After playing Guns Royale, a Battle Royale Augmented Reality game, I felt like playing more action shooter AR games. I came across a game called Angry Zombies (Angry Zombies – for AR, as its title on the App Store).
Angry Zombies (don’t get confused with the Angry Birds title, it’s not from the same developer) is a new ARKit game where that mixes FPS, Shoot ’em up (STG), and Tower Defense gameplay mechanics into one.
In Angry Zombies AR you are required to use a wide variety of weapons to defend a coin in the center of the map. If a zombie is able to touch it, it’s game over. The game features 50-level campaign missions and a very challenging Endless mode.In the Endless mode, you need to survive as long as you can against waves of enemies that increases in numbers the longer you survive. My best time was 3:30 minutes, but I know I can do much better than this.
To make the experience more engaging and fun, the game employs multiple maps, a wide variety of weapons and different types of zombies.
The campaign is the best way to start and get to know the game. There is a short tutorial when you start the game, but it’s a very easy game to pick up. In each level, the game will ask you to perform certain objectives. Sometimes it will be shooting X number of zombies using a specific weapon, sometimes eliminate different types of zombies and sometimes trying to survive a number of minutes, etc.
Before we move on, let’s take a look at a gameplay video so you can understand what this game is all about.
The gameplay mechanics are very simple. All you need to do is to aim using the sight and tap to shoot. You can also hold the trigger to shoot continuously without any delay.
When you start the game, you start with a simple gun. Once you kill a zombie, there is a chance that it will drop a weapon crate. If you shoot that weapon crate you will equip the weapon in it. You know exactly which weapon is it based on the weapon icon stamped on the top of the crate. You don’t have to get every weapon that drops. The thing is that each weapon drop, unlike the main weapon, has limited ammo. So sometimes it’s better to shoot it only when you feel it’s needed.
You can also find bomb drops. You can shoot the bomb to grab it and put it in your inventory. You can use the bomb by tapping on the bomb button on the bottom-left corner of the screen. you can hold several bombs. Once a bomb is activated, it will wipe out all the zombies on the map. It’s a very valuable weapon that you should only use in cases where you are overwhelmed by dozens of zombies and there is no other way but clear the map
Weapon Variations & Shooting Experience in AR
What makes this game really fun is definitely the variety of weapon and the actual shooting experience. The game features block-style graphics, yet the shooting felt really fun and satisfying. There are fast-firing auto rifles, bazooka rocket launchers, a weapon that feels like an artillery with widespread damage, and more. I also really liked the animation of the zombies when you shoot them, they like flying into the air doing crazy voices.
Unlike some first-person shooters where the gun resides at the center of the screen, in Angry Zombies AR it’s in the right-side of the screen. The crosshair (gun sight) however is at the center of the screen. The good thing about that design is that the weapon doesn’t obscure what happens on the screen. You still get to see most of the level in front of you, see the weapon in action and still be able to shoot the zombies and enjoy the entire action on the screen.
In ARZombi for example, the gun is placed in the center, slightly to the right. When you aim down the sight, the gun is positioned squarely in the center. This is a better design for this game because it plays like a room-scale game and tries to deliver a more realistic mix-reality experience an authentic first-person shooting experience. This works well for ARZombie, but for Angry Zombie the side weapon placement works better because you are encouraged to move around the level and observe it from different angles to locate incoming threats coming from all directions. A weapon in the middle would make it harder to observe the map and catch small zombies getting close to the base.
Overall AR Experience
Angry Zombies plays really well in AR. In each level, you will be asked to position the game’s level. It takes a few seconds. Then the game will give you the option to move the map by tapping on the screen or resize it using a pinch gesture.
I honestly don’t understand why the developer used the tap-to-move option and not allow users to just drag it to the desired place. It feels very awkward and I hope this will be fixed.
I recommend playing the game in a large size. There are a few reasons for that: first, it’s easier to see enemies when they come close to the center and seconds, it’s more fun moving around the environment and getting close to the zombies.
Zombie Gunship Revenant AR Similarities
I actually felt more like a guy in a helicopter shooting zombies down below. This immediately reminded me of another game called Zombie Gunship Revenant AR. You can click this link to visit my full review of that game.
In fact, both Zombie Gunship Revenant AR and Angry Zombies for AR are both very similar in many ways. In both games you shoot zombies, you have a wide variety of weapons, you are encouraged to move around the environment, you need to protect a base and there is a crosshair for aiming.
The main differences are that Zombie Gunship Revenant feels very authentic, it has much more impressive explosion effects, it has weapon upgrades (not weapon pickups) and it just feels more like a very intensive all-out war than a fun little shooter.
I mentioned this game because of their similarities and if you like Zombie Gunship Ravenant AR, I think you are going to love this game as well, and vice versa.
Music & Sound Effects
The music in this game is nothing to write about, but I think this was done deliberately to put a focus on the sound effects. Those zombies will do some really funny voices. Even if you don’t shoot them they just go like “yeah, hheeee, yehhh” the entire time and it sounds really funny. It just makes the entire shooting experience kind of comic and really funny. I recommend watching the gameplay video to see what I mean.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed playing “Angry Zombies – for AR”, it’s a surprisingly fun Shoot ’em up Augmented Reality game. I just thought this game will be able to excite me after experiencing a game like Zombie gunship: Revenant AR, but I was wrong. In fact, this was one of the more entertaining AR shooters I played lately. The entire gameplay experience felt fun, refreshing and amusing. The animations, the block-style design, the shooting experience and sound effects, all blended in really well to form an addictive AR gameplay experience. Although I knew that I need to share this experience with you and write a review, I found myself just always wanting to do just one more round because I enjoyed it so much.