PixlBit

Zombies have been all the rage in popular culture for quite some time now and that’s reflected in the App Store. You'll find zombies in every sort of game imaginable but the best thing to do to them, naturally, is shoot them in the face!

New York Zombies 2 is a zombie-filled FPS. You might think that playing a first-person shooter on an iOS device is a terrible idea but NYZ2 controls well enough to get the job done. Later in the game it’s easy to get overrun by the undead hordes whereas you’d stand a much better chance with a controller, but there’s still a lot of fun to be had here. NYZ2 keeps things interesting by offering a wide range of upgradable weapons (axe, shotgun, sniper rifle, etc.) and an RPG-esque skill tree with paths for ranged and melee attacks and survival skills. The structure of the game is level-based. Completing story missions nets you money (for your weapons) and skill points (for your skill tree) and completed levels often offer optional missions that will grant additional spoils.

The game offers some nice variety in its missions. Sure, sometimes you’re trying to get from point A to point B, but you might need to search the area for a specific item or survive for a certain amount of time or protect someone from a raised vantage point, to name a few possibilities. The levels do wear thin eventually but the variety in the mission objectives keeps them from going stale quickly.

The visuals are somewhere between PS1 and PS2 and look pretty good on a small phone screen. The attention to detail is pretty good, with the environments looking suitably dilapidated and the zombies nice and, um, decaying. Speaking of the zombies, there’s a nice variety to them as well. You’ll fight your typical shuffling corpse but there are acid-spitting zombies, zombie dogs, firemen with axes, heavy duty fat zombies wielding street signs, and quite a few more (18 in total the internet tells me). The menus have a grainy ‘70s horror look to them and the music is both creepy and depressing. The game is a very cohesive package.

But this is an iOS game, so is it going to hit you up for money all the time via in-app purchases? Mostly no, I’m glad to say. There is a dual currency system but some of the optional missions reward you with the premium currency and thanks to the mission variety, doing some grinding for money isn’t a chore at all. The problem comes late in the game when the story missions become very difficult. I’m a total cheapskate and so I eventually quit without finishing the game but your mileage may vary. I played the game regularly for more than a month and never spent a dime. There’s a lot of game here for 99 cents. If you’re a fan of zombies or horror games in general and have an iOS device, NY Zombies 2 is sure to please.