Zombies, Inc.

Zombies are big business these days. They've become so deeply ingrained in popular culture that you're hard pressed to surf the Internet without coming across references to zombies. Consequently, it was only a matter of time before zombies themselves took up the business - and in doing so, began spreading themselves across the planet.

Okay, so, that's not ACTUALLY happening. But it can in Flash form!

Concept

I more or less ran through the idea behind Zombies, Inc. already, but here's a more direct approach: you're the CEO of the game's company. It's your job to lead Zombie, Inc.'s business strategy to financial and military success through purchasable products, the hiring of new staff and, of course, sending zombies out into cities worldwide to spread mayhem. The more money you're earning, the stronger your zombies can become - assuming you don't run your company into the red by accident and bankrupt yourself in the process.

The zombie presence aside, Zombies, Inc. is primarily a resource allocation simulator, somewhat akin to the Sim line. Granted, it's simplified and somewhat easy as a result, but it's still an excellent idea for a browser game - at least for a while.

Controls

Mouse.

Graphics

Zombies, Inc. boasts some fairly decent graphics, considering it relies more on strategy than visualization to capture players. Even though you're stuck seeing the same animations repeated over and over, they're at least consistently GOOD animations. These cartoony zombies bring more life to the table than the average undead dunces populating these sorts of games. The more zombies you have on staff the slower the game gets, though, so be wary.

Sound

Zombies, Inc. features a single madcap horror song that repeats itself endlessly. That in and of itself is a slight irritant, though the song is generally quiet enough that it should blend effortlessly into the background after a while. The various sound effects outside the song are, as well, fairly negligible in affecting the game one way or another.

Challenge Rating

Zombies, Inc. is not a difficult game. At first it SEEMS like it might be, but it's not. Just about any player could challenge and beat the Hard mode right after their first play through.

For the first little while, you'll struggle with money. Your zombies won't be strong enough to beat many human cities, and you'll be forced to wait as cash trickles in. After about twenty minutes of playing that will probably cease to be a problem, however, as conquering cities starts yielding insane amounts of cash, and even though expansion increases your expenses, it does little to raise the difficulty bar. By the end you'll likely have millions of dollars squirreled away, and without much effort to boot:

What's more, once you unlock the game's strongest zombies the strategy gets stripped away from Zombies, Inc., reducing the game play to a climactic ten minutes of conquering a city, refilling your ranks, conquering the next city, refilling and so forth. It's a regrettably tedious end to an otherwise interesting experience.

Conclusion?

Zombies, Inc. is, despite a few small drawbacks, a good game. It lasts a decent while, and at first should provide a sufficient challenge to simulation enthusiasts. That's just at first, though, and once you get the hang of world domination, it sorta becomes a chore. Definitely worth playing, probably not worth too many repeat ventures.

PLAY ZOMBIES, INC.