOS devices
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Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.