Zombie Infection Review: Zombpocalypse Now!

App Name:	Zombie Infection
Platforms:	iPhone, iPod Touch
Publisher(s):	Gameloft
Genre(s):	survival horror
Release Date:	May 10, 2010
Price:	$2.99
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The app store zombie apocalypse continues! Another week, another undead app comes shambling into the App Store. This week it’s Zombie Infection, the slightly generic but generally excellent survival horror game from Gameloft that delivers a satisfyingly console-like experience.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Yes, this app is a complete riff on the Resident Evil series, and the most recent entry, Resident Evil 5, in particular. It’s what Gameloft is known for, and it’s what Gameloft does well. And they do it very well here. Zombie Infection does an excellent job of recreating the Resident Evil style experience. In keeping with Gameloft’s M.O., the result is a little generic and almost unapologetic in its role as a doppelganger for a popular franchise game. But, like a really good B-movie, the joy is in the experience, not the new spin.

In Zombie Infection, you play a military-trained operative named Chris Redfield Damien Sharpe who must partner up with a tough but attractive woman named Sheva Alomar Alex Rayne to stop a biohazard zombie outbreak in Africa South America. Action plays out in standard third-person, over-the-shoulder view, with many animated cut scenes to play out the plot. The controls are generally well done, with large buttons and accurate movements & aiming. Most of the action involves shooting, with the occasional object action (each signaled by the action button).  In addition to the standard third-person shooter stuff, there’s the occasional touch-control activity, like having to lift an overturned pickup truck with timed swipes. These are welcome little treats, reminders that what we’re playing is not just a port of a consile game, but a title unique to the iPhone.

Zombie Infection is a great game. It doesn’t try to get ambitious, to deliver something beyond what it is; it just executes the zombie genre game really, really well. Zombies swarm at you from all sides, appearing in places you don’t expect them to, crawling over walls and out of the water.  Ammo is not exactly scarce, but occasionally you’ll bet so overwhelmed that you’ll be forced to resort to struggling and punching zombies and occasionally stomping the heads of a prone attacker.   There’s also non-human horrors to contend with, like zombie dogs and flying bat-worm things and a couple of really nasty monstrous bosses.

As for the plot, well, it’s no less ridiculous than any of the Resident Evil games. You’ve got noble and tough heroes, an evil corporation doing horrible things in secrecy, a biological hazard out of control, characters with secret motives … it’s all here, as expected. That they don’t call it Umbrella Corporation is about the only way you know it’s not another Resident Evil game.

Well, that and the fact that it looks nowhere near as good as a current-generation Resident Evil game. Graphically, the game is, of course, limited by the platform, with polygonal shapes and flat textures. This is especially noticeable on the cut scenes. It’s a last-generation presentation, for sure, but perfectly acceptable on the iPhone.

I have just one major complaint about Zombie Infection. I hate the “second” movement control, the one that controls turning and aiming. Instead of being programmed as a second “stick,” turning and aiming is controlled by repetitive swipes in the middle of the screen. I hate this for two reasons. First, it means I have to be sticking my thumb in the middle of the screen far too often. Second, it makes responding to zombies approaching from the sides and back EXTREMELY difficult, as you have you swipe three, four, or even five times to make a 90 degree or 180 degree rotation. While I understand that there’s only so much real estate for controls on the iPhone screen, surely there must be some way to implement a smoother, less herky-jerky means of turning around.

Still, playing Zombie Infection is like playing a really good b-movie, the kind you’re slightly embarassed to be enjoying. But enjoy it you will. It’s an absolutely worthwhile game for anyone who wants to have some zombie survival horror goodness on their iPhone or iPod Touch. And honestly, it’s a better, more playable game than either of Capcom’s attempts to bring Resident Evil to the iPhone.

Our score: 4.5 out of 5.

Zombie Infection is available for $6.99 in the App Store at the time of this review. (App Store Link)

About the Author

Writer@Large Brian P. Hudson is an educator and freelance writer currently living in Dearborn, MI.

 

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