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Zombie Tycoon II: Brainhov's Revenge
Zombie Tycoon II:
Brainhov's Revenge follows in the footsteps of the original Zombie
Tycoon. A real-time strategy at heart, it offers a fun experience with
cartoon like graphics.
At the centre of each
level is your mobile spawner. With a formidable machine gun when
deployed, it also replenishes your zombie horde when they inevitably
die. If your spawner becomes overwhelmed and gets destroyed, that level
is over. This aspect of game play does make some levels feel like an
extended escort mission, but the spawner can come in useful against some
mobs of opposing zombies or monsters.
Your monster is
upgradable by picking up glowing orbs from the monsters and zombies it
has destroyed, so it's worth throwing it into battle as often as you can
in order to gain those important power ups as soon as possible.
The single player
campaign (8 levels at approximately 30-40 minutes per level) feels like
an extended tutorial at times. The first level resorts to the tried and
tested short guide around the controls, then drops you into the action
with a few small tasks to complete. Between each task you are treated
to a small cut scene that can be skipped if you want to stick to the
action. Thankfully the number of cut scenes drops off after the first
couple of levels getting you more involved in the actual game play.
Each level comes with a
set of additional challenges that you don't find out until you complete
the level for the first time. These challenges come in the form of
collecting trophy parts, capturing all of the available buildings or
completing the level within a set time limit. For those of you that
like to complete a game one hundred percent, this ensures that each
level will need to be played through more than once.
It is worth playing the
single player campaign at least half way through before tackling the
online multiplayer as you will need some idea of each units strengths
and weaknesses before you will have a chance at taking on anyone
online.
Graphically, Zombie
Tycoon II is reminiscent of a cartoon with bright vivid colours and
contrasting dark areas throughout. The cut scenes are entertaining at
times, but the audio is restricted to mostly grunts and groans of
zombies and battle sounds. This does not however distract from the game
play. The controls are easy to pick up, but in the early levels the
overuse of cut scenes is distracting, especially since the zoom level is
reset after each one, requiring you to zoom back out to get a wider view
of the area you are in.
Final Thoughts?
Zombie Tycoon II:
Brainhov's Revenge is an interesting take on the RTS genre. It appears
to be aimed more at newcomers to the genre rather than hardcore RTS
fans, but it is sure to please both camps. With its simple controls and
game play, it is a fun game to play in short bursts. The level
challenges aren't impossible to achieve, but will require that each
level is played at least twice.
Zombie Tycoon II:
Brainhov's Revenge is available on the PlayStation Network for $14.45
AUD (or currently free if you are a Playstation Plus member).
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