Desert Zombies (iOS) Review

The scent of apocalypse lies heavy over Desert Zombies, which takes place in a world where the evil Dr. Virus has unleashed a zombie virus over the world, with humankind's last hope being a research centre that is searching for a cure for the disease.

Zombies are constantly attacking, though; therefore a special force has been appointed to defend the research centre, and is the last hope humankind has. This is done through a mixture of classic arcade top-down shooters and tower defence titles. It is an interesting hybrid that brings out some strengths of both genres, but also some flaws.

The biggest strength of Desert Zombies is the fact that it always keeps players on their toes. The system under which the game progresses the difficulty isn't based as much on which level the player is on so much as how long ago they died since last time. This creates a difficulty curve that rewards paying players, but at the same time does not lock out free users. It is an interesting approach that if used well could create a really pleasant freemium experience; however, some issues show its ugly face early on.

The biggest issue is that the way in which free players earn currency, the missions, are sometimes bugged. Sometimes the goals do not register despite doing them, the worst offender being ones requiring the server to update, such as watching ads to double the score. It has also been experienced that the game freezes on the daily reward screen, sometimes meaning resetting the entire device is necessary to start playing.

While most of these glitches might be fixed with later updates, an issue that is deeply rooted in the gameplay will likely not. The big problem with Desert Zombies is that despite there being a level system in place to fake the feeling of progress, this wears thin very quickly, as the only thing that will soon feel relevant is how long the player survives, a path of progress that is sadly more heavily gated behind paywalls than skill walls. It is a nice hybrid system Desert Zombies has in place; it is not utilised to its fullest potential, though.

While weird glitches and not-fully-utilized systems are present, the experience is still a stable one that is good as a free-to-play game, but not too expensive to buy into if it is difficult to wait to get better guns. All in all, it is a pleasant experience that has some annoying flaws that will hopefully get patched out during the game's lifetime.