They can throw their peers over obstacles, urge every biter that passes them to sprint, act as a rally point, or self-destruct in a spectacularly gory explosion. Not only do they fulfil the indispensable blocker role from Lemmings, but they can be smartly combined with most other mutations, making them highly versatile and cost efficient. However, by far the most useful is the overlord. You can even create a Left 4 Dead-style tank – a rampaging bullet sponge that can smash through walls and crush all but the toughest of foes. Mutations comprise things such as the ability to run, jump, explode, or climb walls. You rarely have access to more than a few DNA points on any given level, and even then you’ll often have to work to reach the barrels containing them. There are eight in total – some permanent, others single use – each helpfully explained by in-game news bulletins. Secondly, similar to the skills system from Lemmings, DNA can be spent on upgrading targeted individuals with mutations. Firstly, you can set commands via clicking on environmental icons, thus deciding whether your zeds smash down susceptible doors, use or bypass stairwells, activate new spawn points, or destroy power generators.

Essentially, there are two key ways of manipulating your festering minions.

The game breaks you in gently, with the first chapter effectively playing out like a tutorial that gradually introduces the mechanics. There are 40 discrete levels divided into four chapters. Other scenarios involve surviving multiple waves of heavily-armed assailants, assassinating well-protected characters, chase sequences, and even tricky boss fights. Sometimes it will be a simple case of infecting all the humans or reaching a designated exit. The action follows a loose but entertainingly wacky narrative that revolves around a dodgy street drug known as Romero, the mad scientist who cooked it up, and those attempting to thwart your plans for world domination. Although, unlike our furry green-haired friends, these ravenous little blighters also devour any delicious brrrrrrraaaaaiiiiiinnnnsss stupid enough to get in their way, which conveniently helps to swell your ranks.īut Zombie Night Terror involves far more than just getting your boys home. Without intervention, they’ll cheerfully march in the same direction until they either perish or are forced to turn back around. Like Lemmings, control of your living dead is largely indirect. The intention may be more nefarious, but the core principles remain the same. Instead of guiding a group of gormless but indefatigable rodents through a 2D landscape, you’re in charge of an army of endlessly shuffling zeds. Let’s face it, a spiritual successor to the classic Amiga puzzle-platformer has been long overdue.Īnd it does feel like a natural evolution of the concept. It does this by not only having you actually masterminding the zombie apocalypse but also by reanimating the long-dead corpse of Lemmings. Thankfully, Zombie Night Terror actually offers a somewhat fresher take on the subject.

And no place is this truer than in the world of video games, where we’ve been overrun with a plethora of lazy and uninspired zombie-related fodder. While I initially appreciated the undead renaissance of recent years, it is starting to feel more than a little done to death as a genre. Personally, I’m becoming increasingly ambivalent.

Zombies, love ‘em or loathe ‘em, there’s no denying they’re everywhere these days.

Zombie night terror fast