Review: Zombie Lane

My new cultural obsession is the Digital Chocolate game Zombie Lane.  This is a social game, with farming and design elements, but the primary appeal is whacking zombies with a shovel.

Storyline:

The story is that you have a yard that is infested with zombies and you have to get them out.  You are trying to rebuild your house and clean up your yard so your spouse and dog will come home.  As you kill zombies and level up you gain access to items you need to rebuild your household.  At this point only one and a half areas have opened up, the circus and part of a downtown area, but additional areas named “The Crash Site” and “The Cure” have been promised.  Along the way you meet other wacky characters and attempt to help them too.

Social:

The social elements are somewhat limited.  Only a few of my friends play consistently, but they are only needed occasionally when your farms die out or are trampled by zombies.  Each friend can give you up to 6 power ups per day, so if even a few are diligently giving, you can get plenty of power ups.  You can visit your friends for additional energy, and a few of the quests require you to visit them. 

Farming and Design:

The easiest way to make money is to farm.  At the end of the quests you need tons of money, so you find yourself primarily spending your energy on farming.  Aside from that though, the farming aspect is minimal, and you do not need to do it at all.  There are only a few design elements.  You can customize your character a little and earn special outfits for achieving goals.  The outfits are fun and ridiculous, a fair reward for your effort.

Fighting:

Your primary goal is to kill zombies…by hitting them with a shovel.  The zombies vary in how many hits it takes to kill them.  You have a limited amount of energy, so each hit needs to count.  The zombies hit back, but there are no repercussions for taking a hit except a delay in when you can hit the next zombie.  Frankly, the game would be more interesting and strategic if each hit from a zombie sapped your energy or something so there was more incentive to play more carefully.  As it is, you usually line up 10 attacks in a row and wait for them to play out.  The enemies are imaginative, if repetitive.  Each randomly drops items that you can turn in for energy boosts or save to make better weapons.  Each yard part you rebuild allows you to combine items to make fun crafted weapons, such as flaming boxing gloves and moltov cocktails, which do more damage, but will be consumed.  You can also buy more powerful conventional weapons (shotguns and rifles and such) if hitting the Zs with a shovel eventually becomes tiresome.

Objectives:

The best thing about this game is the varied and interesting objectives.  There are several inept NPC survivors who ask you for help throughout the game.  Rob, the fat mall cop is the main one, but there is also a hobo, a redneck and his hillbilly girlfriend, a farmer, and a hot dog vendor.  This is in addition to the main storyline where you attempt to lure your wife and dog back home.  Some of the objectives are simple, others are complex, and only a few are tedious.  The final objectives take a long time to complete; I’ve been working on the last one for several weeks and will be for at least another two.  Plus there are achievements for other long term goals that provide trophies and more powerful weapons.  I still need to kill another 4000 zombies to get the last one.  Overall, there is plenty to keep you busy in this game for months, and by then more areas will be opened up. 

Graphics:

The graphics are pretty week, but functional.  Occasionally when you smash or blow up a zombie just right a random eyeball bounces around, which is a nice addition.  There is nothing graphic or disturbing.  The Big Girl likes to play my energy out.  My major beef with the graphics is that I would like the option to make everything see-through so that you can fix fences and pick up trash behind buildings.  As it is, you find yourself moving trees and buildings so you can see what needs to be done behind them, which is irritating.

Micropay:

There are the usual options to micropay for advanced weapons, food, and energy.  You can also pay for decorations and customization for your characters.  One of the objectives required a small micropayment, which I find irritating, but not disastrous. 

Recommendation:

I really like Zombie Lane.  It’s far from perfect, and your mileage will vary with how much pleasure you get in whacking zombies with a shovel, and later, a lightsaber.  But I’ve been playing it for a couple of months now, and it has yet to get old.  I hope the new areas open up soon.