The joys of owning a Kindle Fire are endless. Not only can I watch horror titles and series, read horror themed literature, and search for new merchandize, but a variety of horror themed games are added to the platform an on almost weekly basis. Most of them, about 92%, are click games – a term I use to describe games where the user clicks to discover hidden objects and solve puzzles. Zombies Ate My Friends is a click game, but it offers players a little more entertainment and fun, new options.
Zombies Are My Friends was released to Android, iOS, and MacOS platforms in 2013 by Glu Mobile-Nasdaq Gluu. In the game, you create your own character as you navigate through various locations and overcome all sorts of obstacles and zombies. Unlike other zombie survival games, this one features dozens of human characters that you interact with as well as fearsome and mutated zombies that are always posing a new threat for survival. Users can also interact with other …My Friends users and join teams to help you in your journey and join in the battle against the zombie apocalypse. And a dog, you can get a dog too!
“Welcome to Festerville, population 4,206 (mostly zombies). We hope you enjoy your visit: explore the town, take in the sights and sounds (mostly groaning), dine on whatever you can find, and get to know the locals (though we suggest you avoid the dead ones). For recreation, try zombie combat: use what you can find, or visit one of the town’s many merchants for the finest hand-scavenged implements of zombie removal. If you decide to stay, we recommend you find one of our relatively comfortable safe houses – but please remember to board the windows and doors. Have fun, and good hunting!“
As I mention above, Zombies Ate My Friends is unique and applauded for being a click game with an extra punch. You can develop your own character, take on extra bonus missions, have free range to go back to any spot in town as long as its in the same level, upgrade weapons and expansion packs, and kill as many zombies as you like with a variety of attacks available for every weapon you hold. Sure, all the character and environment graphics are a little childish in nature, more fit for young teenagers, but this is a great time waster! The dialogue is witty and sarcastic, and the motion graphics are fairly advanced for a handheld, iOS game. I have to give it a lot of credit for what it accomplished and for what it offers casual gamers who need a break from reading. I found myself playing it for hours straight on the first night…
…And that’s when everything went down hill. …My Friends relies on an energy meter for characters to interact with their environment. This means, when the energy bar runs out, you aren’t able to do ANYTHING until three minutes pass and you get 1 notch of energy. Extra energy can be purchased from the app store, but costs you $4.99 for the lowest amount – 100 bursts of energy. Now, at first this doesn’t seem so bad, BUT eventually you encounter zombies that are bigger and stronger than average ones, that sometimes take 30 to 40 attacks to kill. This basically will drain all the power you just bought from the app store. Also, as you pass through towns, if you take a break or enter and exit a building, new zombies will be blocking your way. So, you fight your way out…and then you’re left with no energy. You wasted $4.99 to kill maybe 3 or 4 zombies.
For me, this totally killed my experience with Zombies Ate My Friends. After the third night, I saw no point in continuing. Should the creators release a new version or sequel with an easier energy meter and navigation system, I may be interested enough to download the game again. As much as I liked my short time playing, the energy crisis in Festerville is unfortunately a major cause for concern and destroys interest in the game. For that I have to rate the game a 4 out of 10.
