Fight Off Hordes Of Undead By Yourself Or With A Friend In Zombieville USA 2
Zombieville USA 2 ($0.99) by Mika Mobile, Inc. is the second incarnation of the action shooter Zombieville and it's much more polished than its predecessor.
Well, what do you know? You're in the middle of a zombie apocalypse (man, these are happening quite often in the App Store). Luckily, you have many weapons at your disposal and can bring a friend if you so desire.
Initially, you start with a bat, a shotgun, and a handgun. You can access each weapon by tapping the corresponding circle on the right side of the screen. Tap once to switch to the weapon, and tap again to use it.
To move, use the joystick in the bottom left corner of the screen. This is a bit different than the controls in the first Zombieville game. Instead of just side-scrolling, you can move all around.
Although it's awesome to be able to cover more of an area, it does make it more of a challenge. The joystick control seems to stick a lot. I suppose you just have to be careful not to move your thumb too far across it, but I definitely think this needs to be fixed or they need to figure out a new way to control the character that is more user-friendly.
You collect money and ammo along the way, and the currency is used to purchase new avatars, weapons, and other battle aids. I did find that the rate at which you receive currency seems rather slow, but it wasn't so terrible that you couldn't survive with what you had to begin with for a while.
Along with playing solo through the levels, you have the option to play multiplayer. You can play co-op over Bluetooth or Game Center. To my surprise, it didn't take long to find someone via Game Center, but a lot of the time they ended up disconnecting.
One of my co-op experiences was so buggy that I ended up going through the entire last half of the level without seeing a single zombie. Worst part is that even when the timer ran out, the game didn't end. So, I was just stuck wandering aimlessly for no reason at all.
They really need to fix the bugs in co-op mode because I think that it's the best part of the game. When it did work, and my partner stayed connected, it was a lot of fun. Plus, it never hurts to have some back up during the zombie apocalypse, am I right?
The graphics are much better than the first Zombieville and I love that they're trying to make the game better by allowing you to move all around the screen, but I still think they need to implement some new, or more accurate, controls.
My final complaint is that it takes far too long for the stats to pop up at the end of each level and there is no way to skip it. Also, the main menu animation is irritating — you should only have an intro the first time, not every time you go back to the main menu. This isn't a deal breaker, but I find these things annoying as they take away time that could be spent headshotting zombies and making some money.
Zombieville USA 2 is available in the App Store for only $0.99. It's a universal app and comes with full Game Center support. Is it worth the $0.99? Despite the minor bugs and quirks, I'd say so. But if tiny joystick controls on iOS tend to really irk you, you may want to steer clear. Otherwise, it's an action-packed zombie apocalypse experience you'll want to try out.
