Zombie Madness

Zombie Madness: The Awakening

Zombie Madness: The Awakening is a top down shooter where you play a soldier fighting for survival in a world subsumed in a zombie apocalypse. Really there are no shortage of games like this, Zombie Madness however is a decent example of this type of game. 

There are two modes in Zombie Madness. Career mode is where you can take on 45 separate waves of zombies, survival mode is as it implies, one endless wave of zombies. So far as I can tell you only gain money in the career mode, survival mode is for score only.

Career Mode

Career mode starts out by depositing you on a runway where zombies (albeit in small numbers) close on your position. After clearing the first wave your awarded money for your performance and brought to the main shop screen. From here you can access all the other shops available in the game. The game allows you to equip two weapons, as well as one ability, and up to three perks.

From here you can also review the games control setup though that seems a bit obvious.

The weapons shop can be opened by clicking either one of the available weapons slots at the bottom of the screen.

Weapons stats can be examined by right clicking on the weapon in question. Weapon stats include Damage, Rate of fire, Mobility, Accuracy, range, Magazine size, and reload time in seconds.

Weapons already purchased can be equipped by clicking on the weapon in the store and then selecting equip.

The abilities shop allows you to purchase and select the ability you would like to take into combat with you.

Abilities allow you to toss grenades, teleport across the screen, or even boost your damage output. There are limits however to how many times you can use these skills, the more powerful the ability the less times per wave it c an be used.

Clicking on an ability will give you a brief description of what it does.

Perks work much like you would expect them to applying a passive boost to various aspect of gameplay. They run the gambit from increasing the effectiveness of certain weapon types, to allowing you to use your abilites more per wave.

Only three perks are allowed to be active at one time, though I find this allows for a decent balance between the boosts you can get and the difficulty of the game itself.

Upgrades are general upgrades to the abilities of the player. Reload time, damage, armor, speed, and luck can all be upgraded. 

Upgrade points are awarded as you play through the game. One upgrade point is awarded on all waves in campaign mode starting at wave three, At wave seven this reward is upped to two points.

The first four upgrades seem fairly obvious as to what they do. Luck I am assuming is how often defeated zombies drop temporary bonus boosts like infinite ammo, shields, quad-damage, and so on.

Gameplay

Combat is from the top down perspective with the idea being blast the zombies while avoiding becoming lunch on the go. Controls are easy to learn but it can get hard to both avoid and aim at the zombies as their on screen numbers increase.

The zombies themselves come in a variety of speeds ranging from slow to sprint and usually come from off screen though at times they can burrow up from the ground as well.

After each wave of combat you are awarded cash for the number of zombies mowed down as well as for how accurate you managed to be while doing so. This is also where your awarded Upgrade points.

From here you can go to the shop, upgrade if you have been awarded upgrade points, or continue to the next wave.

If you choose to go to the shop before continuing you will have the option to select the wave you continue from.

Waves after the third wave will upon completion award upgrade points. These waves can be repeated and will indefinitely grant update points.

Certain waves will have challenges to them such at the third one which will grant you access to the Vulcan Cannon but will have greatly increased amounts of zombies.

Survival Mode

Survival mode plays much like Career mode with a few exceptions. First in this mode you can't earn cash or upgrade points. Therefore you can't use this mode as a way to acquire new weapons, abilities, or perks. This mode is basically for bragging rights as you choose from the five maps in the game and then are beset by an infinite wave of zombies. Second is that in this version Temporary boost items tend to drop from killed zombies.

Based on your results this mode can rank you vs the other players (at least on the Armorgames website).

Overview

All in all I find that Zombie Madness: The Awakening is a fairly enjoyable if slightly unoriginal top down zombie shooter. I look forward to seeing if this games creator Loz220 makes a sequel or if this will remain a stand alone game. Either way if you like zombies, top down shooter, or any combination of the two. This is a game you should try at least once.

Zombie Madness: The Awakening