The zombies with green glowing eyes are back just in time for Halloween, and putting bullets into the brain-hungry fiends is free(mium). Dead Trigger 2, by Madfinger Games, combines the first person shooter with the waiting-game of production from wallet-devouring games like FarmVille and City Story. I’m feeling ambiguous about this design decision: on the one hand, eliminating zombies passes the time as weapons and equipment is produced over hours—yet, on the other, I become a zombie myself: purchasing the in-game currency to attain those wicked weapons as soon as possible.
AN OVER-THE-TOP ANALYSIS OF THE WELL AND LOVED ZOMBIE GENRE
Any zombie game taking place on the streets that separates corporate towers into districts is an allegory for capitalist America. The zombies are the consumer, unable to satisfy the materialist hole in their chest, and also the mass society encroaching on the shrinking idealism for a “better way of life”: if there is ever such a mode of existence. The survivors are the minority who fight for their life against the approaching hordes of conformity. Survivors are the final bastion of idealism, and the zombie narrative has a rather bleak outlook: the survivors cannot survive forever. There comes a moment when they are devoured like crops by the locusts, caving into to the thoughtless consuming patterns of the zombie. To the hordes, the brain is the centre of intelligence: what grants resistance a possibility, thus it must be destroyed so that the mass can continue to exist in a mode of complacency.
With this analysis in mind, there seems to be an irony surfacing from the master narrative of zombies in conjunction with the in-game cash shop. Players assume the role of a survivor, and mow down the walking dead with guns and wrenches, but at the same time they are encouraged too purchase in-game gold. If they do, they become a zombie themselves, despite the role they portray. Those who resist the temptation are the real survivors. (Thank you: you are the final bastion of idealism).
I guess it is symbolic—to me anyways—of the constant tension we face everyday with materialism. On a regular basis we are bombarded with advertisements, popular culture, and trends, and do we posses the will to resist assimilation in mass consumerism?
OVERLY ZEALOUS ANALYSIS OF THE ZOMBIE GENRE ASIDE THE GRAPHICS ARE SHINY
Dead Trigger 2 does much to surpass its predecessor in everyone way; in fact, the original Dead Trigger is a tech demo in comparison. The set pieces have grown epic as the (lose) narrative moves the characters from over-run American Cities to the countries of Africa. The range in diversity of zombies is fantastic: no more popping the heads off of an endless horde security guard zombies.
Though the setting varies, the maps are still tiny and consisting mostly of hallways and corridors. It’s easy to be cornered by the mass, and it becomes especially dangerous when a boss zombie pins you to a wall. Zombies climb over barricades, and crawl underneath broken doors, but at least you have the opportunity to board up some vulnerabilities with wooden barricades. Yet don’t take this as Dead Trigger 2 trying to emulate a survival horror experience: this is an action packed first person shooter first and foremost.
The strict aim of the game is to massacre the walking dead with a unique array of weapons while on the bus, or while your date is “in the washroom”. Missions take a few minutes, consisting of either fetching items, thinning the horde, or rescuing survivors from the bloody clutches of the undead. There is, however, always a secondary goal during missions: farming cash.
Without the dollar bills, it’s impossible to progress. Not only does the horde increase in strength from mission to mission, but pain killers and grenades, which cost money, are needed to take down boss zombies. Cash is also used to unlock new weapons—after finding the required blueprints, which are random drops—and cash is also used to upgrade weapons—let me add that upgrades are a necessity. For the rich and/or lazy, there is the option to buy in-game gold to bypass the grind for cash.
Resist resistance, please.
AESTHETICS ASIDE, CONTROLS ARE MOST IMPORTANT
Now to get down to the grungy (or bloody) topic: it should be a well understood fact that the first person shooter on touch screens is complicated. Finding balance between buttons and mobility is difficult. Something has to be sacrificed because a screen encumbered with buttons doesn’t work, and a developer has to consider that without left and right triggers found on console controllers it is close to impossible to fully emulate the first person shooter experience on mobile. The only potential saviour is third party controllers, which only raises other problems such as is development cost worth gambling on third party controllers?
Dead Trigger 2 has the option for a third party controller, but it also came to a compromise by having the controls function within the constraints of a touch screen device. The developers decided to sacrifice, ironically, the need for pulling a trigger. Simply speaking, you merely aim the cross hairs at a zombie and firing is automatic. This does come at a cost, however. There are a lot of wasted bullets.
Yes: many bullets, especially from assault rifles and sub-machine guns, wind up in the limbs and bodies of the undead, and if there is one thing we have learned from the zombie genre, it is that we always have to put a bullet in the head.