Zombies, Run! is a different sort of zombie game. The kind where you have to run. No, not the virtual you – 6’8″ tall, 300 pounds of pure athletic capability. But the other you. Probably closer to 110 pound weakling or perhaps considerably more pear-shaped than the linebacker of your dreams. And certainly the kind of guy who might not survive the apocalypse if it happened today. You’re the target – both for the company making the game, and the zombies who star in it.

Zombies Run has been an interesting story to follow already. It was a Kickstarter project – one where fans pledge to pay funds toward a project upon its completion, in order to provide a ready revenue stream upon the release of the product. This one is from Six to Start and Naomi Alderman. And it got thousands of people involved up front – who not only contributed to the development of the game (mostly via voice over groans for the zombies) but of course helped to make it happen in the first place by pledging to buy it when it released.

The premise of this game is that you must play by actually moving, similar in concept to the Nintendo Wii, Xbox Kinect, or PlayStation Move. The difference is this game won’t be taking place in your family room, unless you happen to have your treadmill there.

The game functions by monitoring your speed and direction (but not location) via GPS. Alternatively, if you elect not to use the GPS, it can use the accelerometer built into the iPhone. Either way, it is detecting strides/pacing or actual spatial movement. This powers the mechanics of the game.

So I got my copy of Zombies Run, and decided to check it out that evening. I’m a big fan of zombies, as you might tell by the name of this site, and I’m also a big believer in being prepared for just about anything. So, I thought it was time to put my own non-virtual assets into gear and make sure that was ready to rock and roll as well.

I waited until it was dark outside, to add to the spooky factor. It worked.

The game story begins with a news crew covering the apocalypse who can see where you are. They’re trying to help you, a stranded survivor, get out of where you’re at by giving you directions over the radio. Apparently this part of the city is even worse than what Chris Rock said about Martin Luther King Boulevard. If you’re there, RUN!

The game play is straight forward and simple – run. No button pushing, or even looking at your display while you are moving, at all. No need to stop and interact with the phone. Focus on moving. And, you really don’t need to alter your routine, much. You’ll automatically acquire supplies you “find” along the way, and they’re tucked away safely until you decide to park your winded butt down and put them away proper.

Basically, it seems to work well in a relative fashion to whatever speed you start with. There are parts where you are actively motivated to MOVE FASTER. But, if you began at a snail’s pace (very slow walk, for instance) you only have to “increase” a little bit in order to successfully engage in the “evade” parts of the missions you’re on. The very first mission you’re on, you’ll find yourself up against a zombified runner. She was your predecessor. So, the expectation is you’ve got somebody who was FAST behind you. She may have lost her mind as a zombie, but not her physique & athleticism. Complete with sound effects of a zombie getting closer, you are incentivized to move.

I picked up all sorts of “valuable supplies” for the survivor camp. Finding underwear was the one I remember most (can never have too many of those post-apocalypse!) but various kinds of clothing, medical supplies, and other sundries bits of wire, electronics, and more were there. I don’t remember any weapons, but I’m just starting out, you see. Each has a use back at the survivor camp, and you get to assign which items are provided to which building types. Advancing each one will presumably have a different impact. Places like the Armory, Housing, Recreation, Communications, etc all are competing for the resources you bring back – you have to decide who gets what.

After the mission ends, the game lets you Tweet your progress. Unfortunately, I didn’t Tweet at the time, and there’s no Tweet Later type access. The mission ending part passed pretty quickly, and it’s possible I just passed things over too fast. But I would appreciate an exportable run log function there, as well. Distance, time, zombies evaded, supplies collected, other survivors I outran – they’re displayed, but I don’t think you can auto-tweet it. And there’s no Facebook support yet.

Now remember, I did all this at night. Half the streetlights in my neighborhood were out (cool!) and it was just late enough that pretty much everyone on the block had the lights on their house out, too. It definitely added to the spooky factor. My daughter wanted to come with me, so we got to outrun the zombies together. Nothing like a dose of reality to add to the realism. hahaha. We headed out of our subdivision a way I hadn’t gone before. So it was partially uncharted territory.

Outside of the subdivision, there was a middle school. The track & field lights were on, but you couldn’t see really from the street, because the building is in the way. Eerily, only a handful of cars were in the parking lot that night. But, we heard all sorts of screaming going on. I hadn’t been there before, and wanted to explore. My little girl and I did the totally wrong thing – we checked out all the noise! Turns out it was a bunch of 6th-8th grade girls doing 300m hurdles. Funny, the sound from all that from the other side of the school was far more like zombie-induced pandemonium. Complete with sporadic (starter pistol) gunfire, followed by even more intense yelling. Yes, I have to say it was pretty cool.

After booking it off the school grounds, next door is the school district’s school bus depot. Lines and lines of vacant, never-to-be-filled-again buses, and plenty of diesel fuel somewhere, I thought. Freakin dark, too – the pic I have here feels like golden sunshine, by comparison. I would have to investigate that one in daylight. If I am going to have to outrun the zombie horde, I want to at least not be spooked senseless by the flipping buses for Pete’s sake.

The good thing is I didn’t kill myself on the run. No wrenched ankle that allows the zombie horde to feed. And I didn’t inadvertently run down a dead end street, either. There was one shortcut in the neighborhood I hadn’t seen before, cutting between a few houses that was filled with all sorts of hiding spots for zombies. Very creepy.

But, the really good news is my daughter kept up the whole way, and she’s not even ten yet. She’ll do well in the apocalypse. And I still have a bunch more missions to write our post-apocalyptic auto-biography with.

ZAG

Zombie Apocalypse Games

This video is downright amazing, folks. The Last of Us is literally and figuratively the name of the game in this post-apocalypstic world. I cannot wait to get my hands on this. Me and a horde of about 5 billion other bipeds, that is.

Naughty Dog, the developer behind the incredibly successful Uncharted series from Sony, is changing their tune just a bit. I think they might be singing “Maybe” from The Ink Spots. Possibly it’s “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” from the same folks? Any song they want to sing, or even if they just want to hum it, I’m buying tickets to the concert. I’m certain it’s going to be a work of art.

The premise of the game is pretty simple. Rather than a more futuristic post-apocalyptic vision of the world, it’s more near-term. The main character is a father, with his having-to-grow-up-way-too-fast-just-to-live daughter of maybe 12 years old or so at his side. She never knew the world prior to the catastrophe that struck, but he remembers it quite well. The impression you’re left with is that it’s been about a decade or maybe a little less since the world went pear-shaped.

The tone and mood of this game is absolutely riveting to me. I’m a father myself, and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my children, so I instantly identify with the lead character. This isn’t Max Payne, where the widowed, now childless former cop goes ballistic on everyone and everything who has ever done him or his recently departed family any wrong. This isn’t a descent into a chemically fueled rage-fest – this is cold, calculated survival.

Daddy’s trying to make sure his little princess actually gets to see another day. Bravado and excess is the path directly to death, and that’s just not on Dad’s to do list. He’s got a job to do, and he’s giving it everything he has. There are no faerie tales here. No magic spells, no unlimited ammo, no instant health packs – life is incredibly precious, and precarious.

It’s going to be a rough road to travel, that’s perfectly plain. The raw energy you feel the father expend to eliminate just a single marauder is positively exhausting. And you realize he’s done it TWICE in the past say 3-5 minutes. Then, when they’re celebrating their find of just a few unspent cartridges he can use in his pistol, three mutant zomboid things show up. At first, they seem content to feed on the two poor bastards Dad just took out. That is until one of them comes looking for a fresher meal.

No release date as yet, but it’s clear this one’s coming to the PlayStation 3. Something I look forward to is apparently the apocalypse left the world pretty green, for a change. That’s just a little something that made this video stand out – there seems to be plenty of living things around, despite the world turning into a wasteland.

Zombie Apocalypse Games

PreOrder Lollipop Chainsaw on XB360 and PS3 via Zombie Apocalypse Games! The release date hasn’t yet been announced, but the pre-order special bonuses are in! Get your dose of quirky, perky zombie fighting cheerleader Juliet Starling and her sidekick Nick today!

If you’re jones-ing for a high school action-drama, you’ve got it with Lollipop Chainsaw. The syrupy goodness of Juliet, her good girl demeanor, her bad girl outfits, and the absolutely apocalyptic graduation party she must be throwing is an oddly compelling mix.

Warner Brothers (the publisher in the USA) has released an appropriately titled Skins Trailer for the game. Juliet is depicted in all her glory as a variety of different character types, including:

• Ash/Bruce Campbell homage from Evil Dead coming from GameStop
• Jimmy Euringer inspired character, only for GameStop PowerUp rewards members
• Rockabilly via Amazon
• Foxy Funk from Best Buy
• Goth Girl from Best Buy as well

That’s right folks, it’s time to start deciding what to wear for the zombie apocalypse. Combat boots? OH MY GOD, gag me with a spoon! I’ll go with the stretch latex and pumps, because they’ll match my book bag! It’s hard to take these pre-order items seriously, but I think there’s a lot of common sense going on here from the developers & the publisher.

Let’s face it – the game is 50% zombie killing, and 50% ogling Juliet, typically in some sort of gymnastic maneuver, pom poms and skirt flying every which way. It’s not like WB said “hey let’s add sexy stuff to the game” because I’m pretty sure with the developer’s reputation, those “creative ideas” were already jammed into the game. With a target market of 18-104 year old men, Lollipop Chainsaw has something for everybody, most especially the one thing they all want.

Now I am trying to find better info on what will surely be micro-transaction stuff to come. Courtesy of DefaultPrime and ShogunGamer, it is clear there are more costumes floating around. The pink Sleek Sexy Rider Suit exclusive for the XB360 and on the right is the cute fashionable waitress costume for the PS3. Those are Japanese region costumes, it seems, although it is not known if they will be coming to NA/EU. I’m just a little worried about what the Hard Core mode of the game might bring, and since there is such a version in Japan, you can bet revealing Juliet’s virtual assets are going to have cheat code fiends salivating. Hot Coffee has nothing on the potential here.

I don’t see info on Special Editions yet – just bonuses for pre-order so far. I’ll post more as I find it or hear it from WB directly.

Links for the specific pre-order retailers are below.

• Amazon
• BestBuy
• Buy.com
• EB Games & EB Canada
• GameFly
• GameStop
• NewEgg
• Target
• Walmart

Zombie Apocalypse Games