It’s always exciting when something floats out of Blendo Games’ workshop. Of all the many talented indies out there I find Brendon Chung’s work to be among the most unique and distinctive, offering games that mesh 60s pulp comic book aesthetics with surrealism, exuberant sounds and colour. Zombie Atom Smasher is no exception. Very, very no exception.
It’s a zombie game which takes you far away from the smell of cordite and brainsplash, all the way to the fringes of Earth’s atmosphere where you sit in your orbital battlestation, looking down to coordinate the evacuation of cities and the destruction of rampaging zombie hordes. Move ground troops and sniper teams, spot for artillery crews, detonate explosives and unleash ORBITAL BOMBARDMENTS – my favourite type of bombardment, as it happens – while you desperately try to ship out the civilians in rescue helicopter relays before night falls and the zombies overrun the place. This all plays to the sounds of frantic Dick Dale-like surf guitar. Yes.
You pick a landing zone, the helicopter approaches and blares a klaxon, ordering the civilians to meet at its position. They converge as the zombies flood in from the edge of the map. You trigger the TNT planted to hold them off, taking out a couple of blocks in the process. Some civilians are caught and devoured, their yellow blips turning purple, swelling the hordes’ number. Artillery rains down as the infantry unit hold off the massing undead shuffling towards the LZ and the last remaining hope of escape for those still alive. It’s your classic zombie evacuation scenario played over and over, city to city, until either you or the zombies hit the number of points on the campaign tracker needed to win the game. You both earn points for kills/extractions during the missions and points for captured cities on the map screen.
Start a campaign without adjusting any settings and AZS is pretty challenging. The zombies spread to new territories faster than you can order evac missions to contain them and they soon rack up the points. Units that you’re issued with change every time you run a mission and the randomness of this and the cities themselves mean that there never appear to be a prescribed “puzzle” to solve when attempting to destroy the zombies and capture the city before the timer runs down and night falls. It’s more best-guess preparation, rapid and prudent unit management and the occasional lucky ignition of gas mains which flatten entire quarters of the city.
Your mercenary roster – the names of the units are randomised each time you play or you can make them up yourself.
But, as the game progresses and the zombies spread, your units gain experience and increase their proficiency. You also have the chance to rescue scientists who can research even more powerful weapons for ORBITAL BOMBARDMENTS unlocked during each rescue when you kill a certain number of zombies. Still struggling? Then tick a couple of boxes in the options menu which increase your unit count and weapon availability (or hardcore mode, if it’s all too easy and you have something to prove you big man, you). If your suffering continues then enlist up to three other friends to help you with the drop-in, drop-out party play option.
Bombing the zombs with Llama bombs.
Fun though the fundamental game is, what makes the whole experience so interesting are the little touches, the fluff that pad out AZS and its surreal world. Occasionally, minimalistic comic-strip vignettes are unlocked which offer a glimpse of the stories surrounding the zombie outbreak. They are strange, funny and barely coherent:
Gen Asa Willingbird speaks out against the ELEPHANTBIRD orbital cannon.
“The use of this weapon, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children revolts my very soul”
Assassination attempts begin promptly the next day.
You get a feeling for what’s going on, but only a feeling. And it’s all a bit off-kilter and uncanny, like watching a TV drama in another language. Like Flotilla’s randomly constructed narrative, it’s a subtle, effective and at times profound way to tell a story. With the inclusion of a “mod” option in the menu from which to load user made content, I’m keen to see what will spring from the AZS fan community and this story-telling framework.
The map screen from which you select your mission. 1 – 3 are increasingly tough rescues. 4 means there’s no one left, you just have to bomb the hell out of the place.
Blendo are ploughing a furrow for the casual, short-form computer game, a category that doesn’t seem to be all that prevalent but entirely suits the scale and budget of indie developers. Create a game that takes about an hour to play through but with randomised elements and enough variety to reward repeated plays. Such a beautiful aesthetic too. Go and play Gravity Bone, it’s free. If you like the feel of that, enjoy blowing up zombies and a bit of light strategy, you’d do well to give this a go.
Atom Zombie Smasher is released today and available from Blendo Games.
Paul Millen
2 Comments
I shall have a look at this. I still return to Flotilla from time to time, as it’s a lovely game to idle away an all too rare free hour with. If this has even half the charm of Flotilla I’ll enjoy it.
Played the demo, enjoyed it, bought it. This will provide a nice break from Desktop Dungeons being my fill in time game.