Zombies. What can I say? These mindless, brain-eating freaks have contaminated almost every genre on the App Store, even enough to warrant a separate folder on my iPhone. So after so many zombie predecessors I was surprised at how Zombie Highway manages to create something new and exciting around the over-used undead.
Gameplay 9/10
Imagine this. It’s a zombie apocalypse (how original) and you have just made a daring escape from the crumbling ruins of your home-town and are racing down the main highway, trying to get as far away from the cursed city as possible. You and your friends believe you are away and free from those deadly monster, but you are wrong. Suddenly, you hear a thump on the side of the car your driving. You see where I am heading with this? This is basically the situation you are in, in Zombie Highway.
You are driving a people-carrier along a deserted dusty road, avoiding wrecked cars and debris. But that is by far the least of your worries. Zombies, standing idle at the side of the road leap desperately at your vehicle, attempting to latch on to it. When one does, you have the option to shoot it with whatever weapon you have unlocked. A more effective method might be to scrape the blasted thing off by running close to a wall or trashed car. If you don’t it will try and topple or crash your car by rocking forwards and backward. This may not be a problem with only one zombie, but with four, things aren’t looking so great. The aim of the game is to survive as long as possible without crashing or tipping over. There are supposedly seven different types of zombies (even though I have only come across four) with varying abilities and health. For example the red zombie regenerates health.
Zombie Highway is incredibly fun and captures the pumping adrenaline feeling extremely well. It’s great having three or more zombies clinging onto your car, swerving out of control, trying to scrape them off and shoot them at the same time.
Graphics 5/10
However, despite its great gameplay, Zombie Highway seems rushed and unfinished. The graphics are poor in terms of diversity, especially in the backgrounds and scenery. The car is good with realistic physics, but the whole game is very bland.
Controls 9/10
The controls are tilt based and work extremely well. To fire you tap on the corner of the screen that relates to the monster hanging onto your car. For example, if there is a zombie at the front right window then you must tap on the top right to shoot it.
Sound 4/10
The little sound that there is, is very harsh and unkind to the ears. The screeching and crashing just about makes me want to put my headphones down or lower the volume. Despite its realism, the sound effects aren’t good enough to make for some easy listening, and this might be partly because of the lack of music. I really wish the developers had included some. Do you know what would have been great? ‘Highway to Hell’. OK, no matter what, that song needs to be included as the theme tune for this game. I don’t care if the licensing fees would equal to a fortune, that would just be perfect!
Menus 4/10
The menus are unimaginative and poorly made. The colours clash and it is also quite hard to navigate to get to where you want.
Longevity 3/10
As you already know, Zombie Highway is a high-score game, meaning no matter what, you are going to become brain-soup by the end of it. But what I find astonishing is that there is no online leader-board like OpenFeint. Instead, the developers have gone solely Facebook integration. I would much rather prefer an iDevice specific leader-board because I, and most of you out there, don’t have real mates who have an iDevice and have bought this game. What’s more, the replay value of Zombie Highway is very low. You come to a point where you have got a reasonable score, you have unlocked most of the weapons and you think, why bother? There is nothing that brings you back to the game and after a while you will put it down.
Cost 7/10
$0.99/£0.59 is the right price point for Zombie Highway, but changes are needed before it is a must buy.
Conclusion 41/70 – 3/5
Zombie Highway is far from perfect and seems almost rushed through development. Even though the concept and gameplay is great, the game needs to be improved before I can recommend it fully.
Zombie Highway on the App Store.
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Hello,
First thanks for covering Zombie Highway – I think you have several good points that I have and will think about – but there are some points you make that I must respond to:
Sound: There are 37 different sound effects in zombie highway @CD quality. I strongly suggest you play with headphones – the sound effects are fantastic – I’d argue on another level compared to other $1 games.
Believe it or not I have a trailer already made with the music ‘Highway to Hell’ – but wouldn’t you guess Atlantic Records won’t respond to me no matter what I do!
Menus: There are online high scores – and there is integration with facebook. I don’t use open feint because It doesn’t allow for deep integration.
In zombie highway you can see your worldwide rank after each and every run – right alongside your rank with your friends. Additionally you can see who your next friend to beat is directly in the HUD of the game. I think this is a great experience, but you don’t even acknowledge that there are high scores at all. It is also greatly adds to replay value.
Cost: I think $1 is extremely affordable for the fun you will have in Zombie Highway
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps
Thanks again for covering Zombie Highway
Kevin Pazirandeh
Founder
renderPazStudios
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for commenting on the site.
Sound: Admittedly your game may include over 37 sound effects, but I disagree with that they are of excellent quality. After playing with headphones, it is obvious that you have put a lot of work into creating realistic crashing effects but for me these sounds are way too harsh and very unkind to the ears. Also, most of the sounds are too quite in relation to the crashing sound. For the review, there will be some changes to the writing, but this will not change the score.
Ha! Funny to hear about ‘Highway to Hell’!
Menus: Sorry, after re-reading the review I have forgotten to mention about Facebook integration, but for me, this is useless anyway. Maybe one or two of my friends have an iDevice, and I can guarantee none of them have bought this game. So what use is it for me and everyone else in my situation? When you mention about how you will be ranked ‘right alongside your rank with your friends’. I guess this assumes you have friends with this game that has registered? Well, the chances are that the majority of your players will have mostly no friends with Zombie Highway, or maybe one or two. This isn’t exactly the leader-board integration I like.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Facebook integration, but please include another online leader-board, especially built for the iDevice where I have friends who have way more chance of having this game than real friends of Facebook. It is more important having friends to actually face rather than HUD integration.
Cost: Hey, look around. There are loads and loads and loads of game that are priced at ridiculously cheap. In the real world, paying $1 for the amount of fun you get for almost any game on the App Store would warrant a 5 star review. So what am I meant to do? I need to instead rally everything, not just the gameplay, into the equation. Does it have good graphics, sound ect. so that the buyer would be completely happy with their purchase. I am definitely the first one to put their hand up and say, your game is extremely affordable, but so is every other game.
Thanks again for the comment,
I will be changing the review a little bit, but it will still retain its 3 score.
Adam (MadMud)