Zombie Survivors: Eternal Nightfall is a top down, bullet hell, roguelike survival game, very similar to Vampire Survivors. And the other myriad bullet hell survivor games out there.
While it has a lot of similarities to those games, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. At least not for me. It could also be that I’m just bad at this type of game.
Dude Where’s My Car?
Zombie Survivors has 5 stages to choose from, each of which you unlock after reaching a certain point in the previous stage. I was only able to unlock stage 2 by surviving five minutes in stage 1. There appears to be a nightmare mode for stage 1 and stage 2, that I have come to terms with never seeing for myself. As well as the bonus stage. Which is a shame, because bonus usually denotes fun, which I was not really having a lot of with Zombie Survivors.
You start each round with 5 weapons. A bat, a knife, a pistol, a rifle, and a flame thrower that might as well be a BIC lighter. Throughout the map you can find various weapon upgrades that last for an indeterminate amount of time. I could never tell if it was based on ammo or a timer. You can also find health packs, armor and money. The money is used back on the main screen to give your character permanent upgrades.
Again, all of this is pretty par for the course when it comes to these kinds of games. You collect gems to level up and each level grants you an upgrade like regenerating health or increased damage. One cool thing Zombie Survivors does that differentiates itself is that every ten levels is a slightly more special upgrade. My favorite being the car that you can drive around and run over zombies until it explodes. The only issue with that car is that you can’t collect upgrades or experience while you are driving.
They’re Coming From the Trees!
There are two big things that frustrated me with this game. One, is that the zombies spawn underneath the trees that you can also walk under. So while you think you are safe running from a horde, suddenly you become surrounded with nowhere to go.
Which brings me to my next frustration. The movement in Zombie Survivors is bad. With it being top down, you are looking a flat surface and it’s not immediately clear what you can walk over or have to go around. Not only that, but when you kill a zombie, they explode, and sometimes that explosion prevents you from moving forward. It is very easy to get boxed in and if you are low on health or don’t have armor, your run is coming to an end as soon as that happens.
My longest run was just over five minutes long, out of a possible twenty. I can’t fathom making it twenty minutes. Unless I am able to find a car that is invulnerable. But that’s probably not going to happen because this game is most likely going to the vault of never playing again. Especially since Vampire Survivors is only a few dollars more.
I Will (Not) Survive
Zombie Survivors has some good ideas. And the gameplay itself isn’t so bad. Instead of good not great, we’ll say bad not awful. The collision detection needs to be worked on and the spawns maybe coming from an off screen location rather than right where you are standing. If those two things can be worked out, then this would be a much more enjoyable game to play.
Not going to be doing a video this week either, mostly because I don’t want y’all to see just how bad I am at this type of game. I will say, it was kind of refreshing having a game be a bit of a stinker this week. I feel like the last couple have been quite enjoyable which really takes the wind out of the sails of weak in weakly. Not going to complain about that though, because if I can get enjoyment for a cheaper price, then I am all for that. And I hope you are as well.