hidden exit

Zombies. We’ve all fought them off at one point or another. I don’t encounter them all that often any more now that people have explained the difference between a zombie and a toddler to me, so life’s a bit less fun.

Still, while we may hope in vain for a real zombie invasion and the freedom to run riot through a mall with a fully automatic shotgun, zombie-themed games have been invading the Interwaves for some time now, and thankfully show no signs of abating.

The latest dedicated undead death-dealing dead-’em-up is another neat browser dalliance by Con Artist Games. Following in the dragging footsteps of the other Last Stand Games, The Last Stand: Union City is a side-on depiction of zombie carnage featuring RPG elements and plenty of pick-ups.

There are two modes of play: easy, in which you don’t have to worry about napping and gorging yourself; and survival, which is for zombie connoisseurs such as myself. Those who wish to go above and beyond can enable permadeath and also make zombies invulnerable to all but the hallowed headshot, which is a bit much even for me, because the game is hard.

Hard and fun, because hitting things with a tyre iron never gets old. The combat is an enjoyable cocktail of frantic mouse-clicking and RPG-based statistics, and it passes the time between looting the hell out of innocent or dead people. As far as I can tell there is no need to defend safe-houses, which is great because you’ve got to be able to kick back and heal up some time.

There is also a quest system, which has so far been a bit fetchy, and the dialogue is hilariously naff, but it’s a far nicer way to grab experience than constant killing.

My most majorest complaint is that the game doesn’t appear to include hard drugs, because my character looks like a crackwhore in desperate need of a hit. She doesn’t complain, but I feel for her.

My iffiness is transient, though, because the game is good fun at core, and that’s the most important thing. I’m just not sure there is sufficient justification here to buy the premium content on display, but then again, I haven’t played enough to say that with authority.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some post-people to murder.