In 1991 a nifty game called Lemmings was unleashed onto the world and by the end of that decade, the little green haired tikes had infiltrated almost every gaming platform on the planet. In the main, game concepts had to work with very limited resources back then and so game developers had to come up with clever ideas for fun gameplay. In this way, Lemmings was pure genius and became an instant hit due to its accessibility.
This week I have been playing Zombie Night Terror, a game that has already been dubbed Lemmings mixed with zombies and I think that is a pretty fair description. A drug called Romero (a nod to George Romero who directed the many famous zombie films) has caused the outbreak and it is now your task to spread the infection across the city via the undead. I honestly thought after playing Dying Light (my favourite zombie game ever) I'd never need another, but this game really does feel like it has something new to offer: because you ARE the zombie horde.
The levels are filled with humans and it is your task to help the zombies horde chow down (and thus turn them into your Zeds) until you have enough for the level to be complete. The player (that's you) has numerous ways to influence the environments but you never actually take direct control over the zombies, it's like you are a conductor in a symphony about the undead apocalypse.
Some doors will give under the weight of a zombie pounding on them, others have a button underneath that gives you control over when they can be smashed, also staircases can be flipped to guide the shufflers through the level. As you progress new mutations are unlocked and give you a greater degree of control but obviously this is met with more challenging puzzles. On occasion, you are given a few syringes of Romero that will directly turn a human of your choosing but these have to be used sparingly to get out of reach groups of humans. All mutations are paid for by using us a limited pool of DNA which can be replenished in a few ways including eating the flesh of the living and sacrificing your own brain eating minions. As you might expect the mutations start off simple (explode, run, jump) but it is the combination of certain skills where the challenge lies. One mutation turns a zombie into an Overlord which blocks the path of normal biters, useful in itself but then these Overlords explode with much more oomph and can also be given the jump mutation to fling your zombies in a direction of your choosing.
Not all humans are defenceless cattle either, some are armed with sticks, pistols and of course the bane of any zombie horde: the shotgun. These enemies will usually decimate your standard zombies and so coming up with ways to get close without losing most of your army is often fun and challenging.
This is unmistakably a pixel art game, it looks great with good animation and a general 'B-movie' feel to the visuals and menus. When zombies and people die in explosive ways the ground and walls will be decorated with red pixel blood in a very satisfying way. The sound effects are as good as you would want them to be and the gnawing, gnashing undead sound spot on. I have noticed a few sound bugs such as explosions being silent and such but no real problems. The music captures the mood very well with a techno beat that has classic 'scary B-movie' elements, again, it does the job.
Summary
I have been taking on smaller games recently and it makes a refreshing change for me not to have to spend three days typing up a review. This is a cracking game that I can easily recommend to fans of the themes within or the general puzzle genre. On top of the level base requirements for completion, there are achievements which will also add a degree of replay but be warned these can be very difficult. I hope Steam workshop will also be able to add plenty of user made assets which will obviously extend the replay value a great deal. As it stands there is a limited about of levels and content (just enough to justify the price point) but some may want to wait for a sale.
Thanks for reading my review of Zombie Night Terror on PC, if you don't already please follow me @riggedforepic on Twitter or you can email me directly at Riggedforepic@gmail.com.