I thoroughly enjoyed poppin' caps in numerous zombies in the first Dead Trigger. Only problem was that I took to playing the game on my Motorola Droid. Yep, I know, one of the last smartphones that still sports a keyboard, coupled with a 4 in. screen has me painfully behind the times with techy phones.. It's a fine phone for texting, calls, and whatnot, but as far as touchscreen games go, it's hardly ideal. As much as I loved playing the game, dragging my thumbs only to block my view and smudge the screen just hampered the experience, and I don't play enough games on my phone to warrant buying some controller peripheral.
I even tried sideloading the game onto my Ouya so I could finally play the game on a bigger screen and with a controller, but that was met with less than satisfactory results. I eventually left Dead Trigger behind and develeoped a quick addiction to Candy Crush and Clash of Clans like 2/3 of the rest of the world. So when Dead Trigger 2 dropped in October, it completely passed me by. Had I known, I might've considered giving it a try, but when I heard the game hit Facebook the following month, that's when I took real notice.
First and foremost, you have to remember that through no fault of its own, Dead Trigger 2 is a simple a free-to-play FPS, nothing more. It'd be unfair to compare it to a major studio title like Far Cry 3 or Titanfall. As soon as you get past that, you can begin to enjoy Dead Trigger 2.
The story is your garden variety post-apocalyptic zombie shooter. Society is in ruins thanks to the legions of undead, and you're stuck right in the middle of what's left of civilization.
A campaign mode will have you running from continent to continent in an attempt to rebuild, and figure out what caused the dead to rise. The beginning of the campaign also serves to introduce you to the various characters responsible for helping you to rebuild, as well as unlock and produce additional weapons and items to help disposing of the walking dead that much easier. Things start off in the good 'ol US of A, and then you have the option of moving on to Africa, Europe, and China. The gameplay doesn't really jump too much in difficulty, even on the hard mode. I'd say things don't start getting too hairy until the later levels of the China campaign, but that's just me. The environments do offer a nice scenic change of pace, from bloodied offices and building tops in China, to caves full of glowing green waste in Africa.
The zombie models change from continent to continent as well, but it's purely cosmetic. Still, it was more than I expected from a free-to-play title, and offered far more in variation than its predecessor. The zombies look great with glowing eyes, bloodied and torn rags for clothes, and a mouths constantly open in anticipation of chewing your sweaty flesh. Some are a bit quicker and more mobile, but most will shuffle and limp after you just like in a Romero flick. In true zombie fashion, whether you hack off an arm or a leg forcing them to crawl, they won't stop coming until you put 'em down for good.
Given the free-to-play model, microtransactions are an obvious part of the game so that developer Madfinger can try to make a little bit of cash, but it's executed in a manner that cheap ass gamers like myself will appreciate.
One of the first game's problems (at least for the free model) was that upgrading your stats and weapons was damn near impossible without digging into your real world wallet. Dead Trigger 2 improves on this as money to spend on making and upgrading gear is actually very easy to come across. Score a headshot? Money bonus. Take out a group of zombies by exploding a barrel? There's a brutality bonus. Decapitate a zombie with your machete? Melee kill bonus. Kill one of the superpowered zombies like the Rager or Vomitron, and a rain of cash is your reward.
Even rebuilding a broken barricade sees your pockets being filled with moolah as an activity bonus, and destroying golden pigs hidden in each level only serves to further fill your wallet. The money literally comes rolling in. As such, you'll be able to build up an aresenal pretty quick, and a wide array of weapons and creative items to cause wanton destruction keeps things interesting.
Weapons and items are unlocked by either:
- buying them with the game's gold curency, either earned as a reward by completing challenges, or purchased directly with actual money.
- discovering blueprints, usually by defeating some of the "boss" zombies in the game's campaign mode or side missions.
The weapons include a wide array of melee weapons -- like a wrench, crowbar, machete, studden bat, and more for when things get up close and personal -- pistols, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, as well as a few pieces of explosive ordinance. In all, there's a respectable 31 weapons, definitely not bad for a free-to-play shooter. The items are of the general fare with mines, grenades, sentry guns, and an interesting collection of combat chickens keep things from getting too serious.
The higher level you upgrade a character, weapon, or item to, the more time you'll have to wait until the upgrade is complete. During that time, the character won't be able to build you any more supplies, signaling that maybe a break is for the best. You have the option of using gold to have them rush to completion, but it's usually costly, especially at higher levels.
The game starts you off with an auto-shoot feature, activated whenever an enemy is within range of your given weapon, which is a double edged sword. It's a bit hard to get used to at first, and forces you to take on enemies at a closer range so you don't waste too many bullets. On the positive, it means that you'll never have to worry about misjudging what range to start swinging with a melee weapon. If it's not for you, it's an easy switch to change the settings and put yourself in control of the trigger.
The boss zombies have an especially nice variety for a free-to-play or mobile title, even if they're a little reminescent of the "special infected" of the Left 4 Dead or Dead Island series. For example, the rager is the basic tank build, a bulky behemoth that looks like it spent the better part of its life on a steroid bender. Despite its larger size, the rager is also quick on its feet, and will shoulder charge right at you, trampling any fellow zombies in its path.
If you play the game for a few hours a day, you can finish the campaign in just a few days, and that's with upgrading the gear. Still, trying to unlock the new weapons will keep me occupied with this game for a while yet. There's also that new arena island, but more on that later...
It's nothing that will blow you away, but for what it is, Dead Trigger 2 is worth sinking a few hours into. 8/10.
