Road of the Dead
To continue on with my Halloween zombie related reviews (How many of you noticed?), this is Road of the Dead, by Evildog.
Premise, as with every zombie game ever, can be explained in the length of time it takes to microwave a bagel. Zombies, of the bite-people-infection and rise-from-the-dead variety, have infested a city, and the military, somewhat peeved, quarantine the city. Your character, the mechanic Don, is not 100% behind the idea, but what he is behind is the wheel of a performance vehicle that can be upgraded to squash zombies at will. However, the military is invested in the idea of not letting anything out, so move to stop you. But the ever-resourceful Don has another trick up his sleeve. He changes his car radio frequency to 107.8 - BBC Radio 2: Easy Listening and Military Maneuvers.
As a way to tell the story, this is brilliant - no reading text or watching someone babble away to you. Told to you during the driving, and with talk on the upgrade screen, the story is actually very interesting - listening to the military cordons collapse and the organization break down is very interesting - even if there is the occasionally cliche thrown in.
Gameplay is simple. Avoid obstacles that will knock your car around in an overly extravagant fashion, hit zombies, and kill soldiers without being killed by a hail of bullets. As a general rule, there are three lanes, but you can move about freely, rather than being stuck in one lane. Cars, trucks and spike traps will all be in your way, but are easily avoided, bar the occasional spike trap dick move, when they slide across the road into your lane. But the best parts happen in confrontations with enemies. Be going too slowly, and an enemy will climb onto the bonnet of your ride, and attempt to hit or shoot you. After buying the gun, you can shoot them straight off, but this, among other things, damages your windscreen, obscuring vision. Otherwise, sudden braking and swerving can dislodge them, but not before they can do some damage.
The car is upgraded using DP - driving points. Earned by driving long distances, building kill combos, earning achievements and hitting enemies, and negated by killing civilians, these can be spent on an array of upgrades to make life on the road easier. While this works quite well, upgrades are a little more expensive than the DP you earn, meaning a straight 5 mile run may only earn you enough for one upgrade.
But it is definitely a game to try. What other game allows you to use window wipers to wipe zombie blood off your windscreen?
