Without Escape (2018) - Horror Video Game Review (PC)

Without Escape was originally released on the X-Box 360's Indie section back in 2012, and so this new version is actually a remake of that one. This marks the first proper 'room escape' game I have really played, unless you count The Room trilogy on iOS. This is inspired by puzzle games of the 90's such as Myst, due to it being a homage it is quite simple, simple enough that even my PC was able to run the game perfectly.

This game sees you as a man staying at his parents house while they are away on holiday. Late one night he gets woken up by a strange noise in the house and he decides to investigate, fearing burglars. What he finds is much more bizarre, the house is slightly different to how he remembers it, and he discovers he is unable to leave. Soon he finds himself in an alternate Hell type dimension that occupies the same space as the home and by solving a series of puzzles he must find a way to escape the predicament he finds himself in.

So this is made up of a series of rooms that feature static backdrops and  plenty of text descriptions. You travel from room to room by clicking on doors and stairways and it all takes place in a fixed perspective. You use the mouse to control this and do so mostly my clicking on items of interest. As you progress you collect different items, such as a lighter to help you see in the dark, and keys to open the various locked rooms and cupboards dotted around the property. This is not a large game, the house itself is just a house, not a mansion, the only thing keeping the game long is its puzzles.

The Shopping Dead (2013) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

If there is one thing sure to send people running from The Rotting Zombie it is reviews of X-Box Indie games, the statistics prove it! Yet here I am once again, my masochistic urge to review the hundreds of zombie games on that cursed channel.

The Shopping Dead is a first person arena zombie slaying game. You are in a shopping centre and must survive waves of the undead. The undead and you are all Avatar based so I was wondering around with comedy over sized gloves on. The undead are basically Avatars with a slight horror tinge to their faces, not horror enough to actually resemble zombies mind. They groan when you shoot them, other than that they are spookily silent.

The zombies appear to warp into the arena via black doorways yet I never witnessed them doing this. Usually I would turn around to see a leering Avatombie standing there, silly really. When the zombies die they have no great death animation, they merely just instantly disappear. The gun I was armed with resembled a stapler, maybe it was a stapler, there was no information to the contrary that it was anything else.

The best thing I can say about The Shopping Dead is that it has a few different tunes. At around £2 it is not even the cheapest price it could be. Whoever made this needs a slap if they thought they were bringing anything new to the very over saturated zombie arena shooter genre.

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The $1.00 Zombie Game (2012) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

With a title like that I fully expected this game to be terrible, also I don't know if it is a unwritten rule or something but why is the cover art for nearly every single X-Box Indie game so abysmal? I couldn't actually find an image of the cover so I have saved you that pain!

Set in Britain during zombie apocalypse you play as a balaclava wearing man who each day is armed with a different weapon with which to take out the hordes of dead shuffling around in the square your based at. Each day has it's own little intro card and a set number of zombies to kill to survive the day.

In the demo I was able to play through 8 days, and I had a lot of fun. The $1.00 Zombie Game is a third person arena shooter but controls not badly and looks better than most Indie third person games on the channel (still hardly great graphics though). Rather than earning points from killing the undead to buy new weapons the idea of instead using a different weapon for every day feels somehow novel.

The undead look really strange and angular, but they are varied and they make cool groaning noises. Each level though all the zombies tend to bunch up, so you end up with a small horde after you rather than randomly placed bodies, this made it quite easy, but for each 7 days you survive the zombies strength and speed increases. The music is also not bad, such as one track that was a riff on the classic Funeral March tune.

For 65p you cannot complain about not getting value for money, is on the list of games I want to one day buy as I enjoyed the demo, just not sure how tough the game will ever get.

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There Will Be Brains (2011) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

There Will Be Brains is a 2D side on view wave based zombie survival game, yet it beats the norm by having some interesting graphics, as well as plenty of fun story telling in-between levels.

Starting off in your home City in America during zombie apocalypse you get a message from your best friend in San Fransisco asking you to come rescue her. You decide you will, but first you have to get enough petrol to be able to make the journey. From behind your barricades you must take out the zombies, each day you survive you get more petrol. By the end of my time in the first city I had found a newspaper that spoke of a cure so when I left I was given a choice of where I wanted to go.

Starting off with a basic pistol you must stop the zombies from getting to your barricade and pulling it down. Some shuffle, some run, all can be killed via 6 shots to the head. After each round you visit a merchant (a parody of the merchant from Resident Evil 4) with which you can buy new melee weapons and guns to quicker take out the undead threat, or even save up to buy some petrol quickening up your departure.

There Will Be Brains is a fun game, the story after each round is incentive to continue, and the mellow chilled out music gives it the feel of a puzzle game almost. The graphics are charming and look different to anything I have seen before. I only played the demo (which was the first City) but have added it onto my list of games I want to buy, and so recommend it for anyone looking for a decent X-Box Indie game.

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ZOMBIECRAFTT!!1 SAMPLER (2011) - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

From the obnoxious title and art work that looks like it was done on MS Paint I knew right away this was going to be a bad game. ZOMBIECRAFTT!!1 is a 2D Minecraft clone that has you digging and building around a horizontally huge level.

You play as Skyfish; a goldfish with a miners hat. You can build squares of land, or dig away blocks of land. The zombies of the game look like a backward 'C' with an eyeball on top...not exactly zombies. You can kill these things by flinging pickaxes at them.

I have never gotten into Minecraft, is too complicated for me, this is the opposite, simple to the point of boredom. The graphics are terrible, no music, virtually no sound effects. Apparently the goal is to mine for minerals. The 'sampler' in the title is an indication that the full game would have more stuff in it, but I was not compelled to find out.

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GET TO THA CHOPPA TWOOO!!2 (2011) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

From So So Dev comes the sequel to the endless runner game GET TO THA CHOPPA!!1. I wasn't sure what they could do to make it feel any different, and basically they don't. Maybe more refined.

This time around you play as a woman running for her life from thousands of zombies instead of a man. Much like before you have a Uzi to fire at zombies ahead of you, and you must jump over land mines and duck under missiles a following helicopter fires at the horde chasing you. What's new is that sometimes presents are given to you from the helicopter which makes you invincible for a short while.

Not much to say really, the same game as before with added power ups. A great hand drawn visual style, a catchy tune playing, but kinda pointless if like me you own the first game. I like that the obstacles all have giant button prompts next to them. Is just an endless runner, a competent one but to be honest when you've played one you have played them all. At 65p it is very cheap though.

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Zombie Racers (2011) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review

Wow, after expecting more utter trash I actually found a fun X-Box Indie game. Zombie Racers doesn't actually have you racing against zombies, it is more a race against time to mow down the undead beasts. Saying that though in the main game there are also races against other cars as well as the time attack mode.

No story to speak of, you are in a yellow car and must drive around the arenas running over zombies. You can get limited time power ups for your vehicle such as spinning blades (that stack up if you collect more than one of them) and a powerful zombie magnet that pulls all the ghouls towards your vehicle of death.

What I loved about Zombie Racers is the extreme over head view, your car is minuscule on screen, the zombies too very small. Every now and again a severed head, or limb will fly up towards the screen in a cool 3D effect, Played the demo as is the case but was a bunch of fun. The first arena was at an airport, while the second was on a beach. In between levels was a bonus one in which you are meant to avoid zombies. The car controls really loosely but works.

While Zombie Racers is an average game it still just shows that all you need to do is make something slightly different. Sure it has terrible rock music, barely any sound effects and looks quite basic but I had fun in the brief time I spent with it and that's the key thing.

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Heroes vs. Zombies (2011) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (XBI)

First off the usual stuff. This is an X-Box Indie game and as such I am reviewing this based on the demo. Sometimes I will hold  back on reviewing until I have played the full game but Heroes vs. Zombies is one game I am sure does not get any better.

You and up to 3 friends are in charge of a grave-less graveyard. It is your job to ensure no zombies escape from the graveyard to the outside world. That is it for the story, I could have come up with a better one. You seem to have magical powers as you fire balls of energy from your hands.

The title screen was enough to put me off, it has a drawing of a zombie that looks like it was done on MS Paint, this terrible artwork carries on over into the game. Heroes vs. Zombies is an overhead arena based zombie survival game that is very lazy. You kill waves of zombies (and turtles for some reason) getting points with which to get better weapons. There are no sound effects other than the dull thud your energy ball things make and the soundtrack consists of one eternally looping rock dross thing. A very basic, dull game that was zero fun to play.

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Raventhorne (2011) - Fantasy Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

First off, must wish a happy birthday to my friend Claire as it is her 27th birthday today, woop! Onto the review. As always I have loads of indie games waiting to be played. I must stress I have only played the demo so is not that fair a review. A long day at my day job makes for a tired rotting zombie. Raventhorne is a 2D fantasy brawler with RPG elements.

After waking up after apparently being dead (I kind of skipped the intro) you head off into Viking land to battle monsters. You play as some sort of Viking and are armed with a sword, hammer, and have access to magical attacks.

I was initially thrown by how tough the enemies were, the first one I encountered took a hell of a beating before it was vanquished. A few enemies later and I levelled up, becoming stronger and gaining more health so I think after a tough start it may get easier to play. You have a stamina bar also that quickly reduces meaning you are left defenceless at times during fights which was irritating.

Raventhorne looks beautiful, almost hand drawn 2D art style to it though the animation were a little bit Monty Python-esque for my liking, frames missing or some such thing. While I soon tired (what with being tired in the first place anyway) I feel that with proper investment there would be some fun to be had here, looks good and has a fitting fantasy soundtrack.

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Annunaki's Errands (2013) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

Once again the siren call of the X-Box Indie channel demos call me back to dip into another horror. Annnaki's Errands is a first person shooter, don't get your hopes up though; it is not a remotely good one!

The game starts off with a text box story which automatically scrolled too fast for me to be able to read and I consider myself a fast reader. Fear not for I looked in the options screen and read the tale of delight. Basically you are a sailor whose boat got trashed and you washed up on an island run by a fifty foot Goddess. She hates men for some reason so has killed all of them on the island and turned the woman into zombies for her army. She gives you an errand to do for her, in the demo this was collecting diamonds in a series of tunnels.

The real reason there is only females in this game is to try and get boys to buy it I'm sure. The cover art is terrible and I very nearly stopped there and then. Zombies are all the same identical bikini clad zombie female re skinned to be different colours. They look like they were designed by a child on MS Paint, very bad looking things indeed. The zombies either materialise from behind you, or hang down from the ceilings, making a variety of moans when shot at. Your gun makes the zombies spurt blood that looks like hand prints.

The levels are maze like and you have a health bar and ammo count, it is very basic and not at all interesting, the best thing about it is the soundtrack but that is just a nondescript groaning tune. One to avoid really, run from Annunaki and her stupid errands, run my lad!

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Dawn of the Fred (2013) - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

I have returned from my holiday and so I thought I would slide back into my blog with a traditional review of one of the many billions of XBox Indie games clogging up my hard drive. Dawn of the Fred is an arena based zombie shooter, hardly an original spin on a zombie game then.

You play as one of a variety of characters including the titular Fred who have to survive rounds against waves of zombies. The demo at least had access to two locations; a house and surrounding garden and a supermarket and car park. I like that effort has been gone into making the arenas feel more like real places than most lazy, lazy zombie games.

The graphical style has some real charm to it, it reminded me of Behemoth's style (them of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers) though does have a lot less animation. The zombies look great and have variety such as hulking zombies and slug zombies who leave a trail of sticky goo behind them. The sound is also good, has some traditional horror style to it rather than the usual forgettable trash, don't get me wrong, none of the tunes are memorable but at least they are not identical to everything else.

There is a shop in each stage which can be used to buy new weapons using gems that the zombies drop when killed. A load of weapons, lots in fact. The shop is a bit fiddly to use and I had trouble exiting it frequently. There is also a vending machine where extra ammo and health can be purchased between rounds. The next wave of zombies is always up to you to start so none of the usual rushing feeling of being in between rounds.

Dawn of the Fred is up to four players, is fun enough even if it does not do anything different to all the other arena games out there, is just a far better example of one and has had more effort put into it. As with all arena games it soon gets boring and there is not a lot of animation to anything also. Some real charm though and for 80 Microsoft points you can't complain too much.

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Bluebones' Curse (2011) - Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

It has been a bit indie-centric around The Rotting Zombie HQ at the moment, really blasting through the demos. One game I had gotten, and actually brought the full version of was Bluebones' Curse.

Bluebones' Curse is an old school 2D platformer. While treasure hunting, Bluebeard came across three evil witches who transformed him into a skeleton. Hearing a rumour that a piece of Davy Jones treasure has the ability to grant wishes if found at midnight, Bluebones sets out to find it in order to get back his humanity.

The best indie games seem to be the shortest, coming in at just under seventeen minutes long this is some great retro platforming. Each level has you avoiding bats and spiders with doll faces while traversing black platforms and leaping over spikes.  It is quite an easy game but brought to mind some of the classic Super Mario platforming. Every few levels you got some voiced narration from Bluebones musing on if he will find the treasure in time. A very catchy pirate themed tune plays over each level. The gripes I had with it were that firstly it is a bit lacking in variety, only the one background, the two enemy types, and levels were quite short. Also be warned that occasionally a bug will cause your character to fall through solid platforms, but infinite lives cure what could have been an irritating flaw.

For 80 Microsoft points I have definitely played worse than Bluebones' Curse. On a side note the indie game DLC Quest features zombies (just so you know!).

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Breath of Death VII (2010) - Fantasy RPG Review (X-Box 360 Indie)

Breath of Death VII is a retro style old school RPG. It tries to capture the spirit of those games so you have random battles and simple graphics but the game also makes fun of those style of games at the same time.

The game is set on Earth after Armageddon destroyed the world. Out of the ruins rose monsters who have now got to the stage of fantasy civilisation. You play as a skeleton called Dem who teams up with Sara (a ghost) to investigate some ruins. There you discover a robot who had been programmed to retrieve some magic crystals. Deciding to find these crystals for yourselves you head off to quest, in the process recruiting two additional characters in the form of geeky vampire Lita, and a French zombie Prince called Erik.

This was one fun game, sometimes it is good just to put on some podcasts and go and grind for a while. It helps that each area you go to in the game has a set number of random encounters so what I would do is just hang by the save point and kill all the enemies in the area before being able to explore the maze like levels at my leisure. After every fight you get all your health back, and save points give your magic points back.

Though set in a human-less fantasy world there are nods to the civilisation that came before. Locations you visit are many times ruins, but they are ruins of modern cities so are full of roads, rusted cars, houses, lamp posts and traffic lights. A mournful tune plays during dungeons which give them a sad feel that is at odds with your cheerful and silly characters. There are many enemy types which include everything you would expect; zombies, goblins, ghosts but also more novel ones such as haunted cars, zombie cyborgs, and possessed chemical beakers. Boss fights appear quite a bit but the bosses just appear, they have no story reason, I guess this fits into the old style gameplay.

At around six hours long it is shorter than I would have liked of an RPG, but sensible seeing how it is a budget game (and I believe just 80 Microsoft Points) If you want a blast from the past and fancy some RPG in the vein of old school Breath of Death VII is for you.

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Attack of the Zombie Horde (2011) - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

Been over a week since my last post again, due in a large part to some bad goings on in the real world. Attack of the Zombie Horde is yet another arena based twin stick zombie survival shooter on the crowded X-Box Indie games channel.

The game starts with a comic book intro that sees a commando team dispatched to investigate a body out in Alaska. The group stay behind while their 'copter flies the dead body away. The body promptly reanimates causing the helicopter to crash and leaving the commandos stranded out in the wastes of icy Alaska fighting off waves of flesh eating creeps.

The game is well made for an 80 Microsoft points game but sadly it is the exact same format as a million other games so soon looses its appeal despite the inclusion of a story mode. You are in a snowy clearing with trees all around that the hordes run, crawl and shamble out of. When killed they spill plenty of dark claret, and the zombies are shady enough to look realistic rather than overly cartoony.

Killing zombies nets you cash which can be used to purchase different guns that can easily be switched between and all have infinite ammo. Some also drop pick ups such as grenades.  Another four player game also.

All in all, Attack of the Zombie Horde is yet another twin stick shooter which while competent has a million other versions available and does nothing special to recommend it over them.

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Angry Zombie Ninja Cats (2011) - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

I have not reviewed a zombie indie game for a long time, and with good reason; they are nearly all utter trash.  The title alone almost put me off playing Angry Zombie Ninja Cats.

Cats are evil creatures, so zombie ninja cats you would expect to be even worse. You play as a ninja cat who has to platform itself through nineteen small levels, collecting green jewels, avoiding or killing the zombie cats and then locating the exit. I only played the trial and so don't know if there would be more levels after the initial nineteen but as it is a 80 Microsoft Points indie game I doubt it.

The ninja zombies walk from left to right, if you get near them they flash red and charge towards you.  You can kill them by shooting them with collected flying stars as well as touching them while invincible. Levels are short and not hard at all. Animation is kept to a minimum. Dying involves you vanishing then reappearing at the level start.

Angry Zombie Ninja Cats is colourful and cheap and does feature a very good background song but there is nothing much to the game and could have done with having more of a platforming puzzle element to it. The zombies do groan at you though which is something I guess!

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City Condemned - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

City Condemned is yet another X-Box Indie game of which there must be hundreds by now. The game goes for a serious vibe and plays as a shooting gallery.

You play as a sniper holed up on the rooftop of a ruined building in a city of the dead. Your viewpoint looks out onto a ruined town square in which various humans are located. Using your trusty sniper rifle you must protect the humans from the onslaught of the zombies.

City Condemned goes for a dramatic vibe with mournful, suspenseful music playing over the game. The location of the town is a dank, dilapidated place, the only sound being your sniper rifle as you fire it. Each round sees you with a target number of zombies to kill, after each round you can buy additional ammo for your sniper rifle, as well as buy better sniper rifles and health packs.

Identical zombies swarm towards the humans who don't move and just seem content to stay wherever they are standing. Head shots work best but they can be taken down with shots to the body. All the zombies are the same; a zombie wearing a grey top, and having quite a bushy head of hair. As well as zombies there are wild bats which also attack the humans. Zombies can also enter the buildings surrounding the town square, this makes hitting them more difficult as you need to wait until they pass windows to be able to kill them.

City Condemned is ok but really nothing different to the hundreds of other sniper zombie games, it is better than a lot of them but still quite boring. Only 80 Microsoft points so up to you I guess. You can really tell the excitement in my words for this review!

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All Out of Bubblegum! (2011) - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

All Out of Bubblegum! I thought was going to be a tower defence game, but it has more in common with a twin stick shooter.  The title of the game is of course taken from the cult horror flick They Live (when Rowdy Roddy Piper walks into a bank and says "I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum").

The game sees you as one of four gang members (the game is up to four players) defending a square piece of land in a town overrun by zombies of all shapes and sizes. The zombies attack in waves, after each wave you can build defences such as walls and turrets with which to defend yourself.

All Out has a really weird look to it that made me feel like I was in some sort of gaming nightmare. The zombies and humans have a kind of plasticine look to them and the enemies terrible A.I works in their favour and adds to the sense of unreality as they spin on the spot and get stuck to walls. The soundtrack is also quite odd but fits in well with lots of badly digitised speech on the title screen and uber loud gunshot noises.

The zombies fall apart as you shoot them, even with limbs missing and their heads missing they will still keep on coming making your wall defences more of a burden than a boon. The undead are the running kind and can easily pin you into a dead end of your own making. Zombies come in lots of variety, both male and female, as well as child size and giant size making each round just feel...odd.

The building part of the game is also not very good, you have a limited time to build your defences but the lack of an option to move the screen during this process means that your defences are never too big. Each wave done opens up a shop where you can buy some admittedly quite cool weapons, including a motor bike with chainsaws strapped to it (straight out of Dead Rising 2)

To be honest All Out of Bubblegum! is really not that great and I did not buy it, but the bizarre broken nature of this game means that you should give it a try if it sounds like your thing, feels like a zombie dream I used to have (also very hard, just like surviving a zombie apocalypse should be).

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