Gameloft is up to their usual antics, that being creating outstanding games for the iPhone, like Zombie Infection, while stealing gameplay elements from popular franchises. This game is no exception to these usual antics. Zombie Infection is basically Resident Evil 5 with a few twists to the gameplay, a different story, and different locations (that still look surprisingly similar) and no upgrade/inventory system. Even though this sounds like a turn-off, Zombie Infection for iPhone is executed with beautiful graphics, fluid gameplay and solid controls. Overall, I was highly impressed with this game and found it worthwhile for gamers and people who love to kills zombies.

The gameplay is surprisingly addicting and fresh. I started playing this app with expectations of another mediocre zombie shooter, but quickly realized how much of a gem it is. If you’ve played Resident Evil 4 or 5, there’s not much new to the formula, but I’ll elaborate for those who haven’t. The basis of the game is to move through linear environments from a 3rd-person shooting perspective, smash boxes, grab ammo, waste your ammo on zombies, imput a touch-screen action sequence, find a key, unlock a door, repeat. This may sound boring, but the shooting mechanics are surprisingly polished and fighting swarms of oncoming zombies with your arsenal, including your fists, is a blast.

The controls are spot on, but are naturally a bit clunky. Most iPhone apps with on-screen joysticks are going to have a higher learning curve, but besides that, the controls are great and the button commands are easily accessible. You move with a virtual joystick on the left, fire and melee attack with buttons on the right, manage your weapons easily and you can actually move while you’re aiming to shoot, unlike Resident Evil 4/5! To sum things up, the controls are excellently polished and well done.

Gunshots, music, zombie growls and other sound effects all sound clear, even though the iPhone or iPod Touch speakers. Cutscenes and voice work are console-production quality and fit the characters well. You also have the option to listen to your personal music library during gameplay.

Usually I tend to lean toward 2D-style graphics on the iPhone, but Zombie Infection’s 3D creepy atmospheric environments won me over. There’s plenty of variety and the environments are far from monotonous. Character models are detailed and HD textures are high-resolution and run smoothly with a stable framerate on my iPod Touch 3G.

The dozen or so levels last for about 5 hours and there are numerous achievements, and you have the option to replay levels and collect hidden medals. For .99, Zombie Infection for iPhone definitely deserves it’s place among your kickass app collection.

Chomp is a place to go to find iPhone apps. It’s a lot easier to use than even the official iTunes store. But tonight they added an even better feature: search. Hear Ben Keighran, CEO, talk about the new features and how Chomp is enable you to find new iPhone apps.
Video Rating: 5 / 5