Night of a Million Billion Zombies: Eat your Brains Out, Zombie Fans
Company: PowerUp Studios
I love Zombies. Who doesn't? So when I saw Night of a Million Billion Zombies, it was a no brainer that I wanted to check it out. Lucky for them I lost count. I wanted to make sure that there was no false advertising about the whole "...Million Billion..." thing. It was hard to count the ones that were coming at you for the first time, or the ones that reanimated. Counting zombies aside, this game's demo showed some serious promise of an entertaining casual game. Though I am looking at this on the PC, the company's main web page gives me the distinct impression that we will be seeing this game and more of its other efforts actually pop up on Live. Or there logo does anyway. A young company with an entertaining start is great to see for the industry.
NOMBZ is a survival game where you start out as Mot, who is loosed upon the streets during a zombie outbreak. There is not a lot of time wasted on the storytelling of the game. In retrospect, I would guess you wouldn't know what was happening anyways. All you would know is stay alive, and that is what you have to do. You start off with a pistol in one hand and a crowbar in the other. Each weapon is effective, but make sure to account for reload times. If not, you will be switching teams very quickly. As you make your way across the city, you encounter other survivors who join you to make it out alive. Each of the survivors have their own distinct talent and weapons. You can switch between these survivors to take advantage of their skills, but take care of the health of your group as you make your way through the city.
The maps, though simple, are huge and have death lurking around every corner. I was happy to see a good variety in the types of zombies that were coming after you. I am sure the full version will have more, but there were normal meandering zombies, poison gas-filled ones, and athletic, fast zombies, just to name a few. The entire look of the game is simple and streamlined, as are the controls. This just leaves you to shooting, sawing, and burning your way out of the city. One of the weapons is a Molotov cocktail that you target and lob. This took a little finesse to master, but was very fun to watch. The reason I mention this is that it showed more depth to the game's weapons than just shooting pellet looking bullets towards zombies and hitting them enough times to kill them. You were capable of sometimes scoring heads shots, which dropped the zombies faster. But, I noticed that this didn't keep them from reanimating if you decide to hang around and sing songs together.
I am really looking forward to the full version and making my way out of the city. Though I may have taken too much liberty in making it seem like an easy game, it was anything but. Between trying to get through the city too quickly and having every zombie homing in on you, and taking it too slow and having zombies you have dropped get up and continue their pursuit, there is a heart-pounding survivor game to be played. I liked the challenge. Managing your team's health will more times than not actually force you to take an active part in their survival. You cannot rely on the computer-controlled A.I. to do all of the work for you. I will either see you outside the city or I will meet you for lunch at the corner of walk and don't walk.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
Related Links: NOMBZ Powerup Studios
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