Zombies, gotta love them. And lately those always lovable rotting denizens of the undead have been eating up a good chunk of my time courtesy of Playforge’s game Zombie Farm.
It’s an odd concept really, possibly inspired a bit by the hit Plants vs Zombies which I reviewed awhile back. Essentially you’re a farmer growing a variety of fresh and delicious fruits and vegetables. However you’re also planting fresh corpses in order to raise an army of the undead so that you can make war upon your fellow farmers. Its Farmville meets night of the living dead and its incredible addicting.
The graphics are cartoony, straddling that fine line between cute and horrifying. All the zombies are nicely animated, the drooling ones in particular amuse me, and wander your farm in between battles with little thought bubbles appearing above their heads giving a hint to their moods. Though the only one that really matters is when they start thinking of brains, that’s when their ready to fight.
For the farm time the game plays from a top down isometric perspective with the player choosing crops and zombies from a simple menu. Money is earned from selling your crops and raiding other farms. The combat sections are played from a side view with a very simple mechanic that involves tapping zombies to keep them from becoming distracted as they attempt to devour the farmers. Along with gold you also gain experience and occasionally brains from all your hard work which then can be used to purchase upgrades for your farm and zombies. Upgrades include decorations for your farm, new plants and zombies, and some very interesting plant/zombie mutations. Nothing like a potatoes headed zombie trying to eat a farmer’s brains.
The game is free to play however like many games of this type it also allows you to purchase currency with real money for those who are too impatient to earn it in game. You can play the game completely for free, but to get beyond level ten you are forced to spend a dollar and buy at least one brain. Though annoying this still makes the game cheaper than many other games of this quality on the app store. It’s still a bit of a bait and switch though. Another, bigger problem in my mind is that the game essentially runs in the background at all times, thus sucking up a lot of power. I noticed a significant drop in battery life once I installed the game. As long as you keep your iPhone or Touch charged it shouldn’t be a huge problem but again it’s a bit annoying and was somewhat of a surprise.
Overall the game very enjoyable and well worth the dollar it costs to get beyond level ten, and since its free to download and play you can look at the initial download as a free demo. I’d encourage people to try the game but make sure you’re aware of its issues. Now if you don’t mind I have several corpses to plant and some farmers to slaughter.