Protect and Defend Humanity in Zombie Gunship Survival

Zombie Gunship Survival (Free) by flaregames and Limbic is an aerial shooter game where you take to the skies to rain destruction upon an endless horde of zombies. If you enjoyed the original Zombie Gunship from a few years back, or just love to shoot zombies with a grand arsenal of weapons, then Zombie Gunship Survival is a game you should check out.

It seems that zombies are never a dying trend, and they only got a rise in popularity a few years ago when “The Walking Dead” came to television. While I’ve enjoyed a lot of zombie-themed games and shows, personally, I’ve gotten a little tired of the same thing over and over again. If you’re going to use zombies, at least make it something that is unique and different, right? Fortunately, that’s what Zombie Gunship Survival is to me, because it’s not your typical zombie shoot-em-up in a first person perspective. I also got a chance to try the game out earlier this year at GDC, and I was thoroughly impressed with what the game offered. Now that it’s finally available, I had to get my hands on it, of course.

Visually, Zombie Gunship Survival is rather impressive with the high definition, realistic graphics. The game is rendered in 3-D with top notch visuals that are fairly detailed and textured, and the lighting is done well for a gloomy post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombie hordes. The plane itself looks just like the real thing, and all of the weapons that you can find and equip are true-to-life as well. The real kicker with this game are the visuals during combat, because you’re taking control of an AC–130 Gunship and see the world through the plane’s gun scopes. This means that you’ll see everything in black-and-white, inverted, and it’s all kind of fuzzy because the missions are during night. Think of night-vision goggles — that’s what Zombie Gunship Survival will look like most of the time. The different types of zombies you’ll encounter have their own unique appearances and behaviors, and the character portraits of various characters and troops you deploy are lifelike. Animations in the game are smooth and fluid, so there was no issue with lag or choppiness on my iPhone 7 (though personally I think an iPad is best suited for this game). There’s a haunting and somewhat eerie soundtrack in the background that fits the mood perfectly, and the sound effects of your weapons are faithful representations of what you’d expect in reality. Overall, the developers did a great job with the visual and audio design quality of Zombie Gunship Survival, and even if you didn’t play the first one, you can still appreciate the authenticity of this sequel.

Zombie Gunship Survival is level-based and the missions just get harder in difficulty as you make progress. There’s also no way to skip ahead if you don’t like a stage, so everything is fairly linear. The game starts off slow enough, as you discover that you’re one of the few survivors of a devastating zombie apocalypse, and the only way to stay alive in this wasteland is to jump into an AC–130 Gunship and help other survivors raid bases and other areas for resources to survive. In the game, you’re expected to go on these quests with different objectives (keeps things interesting) and complete them to earn resources to expand your headquarters, as well as get valuable weapons and other upgrades for your gunship. Since each mission may be different (and some are harder than others), you’ll be briefed on the goal beforehand. There’s a tutorial in the beginning, so you will learn the basics as you go. Like most games, you can earn up to three medals on each stage as well, depending on your performance, so try not to screw up too bad when you’re in zombie-infested ruins. However, you can always go back and replay specific missions you’ve cleared if you want to do a bit of grinding for resources.

The controls in Zombie Gunship Survival are simple and straightforward. Before you officially start a mission, you have to deploy your troops somewhere on the map. Just tap on the spot you want them to deploy at, but be wary of sentry towers and other hazards that are not safe for your troops. Once the ground units are deployed, the mission starts. Your job is to basically follow them and provide air support when needed. If you notice zombies heading toward your units, aim and shoot. You can pan the camera around with your finger, and use a pinching gesture to zoom in or out. Make sure your target is in the crosshair, and then tap-and-hold on the weapon button (to the left) to fire. When you have multiple guns equipped, just tap on the one you want to use right now. But be warned — the weapons can overheat if you fire for too long, and some may have a limited amount of ammo, so you have to wait for it to cool down if need be. This means that you should time your attacks at the right time so you aren’t overwhelmed. Eventually, you’ll also be able to command the ground troops, telling them when to stop and go, and bring in more air support.

When you complete missions, you will get resources that are needed to upgrade the buildings in your headquarters. There are also defense missions that you can do, where you must protect the headquarters from incoming zombies for a certain amount of time. Doing this will get you more rewards, so you will want to do it as often as you can if possible. You can also get crates that are full of loot, though there are timers on these when you open it, so you have to wait before you can collect the prizes (though you can spend gold bar premium currency to speed things up). And if you want more crates of loot, you can spend gold bars to get them, or drop some cash through in-app purchases to have enough funds.

I’ve only started Zombie Gunship Survival, but so far it’s an enjoyable way to pass the time. I love how realistic the graphics are because it is truly immersive and unique, unlike some other zombie shooter games that I’ve seen. The controls are easy enough to understand, and you can easily change the y-axis and x-axis to have inverted movement. I’m usually not a fan of freemium base building games, but the distinctive combat system of Zombie Gunship Survival is interesting enough to keep me coming back for more. I don’t like the timers for opening crates though, but I suppose I can live with it.

I recommend giving Zombie Gunship Survival a try if you are looking for a great zombie shooter that is unlike the norm. You can find Zombie Gunship Survival on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for free. There are in-app purchases.